Netherlands

[Jesse1509]

^ Probably Ronald Koeman, VI keeps on mentioning him. He did an excellent job at Feyenoord last season, turning them into a title challenger after one of the worst seasons they ever had with almost nothing to spend. Admittedly, his coaching career has had some ups and downs: he sucked at Valencia, so I'm sure some of you will doubt him for good reasons, but I think he'd be a decent fit, and with his personality and experience, I think he should be able to earn the players' respect. He's tactically better than Van Marwijk, I think.

Also, I don't see many other options that would be realistic. The coach will undoubtedly be Dutch, so other options would be men like Rijkaard and Van Gaal. Advocaat already signed at PSV, Hiddink keeps chasing money lately, and men like De Boer are probably too inexperienced. Ronald Koeman seems to be the best option, as Van Gaal failed miserably between 2000 and 2002, not qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. Rijkaard? Not sure about him. After he left Barça he's become a bit of a nobody: he nowadays coaches Saudi Arabia, if I'm not mistaken, so that's not in his favour.

 

[Fiódor]

News this evening: van Marwijk is out

 

[Fiódor]

...and van Gaal is in. Rumour has it Danny Blind will be assistant coach.

Not exactly an uncontroversial choice by KNVB, but interesting for sure.

Success or train wreck? Or a little of both?

 

[AnfieldEd]

Disaster.

 

[Jesse1509]

Considering the fact that he was one of the very, very few available candidates, he seems to be the best choice. Ronald Koeman and Frank Rijkaard weren't available, for instance. The only clubless alternatives were Ruud Gullit, Co Adriaanse, and maybe Johan Cruyff, although that would be an unlikely candidate.

He has signed a contract until 2014 only, so he could very well be an 'interim guy'. He's better than Gullit, that's for sure.

He could be a disaster, but with our expectations lowered, and with the need for fresh blood in the team, Van Gaal seems to be the best candidate for the job. His tactical abilities are unquestioned, and I hope his ego doesn't work against him. His personality could actually be beneficial, because some players should be dropped after this summer's disaster.

We can hardly do any worse in 2014 - assuming we'll qualify - than we did this summer, so there's not much to lose, at least.

 

[Jesse1509]

So Van Gaal announced his first selection today. Not that many players were dropped from the Euro-selection.

This is Van Gaal's first selection, for the friendly match against Belgium next week:

GK: Stekelenburg, Vorm, Krul
DEF: Mathijsen, Heitinga, Willems, Martins Indi, Van Rhijn, Viergever, De Vrij
MID: Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Nigel de Jong, Afellay, Emanuelson, Strootman, Maher
ATT: Kuyt, Van Persie, Robben, Huntelaar, Lens, Narsingh, Dost

So he dropped Vlaar, Van der Wiel, Boulahrouz, Bouma, Schaars, Van Bommel (retired), and Luuk de Jong.

Van der Wiel was dropped due to fitness problems. He hasn't played many minutes in Ajax's pre-season, so Van Rhijn replaces him. He's a decent right back, so I hope he starts against Belgium. Would be interesting to see if he can handle Hazard!
Luuk de Jong and Vlaar are the only surprising drop-outs imo. Vlaar is decent, but Van Gaal instead opted to call up some talented youngsters, like Viergever and Martins Indi. The first one is a technically strong center back, and the second is a tall and strong center back/left back. Van Gaal thought Martins Indi did a great job for Feyenoord against Dynamo Kyiv in the CL qualifications.
I don't get why he didn't call up Luuk de Jong, who is much better than Dost imo. Maybe he's injured? Wouldn't know.

The new captain (Van Bommel retired) was not yet announced. It will probably be Sneijder, or, God forbid, Van der Vaart. Or maybe even Heitinga, since he's quite experienced. Heitinga sucked in the Euros though, so that would be a bold move. Stekelenburg and Van Persie aren't leaders - not like VDV is, but for some reason every Dutchman apart from me seems to think he's a genius, and a leader as well - so I don't think it would be them. My best guess is Sneijder.

It will be interesting to see how the youngsters do against Belgium. We could use some new defenders, so I hope at least one of them makes a great impression.







EDIT: Van Gaal announced his starting 11 for the match against Belgium. We will line up like this:

-----------------------------------Stekelenburg------------------------------------------
--------Van Rhijn-------------Heitinga----------------Mathijsen---------------Willems----
-----------------------------------N. de Jong-------------------------------------------
--------------------Sneijder (c)------------------------Van der Vaart--------------------
--------Narsingh---------------------Huntelaar--------------------------Robben---------

With De Vrij, Martins Indi, Viergever and Maher coming on as subs in the second half.

A few things stand out here:
- Van Rhijn will play his first game for the national team, as will the other four players named above. Maher did feature against Bayern Munich before the Euros, but that wasn't an official game. So this will be Maher's formal debut.
- Sneijder is our new captain. He replaces the retired Van Bommel.
- The 4-2-3-1 is dropped in favour of a 4-3-3, on the players' request. With VDV, this will probably make us very vuknerable on the break, so it will be interesting to see if it works. Strootman isn't fit enough to play, such a shame....
- Van Persie is dropped from the starting 11. Van Gaal said that Huntelaar is his first choice for the time being. LVG doesn't want to use RVP in midfield or on the wings, so he has the battle Huntelaar for the sole striker position.
- We'll use 'ordinary wingers' instead of inside wingers again, something we haven't done for years. This means Robben will feature on the left again. So no more cutting inside all the time from him! Due to the fact we will probably cross the ball a lot more now, it makes sense to use Huntelaar instead of Van Persie.

 

[Jesse1509]

Today, Van Gaal announced his selection for the World Cup qualification matches against Turkey and Hungary.

Goalkeepers: Krul, Stekelenburg, Vorm.
Defenders: Heitinga, Janmaat, Martins Indi, Mathijsen, Van Rhijn, Viergever, Vlaar, Willems.
Midfielders: Clasie, Emanuelson, Fer, Sneijder (c), Strootman.
Attackers: Dost, Huntelaar, Kuyt, Lens, Narsingh, Van Persie, Robben.

So that means he dropped VDV (excellent!), Nigel de Jong, and Afellay, all due to fitness issues, and lack of playing time with their clubs. Also, no Van der Wiel. Don't know why, he's fit now.

I don't get why he didn't pick Anita; now, we lack a real defensive midfielder. Clasie and Strootman can play there, but as a single pivot, Anita is better imo, especially defensively.

Van Gaal will probably stick to the 4-3-3 he used against Belgium, but who will he use? Should be interesting. I hope RVP plays up front, but Van Gaal seems to prefer Huntelaar, even though he can't hold on to the ball. RVP is much more complete as a striker, so I hope Van Gaal realizes this soon as well.

 

[AFCA]

^ What a horrible selection.

Mathijssen, Vlaar, Janmaat, Kuyt, Dost and Lens should not be in Oranje. Willems can't defend without making numerous fouls.

Wonder how he is going to play as well. Like you said Clasie and Strootman(has been average so far) can't play a single pivot. If he decides to play a double pivot, then it's weird that he left out VDV for #10. I can't see this midfied and attack putting any pressure on the opponent. Which is going to be deadly without a real DM and a weak defense playing a high defensive line. Unless Van Gaal opts for some good old counter attacking.

It looks like Van Gaal makes decisions based on 1 game. Like he did with Schaken in the pre-selection.

 

[Wouterinho]

Van der Wiel and Anita should've both been selected, weird decision...
That being said, I think it's a rather average team, not that impressive imo

 

[Jesse1509]

Interestingly enough, Louis van Gaal considers playing 5-3-2 with the Dutch team in the World Cup. I guess it would look like this, more or less:

------------------------------------------------Cillessen---------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------Veltman---------------------Vlaar---------------------------Martins Indi---------------------------
---Janmaat--------------------------------------------------De Jong----------------------------Blind------------------
-----------------------------------Fer--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------Sneijder-------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------Robben------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------Van Persie-------------------------------------------------

Not the best team around in terms of personnel, but this formation would allow us to play to our strengths more than our classic 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 would. Robben doesn't have to track back as often and Sneijder is well-protected as well. Van Persie is less isolated up front, now that Robben is able to concentrate more on his offensive duties.

It has to be said that this formation has not been tried out in a match yet, so it's not set in stone. Alternatively, we can still switch to 4-2-3-1/4-3-3. We have a couple of nice impact subs as well, so if we'd be able to master this formation we'd have a more flexible squad than I would've thought possible.

 

[abual3bed1]

Can't expect anything form Holland. Weird team and even weirder selections.

 

[Jesse1509]

We've got a very inexperienced backline.....I still rate us higher than Chile, though. We've got a more clinical team, I guess, and an excellent coach.

 

[Ustari]

Chile will suprise you

 

[Behrox]

We've got a very inexperienced backline.....I still rate us higher than Chile, though. We've got a more clinical team, I guess, and an excellent coach.

Don't look at Chile with Barca's Alexis he becomes a different beast for Chile especially with Vidal behind him

 

[Jesse1509]

Van der Vaart will miss the World Cup as well.....I would've picked him, but Wijnaldum's a good alternative. Wijnaldum is far more energetic, but VDV's set piece and longshot ability could've come in handy