Everything/Anything/Nothing

Last Saturday at the Mettalist Stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, something strange happened. A relatively unknown Danish midfielder, Michael Krohn-Dehli, currently plying his trade for Brondby in the Danish league, bamboozled a massed Dutch defence and scored the only goal of the game. This result sets Denmark up nicely. Very much the underdog in the so-called "group of death" the Danes are now in a position where they only need to defeat Portugal(who they've beaten in 3 of their last 4 meetings) in tonight's game to go through to the second round.

On the other side of the pitch, the Premiership's top goal scorer, one of the true superstars of the tournament, cut a frustrated figure as chance after chance was squandered. His story was Netherland's story. Those of us used to seeing him banging in goals for Arsenal had come hoping to see a glimpse of the same sublime first touches and lethal finishing being produced in his national colours. It never happened. For Holland's 32 shots, not one of them had been put in the back of the net. All fingers were pointed at that Dutch superstar striker who fluffed his lines and scuffed his shots, Robin Van Persie. The question being asked was "Why does Robin Van Persie not show up for the Netherlands?".

Come to think of it, this is by no means the first time we've heard this, and it's an accusation that isn't only aimed at Van Persie. Christiano Ronaldo for Portugal and Lionel Messi for Argentina are the best goal-scorers, probably the best football players in the world but have never reached the same heights with their countries as they have with their clubs. Or so the story goes. What's being insinuated here is that these players are either too weak mentally to deal with the pressure that international tournaments place on players, or, perhaps they simply don't care about their country. They don't receive hundreds of thousands a week for their international performances, it is the clubs that pay their wages, so what's in it for them? When I've spoken to Dutch people I tend to bring up Van Persie as one of their great footballing exports, they tend to disagree, for this very reason. He is just another indication of the mercenary nature of top level football and the disappearance of national loyalty as a casualty to big money. But is this true? I decided I would investigate the perceived wisdom that Robin Van Persie doesn't produce his best for The Netherlands. The biggest and most annoying cliche after all is that they tend to be true.

Red Robin
Robin Van Persie is what the French would call a neuf et demi, or 9 and a half. Like all the great dutch footballers he learned football on the streets. Both his parents were artists and there is definitely something of the artist as well as the assassin about Van Persie. Arsene Wenger has called him Bergkamp with goals, some praise indeed considering Bergkamp is widely considered Arsenal's best player of all time. Those are some shoes to fill but Van Persie has never seemed too intimidated, he lets his goals do the talking. This has never been truer than lately, where Robin has developed from previously being an injury-prone scorer of great goals to reaching his potential as a truly great goalscorer, the most reliable, important and dangerous part of the team. At Arsenal, throughout the season just finished and throughout the second part of the 2010/11 season Robin pretty much had to score goals as nobody else seemed willing to. Given the hopelessness of his replacements and the relative profligacy of his team-mates the over-riding tactic of Arsenal's play became quite simple: get the ball to Van Persie in goalscoring positions and let him do the rest. Not to mention that Van Persie was helping out with link up play, holding the ball up, coming deep, taking free kicks, corners, stretching the play to the flanks, creating assists, he was, in short, the complete striker. He finished this season with not only the golden boot for most goals scored, he was voted the PFA Player's Player of the year and FWA sportswriter's player of the year awards and through his goals and assists helped push Arsenal to third place in the league. His contribution truly defied belief.

Oranje Robin
With the Dutch, things are a little bit different. Holland have always had an embarrassment of riches in attacking players. Van Persie has consistently been shifted to the wing to accommodate other more prolific or less versatile forwards such as Ruud Van Nistelroy or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. This repositioning to the flanks further puts him into competition with Arjen Robben, such as during the Euro 2008 competition. Even now, with his reputation established, he faces stiff competition with Huntelaar biting at his heels for that centre forward position.

These Euros probably represent his best chance of redeeming himself to the Dutch, or, who knows, even joining the Pantheon of Dutch greats .Unfortunately, from what we've seen in his showing against Denmark, Robin has not proven any of his doubters wrong. He has put himself under yet more pressure to produce the goods. He is not the only player so far to disappoint at the euros this year nor is he the worst. Aleksandr Kerzhakov made himself a place in the history books on Friday when he set a new all-time European Championships record for the most off-target shots in one match, an incredible 7 attempts skewed in Russia’s win over the Czech Republic. Fernando Torres had a torrid time of it during his brief cameo against Italy through a combination of his own indecision and the guile of Italy's Buffon. They all retain the confidence of their managers and they all have a point to prove. Yesterday, Kerzhakov once again failed to find the net against, this time against Poland. Will Van Persie fare any better this afternoon against Germany?

Even when Van Persie is given the nod upfront his selflessness and creativity means he often gives more chances than he receives. Could it be that Van Persie for the Netherlands has never gotten out of the Bergkamp mould, he seems frustratingly deferential to his more single-minded colleagues at times. Perhaps this is a sign of maturity, the Dutch national team speak often of how the egos are gone, but Robin needs to ally this modesty with the familiar audacity of his youth. He needs to create havoc and take more attacking responsibility on his shoulders, as he does week in, week out for Arsenal.

Part of the problem with Oranje is that he has such big boots to fill, with many of the top scorers like Patrick Kluivert, Dennis Bergkamp and most recently Van Nistelroy still fresh in the Dutch collective memory. Compare his record to Kluivert, it's not very fair some would argue, but realistically it's a comparison he needs to face. Kluivert scored 40 goals in 79 games, a goal every two games and is still The Netherland's top goalscorer of all time. So far Van Persie has scored 28 goals in 65 games, which works out at 0.43 goals per game and places him as joint eight top goal-scorer for the Dutch national team. Not bad you might say, but when you consider that Huntelaar, Robin's understudy of sorts upfront, has scored a whopping 31 goals in only 53 games, with 0.58 goals per game and holding seventh place in the all time goalscorer rankings for the Dutch national team, you start to wonder. Though some would see Huntelaar as the heir-apparent, the stats suggest he has already superseded this dutch master and has earned his right to replace Van Persie as The Netherland's first choice centre forward. Which is why many are saying that Van Marwijk, the Netherlands coach, should now swing the axe and do exactly that.

Dutch Goalscorers of note:

	Huntelaar	Kluivert	Van Nistelroy	Bergkamp	Van Persie	Van Basten
Appearances	53	79	70	79	65	58
Goals	31	40	35	37	28	24
GPG(Goals per game)	0.58	0.5	0.5	0.46	0.43	0.41

Interestingly, Robin's record of 0.43 goals per game for his country is the same as Lukas Podolski's record for Germany, scoring 43 goals in 98 appearances. In fact, it is the same ratio as Mario Gomez. These are two solid performers and goalscorers for Germany, although Miroslav Klose's tally of 0.53 goals per game is the more impressive.

However, these stats only tell part of the story. The accusation so often leveled at Van Persie is not that he doesn't score goals for his country, it is clear that he does. The accusation is that Van Persie doesn't produce his best for his country. Considering his club exploits, you'd be expecting Van Persie to at least replicate if not improve upon his form when representing his country. How would we measure this? Well, if we simply subtract his international goal per game ratio from his club goal per game ratio we would get the difference in his goal-scoring end-product when playing with country versus club.

If we run this through, we get the following:

	Huntelaar	Kluivert	Van Nistelroy	Bergkamp	Van Persie	Van Basten
Appearances	53	79	70	79	65	58
Goals	31	40	35	37	28	24
GPG(Goals per game)	0.58	0.5	0.5	0.46	0.43	0.41
Club GPG	0.66	0.42	0.58	0.37	0.43	0.73
Difference	-0.08	0.08	-0.08	0.09	0	-0.32

How much worse does Van Persie play for Holland than he does for his clubs? No worse. No better. The exact same ratio applies in each case, funnily enough, which pretty much exposes this cliche of Van Persie the under-performer at international level as a fallacy. Not only that, but Van Persie's former and current rivals for the no.9 slot, Van Nistelroy and Huntelaar respectively, actually under-perform for their countries, by the same amount even.

People speak often as Van Persie as needing to live up to his billing as the next Van Basten. What do they mean, if not in his style, his goal-scoring prowess and his commitment to his country? Van Persie has nothing to prove on that score, Van Basten probably showed his best at AC Milan. What people got from Van Basten that Van Persie has threatened but never delivered on was a big-game player who won tournaments. This is the way that Van Persie has so far failed to deliver, not with goals but with results. He hasn't just failed in this respect with the Netherland's, for someone so talented his record of winning tournaments is very poor, as noted here. Of course this is not Van Persie's fault, football is after all a team sport. So, how does Van Marwijk get the best out of Van Persie, not to mention the rest of Holland's superstars?

-Robben & Robin
There's no getting around it, in the Denmark game Van Persie did not have a good time in front of goal and this was one of the main talking points after the defeat. He combined well with Arjen Robben at times. putting the winger through on goal early on. Too often though, Robben ran into trouble or his final ball let him down. For Van Persie playing centrally as a striker, he can help Robben on the wing in two ways. In the Denmark game, his best work was when he went out to the right to help Robben and play him clever passes. In the world cup final two years ago Van Persie opted instead to drop deep to the left in order to drag the centre-backs out of position for Robben to exploit the space behind. What makes these two cases alike was what happened next.

Has Robben been robbing Robin on the right or is this pun a bit of a stretch?

A familiar story has been Robben running up blind alleys, losing the ball in congested areas where teams have set out to double up and crowd him out of the game. Much of Robben's chances have been offered by Van Persie pulling defenders away and providing a killer pass whereas Robben's support play for Van Persie has been virtually non-existent. Sneijder and Affelay reciprocated each others passes very well against Denmark on Saturday(Sneijder-Affelay and Affelay-Sneijder were the top two pass combinations). Van Persie could meaningfully complain to Robben that on the right it was a case of all give and no take.

If Robben can stop trying to force the play so much, can provide chances for Van Persie and can learn to be clinical when he is given the opportunity, this could be a lethal combination.

No longer sicker than Ro-Sick-y
In South Africa, Van Persie was coming into the tournament from an injury lay-off. Then again, one might have asked at the time, when is Van Persie or any number of other Arsenal players not recovering from an injury lay-off? Ahh, what a difference a year makes. 2011/12 has been Robin Van Persie's first season with Arsenal not to be curtailed by constant injury concerns, meaning he stands the best chance of showing his best in this tournament(of course, if he doesn't deliver the goods this time his apologists will claim that the grueling premier league season has burned him out).

Normal service resumed?
Following the final Van Persie complained that Sneijder was not providing assists like Fabregas was at Arsenal.

“In the whole World Cup, I was only put [through] in front of the keeper four or five times...Cesc [Fabregas] did it four or five times a match.”

Sneijder, instead of gifting Van Persie goals had instead become the golden boot of the tournament himself, with an incredible 5 goals scored. Van Persie, in turn, had become the creator. In the final, Van Persie only managed a single shot in Anger throughout the entire 120 minutes of play, and even this was off target. However, when one looks at his passing statistics we discover that he was arguably the Dutch's chief play-maker, he played 3 key passes(passes that resulted in goal attempts), more than Wesley Schneider.

The problem is certainly not only with Sneijder though. Some, most notably Johan Cruyff, are suggesting the creativity needs to come from deeper.

It's all gone Nigel De Jong

The dutch under van Marwijk have used a double pivot of defensive players, namely Marc Van Bommel and Nigel De Jong. Cruyff has criticised this decision, saying that two destroyers in deep midfield slow the transitions from defense to attack and kills the quick service that Van Persie needs in order to poach goals. Van Bommel, the slightly more adventurous of the two, has his place assured. He is the captain and the son-in-law of Van Marwijk, therefore somewhat of a sacred cow. Which is too bad for De Jong, who many want out of the team to be replaced by the far more creative Van Der Vaart. That is exactly what Van Marwijk did against Denmark in the final 20 minutes of the match. Not only that, he brought Huntelaar on.

This made Van Persie come deep as a second striker to accomodate with Schneider moving to the left. This was not the first time this had happened. Against France in Euro 2008 the so-called fab four of Van Persie, Robben, Sneijder & Van Der Vaart combined for a scintillating 33 minutes of football. Prior to the 2010 South Africa there was a lot of talk of Van Marwijk once again releasing this fearsome quartet, Van Marwijk did so in the second half of the semi-final to devestating effect.

Is Van Marwijk ready to gamble?? Why stop there? Another player who was on the pitch that day in 2008 was Ruud Van Nistelroy. So, taking this one step further, Van Marwijk can borrow wholesale from those blistering 33 minutes and play a not only the fab four but a fab five, with Huntelaar playing the role of Van Nistelroy in this 2012 version. The mistake Van Marwijk made in the Uruguay match was accommodating Van Der Vaart on the left rather than Sneijder. When Sneijder plays central, he tends to drift towards the left. When Van Der Vaart plays left, he tends to drift central. Put the two together and you have two players in the same zone and no width with which to stretch the opposition back-line, creating room for the strikers. But can Sneijder stretch the play on the left? He may not need to.

One of the most disappointing thing about the Dutch at the last world cup was how reserved their full-backs were, this was especially jarring considering the protection offered by the two bruising mid-fielders Van Bommel and De Jong. However, this tactic was to compensate for the weakness in the back-line, not a means of releasing them. Van Bronkhorst, his amazing strike against Brazil notwithstanding, was not being given a license to get forward for the simple reason that his old legs lacked the recovery pace to get back in time for a counter attack. This is not a problem with Jetro Willems, the pacy left-back in Marwijk's new set-up. If Holland opt for the gung-ho approach that we're all hoping for, Willems could make up for Sneijder's lack of width on the left.

Germany will, of course, profit from such an open Dutch team when it comes to creating their own chances, not doubling up on Ozil is risky business. So this match, like the Uruguay Netherlands semi-final in 2010 could be a high-scoring affair. After the horrid luck of the Denmark game, Holland and Van Persie will be hoping this is their day. If Van Persie and the Dutch team are to silence the doubters they need to do no less than win the European Championship, like Van Basten did in 88. They have given themselves a mountain to climb by losing the first game which means that this afternoon's game against Germany is a must win. That could mean an end or at least brief hiatus to Van Marwijks consistently conservative and defensive tactics. The good news is that even if Huntelaar gets his place Van Persie needn't be sacrificed. Time will tell.

Everything/Anything/Nothing

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Does Robin show up for the Netherlands?

Friday, 28 January 2011

Barceloneta

Thursday, 20 January 2011

That Difficult Second Blog Post

Thursday, 13 January 2011

Large double room 5 min walk from Canning town station