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the Netherlands
Copied my original post in the Euro 2012 thread and a little update about our defense.
Oh this thread is to discuss about the players from Holland. Just about any update about Holland will be here.
Goalkeepers
Maarten Stekelenburg, 29 years old, AS Roma.
Successor of Edwin van der Sar (one of the greatest goalkeepers Holland has had) and has already proven himself that he can save Holland from losing points. He's tall (1,97m), strong and has decent reflexes. Imo one of the top keepers in the world (top 5) normally (this season it's somewhat bad compared to before though).
Defense
This is Hollands biggest weakness and this could cost us the Euro Cup if you compare to the other top class countries participating.
John Heitinga, 29 years old, defender of Everton. He's the only one in our defense that has played a reasonable season compared to the others.
Joris Mathijsen, 32 years old, defender of Malaga CF. He's really old and not our best defender. Compared to the last generations he's one of our weakest central defenders we've had in Holland. Very slow and afaik hasn't been playing much for Malaga.
Erik Pieters (Injured), 23 years old, left back of PSV. He's supposedly our best defender on the left back but he's injured now. This is our biggest weakness in the defense. He's slow, loses his duels a lot and makes poor decisions. He's only here because there is no one better.
Jethro Willems, 18 years old, left back of PSV and replacement for Erik Pieters.
He's a great talent, young, fast and is very offense minded like Gregory van der Wiel. He still plays with a bit of arrogance but that's more due to his experience as he's only 18 years old. He's only here because we don't have anyone better and he'll be the one who has to stop players like Ozïl, Ronaldo, Nani which everyone in Holland is sooooo affraid of.
Gregory van der Wiel, 24 years old, right back of Ajax. He's Hollands best right back and most talented players. His defending isn't bad but it isn't that strong either. He attacks from the flanks a lot and he does it really well like Dani Alves for Barcelona. He's fast, agile and can give decent passes. The combination with Robben will definitely make this one of our stronger sides on the right.
Midfield
This is where it starts for Holland 
Rafael van der Vaart, 29 years old, Tottenham Hotspurs. He's one of our top players in the team and a world class player but is still sitting on our bench because there are better players on his position which is the left half.
His strong points are his insight, positioning and his deadly passes and also quite agile in the tight spaces.
His weak point is that he's slow, gets injured a lot and most of all his condition isn't strong as he can't play a full game normally.
Mark van Bommel, 35 years old, AC Milan. I think he's our oldest player in the team but still such a world class defensive mid fielder. He's strong, not too bad on the speed but most of all he's cunning. He plays extremely cunning mind games and physical tricks on his opponents. He plays the referee to get more leeway for making fouls. One of the running engines of our team and in the last World Cup as well.
Nigel de Jong, 27 years old, Manchester City. With Mark van Bommel he'll be the defensive block on the midfield stopping all attacks. He's reasonably fast, strong and his defensive skills are good as well. He makes a lot of fouls that terrifies his opponents and in some way he doesn't get punished heavily for it imo. If you don't watch out he'll break your legs and smiles with it. He's Holland's B.A. Baraccus.
Weak points are his intelligence as he makes bad decisions most of the times and he gets emotional quite fast. So getting him out of his rhythm is done quickly.
Ibrahim Affelay, 26 years old, Barcelona. One of Hollands biggest talents. He usually plays left half/left forward striker depending on the lineup.
He's fast, has good passes, strong on the ball but is very easy to get injured. He has been missing almost the entire season for Barcelona but hopefully he'll be in shape for the Euro Cup because he can make a difference.
There aren't any major weak points in his play as he helps defending and his offense is really good and doesn't lose the ball that much.
Wesley Sneijder, 27 years old, Internazionale. Offensive central midfielder. He has been playing quite bad current season and hasn't been in top shape. Normally when he's in shape he's one of the best players in the world.
His strong points are his passes, he is dual legged and has a powerful shot.
Weak point is that he's small so he isn't strong in the air.
Dirk Kuyt, 32 years old, Liverpool FC. Right half of Holland. Not much to say about him. He's a runner and he probably runs the most of the team. He helps defending a lot and when our right back van der Wiel is attacking he's usually defending.
He usually has the preference over Arjen Robben by our coach (crazy isn't it?) on the right half position.
Arjen Robben, 28 years old, Bayern Munchen. Right half of Holland. He's one of our top3 players in the team and is left legged. World class player as he can beat almost any player when it's 1v1 if he's in shape.
Currently he isn't in his best shape from what I've seen so far.
His strong points are his speed, his precise shots and his ability to pass multiple opponents.
His weak points is that he's usually injured, not strong and his defensive skills are bad.
Offense
Here comes probably the 2 most in form strikers on the planet that Holland luckily has in 1 team
But our coach will probably not use these 2 together in 1 team as there's only 1 spot for a striker.
Robin van Persie, 28 years old, Arsenal. Forward striker of Holland and recently crowned Player of the year in the EPL.
Not our strongest striker in the team but the better player overall for Holland.
He's fast, has strong shots, good passes, strong on the ball, agile too much to name tbh
His weak point? Well the only weak point I would say is that he doesn't score much for Holland :/
He is not our best striker for Holland and hopefully he can repeat what he did for Arsenal at the Euro Cup.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, 28 years old, Schalke 04. Forward striker of Holland and a bench sitter because we have Robin. He's a real goalgetter and currently the number one striker in Germany.
He's reasonably fast, decent shots, decent passes pretty much decent on all but 1 thing. He's the best when it comes to positioning in front of the goal. He's on the right place on the right time almost every time for Holland. One of Hollands most scoring striker and it's crazy that he's sitting on our bench.
His weak point is that compared to RVP he's the worse player in overall player skills and which is the reason he's never in the starting lineup when RVP can play.
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Couple of comments & suggestions;
Regarding Mathijsen - don't be fooled in the bashing campaign the media has unleashed on this lad. He played 28 matches for Malaga which ended 4th in the Spain this season... so he can handle that level.
vd Vaart - reason he isn't playing isn't because we have "better players". Van Marwijk doesn't dare play with both Sneijder and vd Vaart, and systematically picks Sneijder over vd Vaart. Not because he's a better player (look at the past season, vd Vaart was the hero of the Spurs, while Sneijder barely played a role at Inter).
Afellay, being 26, no longer can be deemed a "talent". It's time for him to excel and prove what he's worth.
Kuijt - great worker, more so than runner. Able to recapture the ball instantly after a failed offense, puts pressure on the foundation of the opponents attack. Also, he just switched to Fenerbahce.
Finally, I can't believe you don't mention Tim Krul and Michel Vorm... Both of them might have surpassed Stekelenburg this year. We won't yet see them play much this tournament, van Marwijk being pretty conservative and shunning change, but hell - the two best goalies in the worlds toughest competition! (Yes Joe, I'm a bit biased 
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You are going to get smacked in your opening game!
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Always entertaining to watch the Dutch, Im especially looking forward to their opening game against Portugal (cards galore 2006). I think Holland is one of the best teams by far, and they could very well win it this time.
Also regarding Kuyt he is a very underrated player who wins the ball back alot, is always ready for some one-touch attacking play, and has a habit of scoring important goals.
Good luck!
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On June 05 2012 20:25 Passion wrote:Couple of comments & suggestions; Regarding Mathijsen - don't be fooled in the bashing campaign the media has unleashed on this lad. He played 28 matches for Malaga which ended 4th in the Spain this season... so he can handle that level. vd Vaart - reason he isn't playing isn't because we have "better players". Van Marwijk doesn't dare play with both Sneijder and vd Vaart, and systematically picks Sneijder over vd Vaart. Not because he's a better player (look at the past season, vd Vaart was the hero of the Spurs, while Sneijder barely played a role at Inter). Afellay, being 26, no longer can be deemed a "talent". It's time for him to excel and prove what he's worth. Kuijt - great worker, more so than runner. Able to recapture the ball instantly after a failed offense, puts pressure on the foundation of the opponents attack. Also, he just switched to Fenerbahce. Finally, I can't believe you don't mention Tim Krul and Michel Vorm... Both of them might have surpassed Stekelenburg this year. We won't yet see them play much this tournament, van Marwijk being pretty conservative and shunning change, but hell - the two best goalies in the worlds toughest competition! (Yes Joe, I'm a bit biased
I just think he's too old, but so was v. Bronckhorst in 2010 as well so we'll see. His experience is good to have though but I like the more footballing defenders what you see at Ajax with Vertonghen and Alderweireld so it's a preference of play style so I'm not going into that discussion :p
I like VDV more because he's performed better past 2 seasons compared to Sneijder. Sneijder is a better player no doubt yes but I prefer to use players that are in form now not 2 years ago.
Regarding Affelay yes I completely agree and this tournament he really has to shine to show his worth nothing to argue against that :p
Kuijt, well I think you've figured it out now that I like the attacking style much more rather than the result football style.
Kuijt is a great worker yes, but I rarely see him go pass his opponent and pass the ball. Not that he never does but just rarely or maybe because he's been ordered that Van der Wiel has to pass him so that he can give it to him I don't know.
I'm only observing that the majority of the time he's usually defending than attacking.
Regarding Krul en Vorm, I was actually only naming the players that were going to form the starting elven and the few people who would most likely be either the standard sub in a game :p
When I think of the total football I think of 1998. That was my first World Cup and what I saw was one of the best football in my lifetime with players like Kluivert and Bergkamp. It's just a shame that we don't see that football style in Holland anymore since like 04 or so. I mean we've basically invented that style and Spain has been using that style past few years and look what it got them so I don't see why it couldn't be succesful and also don't come with the argument of we don't have quality players because we actually do and I think all non-Dutch people can agree with that (maybe a bit less with our defense).
On June 05 2012 21:33 Bumblebee wrote:
You are going to get smacked in your opening game!
Oh you're on!
I'm not underestimating Denmark but WE WILL CRUSH YOU! We are obligated to do that tbh
On June 05 2012 21:36 kyllinghest wrote:Always entertaining to watch the Dutch, Im especially looking forward to their opening game against Portugal ( cards galore 2006). I think Holland is one of the best teams by far, and they could very well win it this time. Also regarding Kuyt he is a very underrated player who wins the ball back alot, is always ready for some one-touch attacking play, and has a habit of scoring important goals. Good luck!
Our opening game is against Denmark not Portugal. I think you meant the final game in the group stages because that's when we play against Portugal.
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without Emmanuelson or Anita in the team but with Willems who won't be able to play all games at a high level we are doomed..... Luckily even with a top Willems we will lose from Germany so lets hope he has his off day against Germany so we will still advance from the groupstages.
And we will prolly play boring.....
Just let VDV play together with v Bommel & Affelay on the midfield, and v Persie, Robben & Huntelaar as attackers and we will succeed.... but the way we play now we just will get crushed by Germany, Spain & even France.
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On June 05 2012 22:47 michielbrands wrote:
without Emmanuelson or Anita in the team but with Willems who won't be able to play all games at a high level we are doomed..... Luckily even with a top Willems we will lose from Germany so lets hope he has his off day against Germany so we will still advance from the groupstages.
And we will prolly play boring.....
Just let VDV play together with v Bommel & Affelay on the midfield, and v Persie, Robben & Huntelaar as attackers and we will succeed.... but the way we play now we just will get crushed by Germany, Spain & even France.
Have more faith And let's pray we get through the groupstages. I'm skeptical but I don't see it out of the possibility that we can make it.
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Why didn't you mention Ron Vlaar in the defense? He might play a few games and he played well the last matches.
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For me, RVP is hit and miss but Huntelaar is 100% reliable. Should be the starter
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Hmm I agree with Van Basten it was I think that you have to put Huntelaar as 9, Persie on 10, Robben left and Sneijder right. Or atleast let RVP and Huntelaar play together they deserve it it's pretty ridiculous that Affelay who didn't play the whole year gets picked over Huntelaar whose had his best season in his career.
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An interesting read about the whole RvP vs. the Hunter discussion can be found here!
Although I don't think the statistics they're showing are too reliable. Wins is a real bad statistic to measure the influence of a single player in a team game and the sample sizes are low. Still i was surprised to see the statistics and kind of turned from the Hunterlaar camp to the van Persie camp. I still think Sneijder/RvP is a bad combo though and I would prefer vd Vaart/RvP. Then again I think Sneijder is the most overated player in the Dutch team anyway. Not only now he had a shit season at Inter, but even in his prime during the WC10 he was overated imho.
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good luck neighbours  you WILL need it
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Netherlands45349 Posts
I am somewhat scared of Denmark because last time we were destroyed by Russia when our team severly underestimated them. Also I would like to see Huntelaar instead of RvP  .
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So Willems will be the starting lineup? Or do you have any alternatives? Schaars moving down?
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I obviously don't have as much information as you dutch guys, so could someone shed some light upon why you guys prefer Huntelaar to RvP? van Persie has been totally unstoppable this season! He is an immense finisher, has very good movement, great technique, and he is also very good at creating chances for his teammates.
Huntelaar is a great finisher, and a very smart player; but overall van Persie is so much better! Does RvP not fit into the team?
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Our coach choose RvP so our opinion doesn't really matter.
The general opinion was too let them play together, but Van Marwijk as a 'holy' system that he didn't change for the last 4 years.
We play with RvP now cause Robben on the right side won't give much assists which would suck for Huntelaar. Also Affelay and RvP work together really well.
It will be either Willems or Schaars in the starting lineup, I prefer Willems since Schaars has no idea what he's doing at that position.
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Philadelphia, PA10406 Posts
No defense? Too much attacking talent? That's my oranje !
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just give us good matches, with nice goals. and minimal half final. otherwise it will be a disapointment!
Im sorry portugal, you will go out ;-)
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why put on defenders at all? make everyone a striker
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On June 06 2012 07:37 kyllinghest wrote:
I obviously don't have as much information as you dutch guys, so could someone shed some light upon why you guys prefer Huntelaar to RvP? van Persie has been totally unstoppable this season! He is an immense finisher, has very good movement, great technique, and he is also very good at creating chances for his teammates.
Huntelaar is a great finisher, and a very smart player; but overall van Persie is so much better! Does RvP not fit into the team?
RvP hasn't always performed as well in the orange shirt.. As one of the guys mentioned before it can be somewhat of a swing and a miss..
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EPT
