Hi guys,

As we all know, the Netherlands (the Dutch, Orange hurricane, Holland) are among the elite nations in football. But have been going down recently after the last golden generation.

In fact even during the last World Cup 2014 which they ended 3rd, no-one did expect that since all the star was on the down-fall (except Robben), addition to Strootman was unjured (so, wonderful job Luis van Gaal did there with the tournament). Ok, let's assume they had been still decent back then, the disaster came afterward.

After that sweet world cup, the Dutch failed to qualify for the European Championship... HUGE blow, Guus Hidding was the main man to blame, right after the Dutch FA (stupid to appoint HIdding right after LVG - the complete opposite). And now struggling with the WC qualification.

But the biggest problems are:

• The Dutch football youth have produced less-to-none talent (like in the past Denis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Persie, Van De Vaart, Snjider, Jaap Stam... just to name a few). Bunch of overhyped players
• The coach sucks
• The league itself got weaker, and stars are drained out by bigger leagues leads to so many bad things.
• Lost their identity of total football.

On the contrast, the Belgium seems to do way better...

Is this just bad luck?

it's not bad luck. The Netherlands team of pre-2014 was built on the triumvirate of Van Persie, Robben, and Sneijder. Unfortunately, each one of them started to decline simultaneously, which resulted in the Dutch team short of attacking prowess and that resulted in their defence's weaknesses being shown, which were earlier covered up when the three front players shone.

Total football is a thing of the past now, and now the Dutch team must focus first on getting back to glory rather than playing the 'Cruyff way'. There has been little to none world class talent after the three players I mentioned, and when LVG managed to get them to reach the semi finals of the WC, it was an achievment for the coach, not the players.

http://footyroom.com/forum/discussions/why-belgium-why-now-75456

In a way, I outline the problems the Dutch team is facing in this thread.

They need new generation, new blood. Stop focusing on old players who done their job, they won't be here forever.

Agree 100% with saatvik.

I think you are right in a way, the Eredivisie is not producing as much talented player as in the past and its quality is not as good as that of some other league in the world. Total football is not being played by any team (or 99% of the team in the world at least) anymore. Not the issue for me. But yeah, they're old star are degrading too much and younger and newer one didn't had enough time to establish themselve. I also think they lack a middle ground. Too many talent and veteran and not enough between the two to give the team more consistence. Old and young player tend not to be as consistent as a team who have a 25-28 average age for its player. Well, I think at least, I'm not basing this opinion out of any research and I don't know for sure buts its a impression I have. Tell me if I'm mistaken, wouldn't want to repeat it. :P

The problem is the Eredivisie.
The Dutch Clubs sell their best players at a low price and in a very young age to other internacional clubs/leagues, instead of let them play and grow up in their home club.
When this happen, the young players STOP their evolution, and never fulfil their max potential.
You can argue, but the Dutch academies are one of the best in Europe, and if a young player leaves and go to a club when he may not play and grow up, the Dutch National Team will suffer.

Cheers

Agree with saatvik, more or less my points.

The worldcup was a pure surprise and wonder from Luis Van Gaal (partly why he got the job at MU then this philosophy completely wrecked it.

And as everyone said Eredivisie is THE PROBLEM, does not produce enough good quality youngsters.

But I have to disagree with @Marcos, in a point that sending youngster abroad doesn't necessarily mean a bad things for them, they dont stop evolution, they might very well do if they end up in the right club. The negative side on the other hand would be: the league's quality get lower and the other players also dont evolve much.

The FA is another problem this is out of my knowledge to explain right now :D

@tuan_jinn I just think that its better for a young player to evolve in their home club, at least until 21/22.
If you move to an internacional club you have to learn a diferent language, culture, style of play, and you are away from your family and friends. In a young age (16-20 years old) that's very important (puberty also)!
Of couse their are good examples of players that did great when they moved to internacional clubs at an young age.
In the internacional clubs, their are more and better players "fighting" for the positions in the start 11. This can be good, in the way that it push you to evolve, or it can be bad, if you end up in the bench and not playing.

@Marcos Very fair point. But then again, you cannot blame Eredivisie for selling some of their player in particular when you see how much they can make out of it if they sell them to English team. In a way, its also because of other league who have become so rich and different in level than what was the standard a few year back. :(

The league itself got weaker, and stars are drained out by bigger leagues leads to so many bad things.

I don't think this is always a big factor enough to make a whole National team fall like Netherlands did.
Brazil, for instance, has always been the biggest "exporter" of its players in their weak weak WEAK league.
Think of the biggest names Brazil had or has today. Nearly all their players have gone to Europe at one point of their career.
Now think of England, having one of the most competitive leagues on the planet. What was the last time England national team achieved something special? (sorry for the harsh words for the English fans there)

The biggest reason for a one-time-great national team to underperform, for me, is the way the federation administrates and intervenes in the team. For example, the way Chilean federation made Sampaoli abandon his job. Look at the numbers before and after Sampaoli. The two-times and reigning Copa America champion has real risks of not qualifying for the 2018 WC.

@kirsi16 1966 was the last time we won something special. I totally agree with you.

@kirsi16 Very good point as well. :D

Sneijder, Robben, van Persie... three absolute legends. I can't believe that trio was unable to win in the World Cup final... a shame, but Spain was just better on the night. I want an Internazionale Sneijder jersey so badly, haha.

We got our sweet revenge :D

@tuan_jinn Lol, that spanking Netherland gave Spain in world cup 2014. XD That was brutal.

I still think Spain cheated in the WC final of 2010. Man we should of won that.

@amir_keal How so? Was there a goal called offside for Netherland or a penality not called? I do know De Jong should have seen red for the flying kick he pulled on Alonso.

@Emobot7 If you watch the few minutes leading up to the Spain goal, the Netherlands should have a corner that the ref missed and one of our players was clearly fouled in the Spain end right before the goal happened. Honestly doesn't matter now because it was over 6 years ago but it was still frustrating at the time.

@louisvangaal Been a while since I last saw you lad, good to see you. I see what you mean now and understand, sadly, thats football. Then again, there were also propably quite a few decision that didn't go in Spain direction at some point in the game so I think it must have been pretty fair in that domain. But I really couldn't tell, back then, I didn't watch that game. I barely watched football at that time. I'm still sad when I think that such a great team like Netherland were never able to put their hand on the famous trophy. They really deserved to win a world cup at some point. :(

Emo, I watched that game and that Spain are mainly lowlife scums, especially puyol and capdevilla