Blogs and Articles: UEFA European Championships

Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder

Robin van Persie and Wesley Sneijder look dejected as Turkey celebrate one of their three goals they put past the Dutch.

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Netherlands' fall from grace is their own fault



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It has been one of the most interesting sagas of the 2016 European Championship qualifiers. But unlike Iceland's heroics, or San Marino's goalscoring exploits, there is nothing positive about this story for the side in question. Holland could conceivably miss out on France 2016, even though there are more spaces up for grabs in the tournament than ever before. A 0-1 loss to Iceland and a 3-0 hammering by Turkey has left the Dutch in fourth place in their group, two points behind Turkey in third, the play-off place that is so desperately coveted by the Oranje at this moment in  time. 

How have the Netherlands sunk so low? The team that eased their way to the final of the World Cup in South Africa 2010, the well-oiled unit that mechanically ground out wins to gain third spot at Brazil 2014: just what has happened? 

The 2010 Dutch vintage was a highly experienced team, with many of the squad playing in Europe's top leagues for top teams. The squad had an average age of 27, and their path to the final was fairly routine, with narrow wins over Brazil and Uruguay the only real tests the team had to overcome. 

A similar-looking squad went to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine and subsequently crashed out in the group stage with zero points. After that disappointment, Bert van Marwijk resigned and up stepped Louis van Gaal. It was a case of 'out with the old and in with the new': many of the old guard were discarded to make way for the upcoming exciting players of the Eredivisie. It should be well noted by now that Van Gaal is an excellent trainer and teacher of technique - this goes a long way to explaining how he managed to drill his team containing many young players with limited tournament experience into a cohesive unit, performing well above what their country expected of them in Brazil. 

A team that is so used to being drilled can quickly fall apart when left to their own devices though, and this seems to be what has happened during the qualifying stage for France 2016 so far. Guus Hiddink, Van Gaal's polar opposite, was the man appointed by the KNVB to guide the team through the qualifiers, but resigned in June after a miserable sequence of results. Instead of instating someone who could coach the team back into winning ways, Danny Blind was chosen instead - a man who has been a number two for most of his career, and has experienced the top job just once - at Ajax. His two matches in charge have been those aforementioned defeats to leave the Clockwork Orange in fourth. 

It is hard to see the Dutch FA casting Blind aside even if the Netherlands fail to reach Euro 2016, as the rot had already set in before the novice manager took charge. Whether this approach will pay off on the road to Russia 2018 is doubtful - in this blogger's opinion the KNVB should be looking at Ronald Koeman of Southampton. It speaks volumes about the state of Holland's once proud coaching production line that there are so few other credible challengers for the role at this time.

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Sam publishes regular feature and tips pieces for Howtobet4free. He has a blog, crackingjabulanis.blogspot.co.uk, and can be found on Twitter by following @Gaytski.

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Comments & Feedback

Posted by Spurs565 on
The cracks were showing long before this campaign for Holland. LVG was more than lucky to get as far they did in World Cup 2014. Although they came 3rd the tactics were poor, and Holland were carried by Robben in a number of matches. Like to see a more expansive Dutch team under a more positive manager. Klopp after his fired from Liverpool perhaps ;)
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