Clasie is better than De Guzman and very solid defensively. He's also more responsible with the ball and was earmarked as the 'Dutch Xavi' although clearly not at the same level, and I would play him 10 times out of 10 over De Guzman.

Really nothing against him he just shouldn't be a starter for this team.

Open training live NOW.
http://nos.nl/wk2014/live/

phew that was close.   Luckily Lackie missed that sitter.

Important thing was the 3 points and we gotcha it

that RvP suspension might prove costly though in the Chile match Just need 1 more point now and we can top the group.

Any news on what's happened to Martins Indi yet?

Hapless_Hans wrote:Any news on what's happened to Martins Indi yet?

nope

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:

Hapless_Hans wrote:Any news on what's happened to Martins Indi yet?

nope

Concussion.

https://twitter.com/NOSsport/status/479322685693243392

Should be a good match today. Anyone find a concrete line-up? I can't seem to.

Anyway, I would probably go with something like:


Or play Wijnaldum on the right in place of Afellay and put Klaassen/Sneijder in his previous spot. It will be a tough match, but we can win.

Official Netherlands XI v Italy Cillessen; Janmaat, De Vrij, Martins Indi, Blind; Wijnaldum, De Jong, Sneijder; Kuyt, Van Persie, Lens

Busby Babe wrote:Official Netherlands XI v Italy Cillessen; Janmaat, De Vrij, Martins Indi, Blind; Wijnaldum, De Jong, Sneijder; Kuyt, Van Persie, Lens

Indeed. It just came up on my feed.



I really feel like Wijnaldum gets misused by the NT. He's an attacking midfielder, and while he can play CM well he is much better in an advanced position. Oh well it's just a friendly but I would line-up much differently.

They keep throwing Indi in the fire and he keeps failing. Why do they keep trying with him? He's so awful.

Is Guus the right man for Holland???

I dunno. It's not rocket science to put out at least a semi-decent line-up. Kuyt has no place there, and neither does Indi. Pretty much anyone else that he called up in those places would be fine. I would go with:


Maybe Narsingh in place of Afellay. I'm not really overly upset at using guys like Sneijder and Lens, though I think at this point in their careers they are (some far) behind the likes of Afellay, Narsingh, Klaassen and Memphis. Cillessen is ok, but I think there is more potential with Zoet and giving him more reps would be good.

According to De Telegraaf, Hiddink will use 3-5-2 tonight and that the line-up will be:

Cillessen; Janmaat, Veltman, De Vrij, Martins Indi, Blind; Wijnaldum, Sneijder, De Jong; Depay, Van Persie.

OptaJohan ‏@OptaJohan 13m

2 - Guus Hiddink is the first Dutch national manager to lose his first two games since his previous reign in 1995. Reconnaissance.

How does that Einstein quote go again...?

I believe he once said Insanity is; hiring the same scrub of a coach over and over again and expecting different results.

Hiddink is an awful manager indeed.

But losing to the Czechs on their turf isn't that horrible, really.

I don't even know where to begin

I return home and turn on the television to find the Netherlands playing 2 big lads up top and just repeatedly lobbing long-balls and crosses in toward them... meanwhile the US is regularly letting in goals late in matches when they used to be the kings of scoring them late on.

Is this Bizarro World?

So the line-up today is:


It should have Promes > Narsingh, Dost > Hunter and anyone over BMI (Veltman ideally) but it's a better line-up than the one against Turkey. Happy for Klaassen as he has taken big steps forward this season and will bring passion to the team. It will be a very good test for Willems because BMI is a trainwreck and he's never been the best defensive fullback in the world but he is a very good young player.

Ideally Clasie would start over Blind (or Blind would move to LB for Clasie) but he has 'knee pain'. He should have started against Turkey tbh.

It's rather telling just how little interest or discussion Hiddink's resignation has generated.

Thankfully they realised it fast.

Who's next then?

Yeah, well it was kind of coming. Should have been done a while ago already.

The problem is that Blind is just going to take over and continue with the same dross.

We need a coach with a forward thinking philosophy and the balls to bench RVP. Someone who will give younger, talented players more time and encouragement.

Is this the worst dutch team since 2002?

Cruijf wrote:Is this the worst dutch team since 2002?

they dont look great thats for sure. its not like the dutch. when it comes to producing top players they are the best in the world.

Any idea why they don't play well anymore?

rwo power wrote:Any idea why they don't play well anymore?

it seemed to start after the world cup game with spain. they seemed to move from playing football to trying to kick spain out of the game. the football that the dutch were famous for has gone. bit like brazil. they seen to play more like a europian team now.