While the KNVB is part of the problem, a lack of talent is part of it too. With Robben retiring we have 0 world class, or even remotely topclass players left. We're used to having a lot of attacking talent and base our type of football on that. Now that we lack the players we still somehow want to dominate games. Playing (or rather trying to) offensively against France with our team is ridiculous for instance. It's like Crystal palace coming to Old Trafford playing a very hugh defensive line with lots of pressure on the ball.I really don't like this on "paper" argument. It just perpetuates the myth of the status quo. Thought the same with Italy.
I think not qualifying for the world cup could actually be a blessing in disguise. Dutch football has been on the wane for a while now. I don't think its solely down to talent either, with the KNVB a big part of that. Maybe this failure will kick them into action. The hiring of three successive managers at once was one of the most weird things I've seen, especially when that didn't include the man that should have got the job in the first place.
We have to play a more defensive game and in that way we can still play a role in an international tournament (albeit a less glamorous one). We dont have world class players, but they're not on the level of Scotland or Ireland or even Sweden. Most play for teams in big leagues and some of them even in rather good teams (Wijnaldum, Strootman, Blind, VVD soon) whilst players like Promes and Dost are standouts in their leagues.
Bottomline we've been performing badly in part because of a filosophy that assumes you have world class attackers which we simply do not and in part because we have much less talent overall. We went from Arjen Robben and RVP to Memphis Depay and Ryan Babel ffs
Last edited: