Wrap-up of how the Dutchmen currently playing in the Premier League did on matchday 6 of the 2014/15 season.
- By Daniel Gutman
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Another week, another overall average performance from the English Premier League’s resident Dutchmen. Collectively, they managed to cough up one win, one draw, and two losses- better than last matchday, but still with plenty of room for improvement considering the opposition that was faced by the league’s Nederlanders. Tim Krul, Daryl Janmaat, Daley Blind, Robin van Persie, Patrick van Aanholt, and Leroy Fer took the pitch this weekend, while Vurnon Anita, Ron Vlaar, Erik Pieters, Michel Vorm and Dwight Tiendali missed out on the action.
Saturday saw Manchester United take on West Ham at Old Trafford, and United’s Dutch duo had themselves quite a decent outing. Robin van Persie helped himself to the match-winning goal 22 minutes into the first half, but seemingly dropped back after scoring to try and create chances for teammates Falcao and Rooney. His withdrawal from going forward did little good, and the Red Devils held on through Wayne Rooney’s red card for a 2-1 win. Daley Blind, once again, was completely overrun. United played something of a 4-1-5 during the match despite it being a 4-1-2-1-2 on paper, and Blind was, as is apparently now customary at United, left alone to deal with any threats. Despite putting up a great defensive performance and fighting tooth and nail for every ball, it is apparent that the young star needs somebody paired with him in the midfield in order to maximize the Dutchman’s effectiveness. Over at St. Mary’s stadium, Leroy Fer’s Queens Park Rangers slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Southampton despite posting up a great overall team game. Fer caused havoc in his opposition’s midfield, and was unlucky not to have contributed more to the attacking portion of the match. His defensive game however left much to be desired, and particularly for a central midfielder was quite weak. Finally, over at Sunderland fullback Patrick van Aanholt put up another quiet and solid performance in his side’s draw with visiting Swansea City. A few decent flashes of defensive know-how were his only real contribution to the match, but he did neutralize Nathan Dyer and Angel Rangel fairly well.
With no Dutchmen involved in the solitary Sunday match between West Brom and Burnley, the final (Monday) match saw two take part in poor Newcastle’s loss away to Stoke City. Tim Krul and Daryl Janmaat have have horrid seasons so far, but still not worse than their team’s. Newcastle have yet to win a match this season, and have lost three of their first six Premier League fixtures, finding themselves in the relegation zone as of the writing of this article. In Newcastle’s latest defeat, both Krul and Janmaat were decent but unspectacular. Krul let in Peter Crouch’s looping header than nestled in the top left corner, but made two key saves to make up for it. Janmaat on the other hand despite being fairly solid defensively failed to contain Victor Moses for the entire match, and unfortunately for the Dutch defender Moses picked up the game-winning assist early in the match while Janmaat was adjusting as to how to best mark the Nigerian. Despite the loss, there was improvement to be seen from Newcastle’s duo of Netherlands internationals, and they should be happy about that.
Performances from the Premier League’s Dutchmen are steadily on the rise, but still are not quite the level expected from them by their fans and likely not what Oranje coach Guus Hiddink wants to see. With 32 matches left in the 2014/15 season, there is still plenty of time for the Dutchmen abroad to make a force out of themselves.
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After this week, it seems to me that the Goalkeeper position will be an even bigger problem for the Dutch National Team than the striker position.
Krul is in a horrible form, Cillessen’s has a total lack of confidence when he plays for the Orange` Vorm is getting older and would probably finish his career as a sub for Lloris (with Stekelenburg being in similar situation), Vermeer was horrendous in Ajax last year, and Jeroen Zoet is still up and coming and would take much time to fulfill his potential.
Wow, things aren’t looking good for the Oranje when it comes to their Goalkeepers roster.