Internationals March (World Cup Qualifiers)

It's funny that after being horrendous most of the season, TAA has actually been one of the few in our squad who has played close to his normal level lately.

Reckon it has as much to do with the fact that Southgate doesn't know what to do with him even in top form and here's his chance to send an old fashioned edgelord message.
 
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De Vrij is out with covid and a couple of talents will play in the under-21 Euro: Botman, Koopmeiners and Boadu.
Lang has yet to make his senior debut.

I think our lack of quality wingers and fullbacks would favour a 3 at the back formation with wingbacks, but F. De Boer will go for 4 at the back. Educated guess:
L. De Jong
Memphis Wijnaldum Berghuis
F. De Jong Gravenberch
Wijndal Blind De Ligt Tete
Cillessen​
Schedule:
Turkey 18:00 Wed 24th
Latvia 18:00 Sat 27th
Gibraltar 20:45 Tue 30th

The Turkey one should be good.

I think we'll be the 8th strongest side at the Euros, but it's nice to finally be back at least.
 
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No Wout Weghorst - even if he plays a very good season with 16 goals and 6 assists for Wolfsburg...
 
Our team really needs to rest up. Ole needs to do a deal whereby none of our players are expected to play more than 1 full game plus a 2nd half sub appearance. Say, max, 110 minutes over the 3 games.

Otherwise, all the international players get little niggles during this afternoon's game.
 
LovelyLittlePanda said:
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De Vrij is out with covid and a couple of talents will play in the under-21 Euro: Botman, Koopmeiners and Boadu.
Lang has yet to make his senior debut.

I think our lack of quality wingers and fullbacks would favour a 3 at the back formation with wingbacks, but F. De Boer will go for 4 at the back. Educated guess:
L. De Jong
Memphis Wijnaldum Berghuis
F. De Jong Gravenberch
Wijndal Blind De Ligt Tete
Cillessen​
Schedule:
Turkey 18:00 Wed 24th
Latvia 18:00 Sat 27th
Gibraltar 20:45 Tue 30th

The Turkey one should be good.

I think we'll be the 8th strongest side at the Euros, but it's nice to finally be back at least.
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I'd cry if we start Luuk de Jong, it's a shame he's even there in the first place as Wout Weghorst is by far the superior player. His pinch-hitter / header thing that he has got going on for himself is really not that great, it will help us once in a dozen of games but Weghorst has actually been proving himself.

Despite the fact that Malen has been struggling to finish in the recent weeks, he should be our starting 9 or changed with Memphis. His speed, dribble, directness, two-footedness are very necessary for us and with Malen, Memphis, Berghuis we'd have a very fluid, skilled and tricky front 3.

I love Blind's ball playing ability but defensively he has been shaky for the Dutch NT, but we don't really have more options because of all of the injuries. I'd prefer to play Dumfries over Tete and Gravenberch-Klaassen is a difficult one.

Hope;
Malen/Memphis
Memphis/Malen Wijnaldum Berghuis
F. De Jong Gravenberch/Klaassen
Wijndal Blind De Ligt Dumfries
Keeper
 
Blackwidow said:
No Wout Weghorst - even if he plays a very good season with 16 goals and 6 assists for Wolfsburg...
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Yeah its a disgrace that Frank the Farmer refuses to call him up. In Holland only Frank understands, all other people dont understand.
 
Multatuli said:
Yeah its a disgrace that Frank the Farmer refuses to call him up. In Holland only Frank understands, all other people dont understand.
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He doesn't fit "de philosophy"

With our depth in the striker department (Memphis, Weghorst, Malen, De Jong) and poor wingers it's such a bad timing to have a rigid coach like De Boer in charge.

I think we're best suited to:

Memphis Weghorst
Wijnaldum
F. De Jong De Roon
Van Aanholt Van Dijk (Ake) De Vrij De Ligt Promes (Hateboer?)
Cillessen​

And maybe just take Berghuis along when we need to dominate games in a more traditional 4-3-3 during groups.

He's made it clear that he'll only "resort" to this when his job is on the line. Basically acknowledging it works.
 
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Why does England always get the easiest groups in qualifiers? :lol: It's almost a parody now.
 
Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Spain, Russia @3 seem like just a give me win but you know one or two will feck up the accumulator.
 
Haven't been this interested in seeing Sweden play for a long while (well, since the WC I guess). We have the most promising offensive in ages, and now Zlatan has decided to be available as well. Defense is a bit of a question mark, but having the possibility to field players like Emil Forsberg, Alexander Isak, Dejan Kulusevski, Jesper Karlsson and so forth along Zlatan feels very strange considering just a few years ago useless players like Jimmy Durmaz and John Guidetti featured prominently in the team. Christ.
 
It’s snorebore international fortnight, yawn.
They should schedule a couple of weeks each summer to get these out of the way. Players would get a rest during the season too.
 
Raredaredevil said:
Why does England always get the easiest groups in qualifiers? :lol: It's almost a parody now.
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Poland is not easy though. I guess San Marino is very easy, but it is the second and third best teams that matter for England.
The 4th and 5th best teams are all easy I say.
 
For England I'd go for -

Pope
Trippier - Stones - Maguire - Shaw
Mount - Rice - Foden
Sterling - Kane - Grealish

If Henderson was fit I'd drop mount and go 4231.
 
Turkey take the lead.
 
I do not really rate Netherlands that highly particular without Van Dijk.

Do people think they have a chance in Euros?
 
1-0 Turkey, that was terrible from van de Beek. I know he isn't even on the pitch, but still.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
I don't. Not sure they are good enough up front.
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Yeah my early predictions was Belgium and England for the final.

I do think Portugal got a lovely squad right now though particular if they get Bruno on fire. The big question is if Ronaldo is good enough to lead them anymore?
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
Yeah my early predictions was Belgium and England for the final.

I do think Portugal got a lovely squad right now though particular if they get Bruno on fire. The big question is if Ronaldo is good enough to lead them anymore?
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Portugal have a good squad. Ronnie will be desperate to show he can still deliver the goods. If he doesn't they might actually have to start phasing him out.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Portugal have a good squad. Ronnie will be desperate to show he can still deliver the goods. If he doesn't they might actually have to start phasing him out.
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Yeah they could really win it again, but got a hard route to do it. They need a Ronaldo on fire I think. I think they will be a wall like last time and concede few goals. Dias and maybe still Pepe feels like a potentially title winning central defensive pair. Fullbacks are great too and they have defensive midfielders to use as well who are solid. I think the only worry is Patricio not had his best season.
 
Typical match of us. Better side, missing some chances. Stupid foul and a major deflection and we’re losing. Could’ve gotten a penalty too before the 1-0
 
Paul_Scholes18 said:
I do not really rate Netherlands that highly particular without Van Dijk.

Do people think they have a chance in Euros?
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Do they have injuries apart from VVD or are they rotating tonight? I had to google a lot of the names in the lineup.
 
saivet said:
Do they have injuries apart from VVD or are they rotating tonight? I had to google a lot of the names in the lineup.
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They have the big ones Depay, Wijnaldum, De Ligt, De Jong in it and De Roon who often plays.

I guess they might have some wingers out, but can't think of anyone. They are not playing for big clubs anyway.

I see they got a strong bench though with some PL players and Ajax ones.
 
Frank de Boer is trying to out do the shit job he did at inter, crystal palace and that baseball team. He's such a joke of a trainer.
 
This would be a big loss for Netherlands, their group is one of the harder ones with Norway being a good team too.

That said though that Dutch squad is really poor, there's almost no creativity there. Someone like Ziyech with his crosses would've made a big difference.
 
Haaland vs Gibraltar, if he plays, could genuinely see him top his biggest one game haul, that 9 goal game vs Honduras under 23s.
 
marktan said:
This would be a big loss for Netherlands, their group is one of the harder ones with Norway being a good team too.

That said though that Dutch squad is really poor, there's almost no creativity there. Someone like Ziyech with his crosses would've made a big difference.
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Bad or not, it's still miles better than Turkey and Norway. It's just like Mou said, Frank de Boer teaches people how to lose. He's football's bad luck Brian.
 
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