Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Bertrand
Did Van Marwijk have a plan, or was it all just a big improvisation?
Because it looked like there was no strategy.
It was even more sickening as what they did during the World Cup final.
I read about egos (Robben suggested something along those lines) (Huntelaar's black eye? he looked all the more fed up) (didn't care to track back when he lost the ball - which meant he had it once during the second half on the right flank...).
In 2002, France collapsed. They had won the World cup and the following Euro, had three of the best strikers of the times, but couldn't score once.
Yet, the French could tell themselves most of it was due to Pires' injury preventing him to be there as the creative midfielder he was, and to Zidane's in the last friendly against China.
There's not even that with Netherlands.
No bus strike either.
This is so disappointing.
The sad faces of Van M. and Cocu (poor Philip).
[I typed that while pokkeherrie was posting - it wasn't meant to be that more salt on the wounds]
|
There was some silly plan involving right-footed players on the left and left-footed players on the right, supposedly creating space for the two backs to move forward... but while it was obvious that it was doomed to fail, he certainly didn't have a plan B in case the original one wouldn't work.
Top scorer of the Premier League + topscorer of the Bundesliga equals no goals between them. No feed. Huntelaar vs Portugal: shots 1, on target 0, dribbles 0. But it all went wrong beforehand. Instead of playing both of them, Van Marwijk figured he could only field one of them creating a battle/feud between them.
Van Persie was always his first pick, Huntelaar is right to feel he didn't really get a fair chance. That one pre-tournament friendly where he could prove himself as central striker, he had to deal with Van der Vaart on the left (not a winger) and Van Persie on the right who was obviously sabotaging him (visually disinterested, played the ball only once to Huntelaar during the entire 90 minutes). Despite scoring 12 goals in 8 games in qualification, he was destined to be a substitute. Only Messi and Ronaldo have scored more goals this season. What more did he have to do to convince Van Marwijk?
So while Van Persie felt Huntelaar breathing in his neck every time he wasted a chance, Huntelaar was getting more and more frustrated on the bench. What must have added to his frustration is that someone like Afellay walked into the starting line-up, right after coming back from a heavy injury, having barely played 100 minutes for Barcelona the entire year.