ADutchSaint

****ing finally

Of course passing and finishing is more important in that role and im not saying its required per se, but when your not on the level of a Scholes and you play in a team thats not dominating the ball position every week i think you will struggle, especially in modern day football. And it worries me if a player like Honda, who did have that quickness/sharpness/explosiveness (what ever you want to call it) in the past but he now plays in one, well i call it a gear, but he doesnt/cant get out of it anymore. So either he has not been in shape for years or something else is going on, combine that with the rumors about him having virus infections and graves disease and all kinds of stuff plus the long term injuries he had in the past, then no thanks. Way too big of a risk for a guy who turns 30 this year.

Honda would be a 'no go' for me, had way too many long term injuries in the past and rumors been going on for years that he had multiple health problems/diseases, which i believe cause he aint the player anymore that i remember. He used to be quick and light on his feet and explosive but thats all gone really. Played pretty good against Roma last weekend and he's still is a good technical player but i think he would struggle a lot with the pace of the PL, especially if your gonna put him on the field as a attacking midfielder.

A manager becomes irrelevant when you sell your best players and you cant/dont spent that money one-on-one for replacements, 9 out of 10 times you will go back in quality. Its pretty logical and there isn't a manager in the world thats going to change that. You can give Guardiola 10 million pounds to find a replacement for Schneiderlin but ill give you great odds that he's not going to find someone of the same quality. And btw, do you know exactly if a player was signed/scouted by the club or by the manager? You can make a solid argue/prediction that guys like Clasie and Pelle were brought in because of Koeman but who scouted/brought in Mane, Gardos, Juanmi, Cedric, VVD, Romeu etc? Do you think none of them would be here if Koeman wasnt the manager? I doubt that, i think managers have far less power at clubs like Southampton (who dont have all the money in the world) then they pretend and what people think they have. At the end, the club is responsible for the squad and the manager is responsible for what happens on the pitch and for the results but again you will go backwards from time to time if you keep selling your best players, especially when you also throw a few injury's of important players into the mix, no matter who the manager is.

The manager really becomes pretty irrelevant when you sell your best players and try to replace them with cheaper, younger, less experienced (what ever) players. 9 out of 10 times you will go backwards, not a manager in the world is going to change that. I have seen this **** going on at my local team here in Holland for over 10 years now and it just how it is. You sell your best players, hope you can go forwards with that money but instead the money gets blown on players who just werent good enough and a year later you do the exact same thing again. One year you go forwards, the next year backwards and you repeat that cycle over and over but that has very little to do with the managers.

Carrilo is a interesting player. Strong and technical guy with pace but I'm pretty sure the club dropped him from the team or something cause he doesn't want to sign a new contract. So he probably will be sold in this window.

Exactly this. Tadic aint no Wanyama or something but he uses his body a lot in the way he plays. Thats what i mean with a physical guy, not necessary extremely strong physically but when he turns his back into it (and he does that a lot), not that many guys get him of the ball.

Comparing Tadic with Ziyech is pretty silly, totally different players. Tadic always has been a physical guy and always used his technique and physique in his play. Look at games from him at the Olympics with Serbia and compare it with his years at Groningen, Twente or even now. His play style is exactly the same and still uses the same tricks simply because he doesnt have the pace and feet to do otherwise. Ziyech on the other hand does have pace and his feet are a lot quicker as Tadic for example, so physical strength is a lot less important in his game. Ziyech reached his ceiling in the Eredivisie and needs to move abroad as soon as possible. If you want to compare players you should probably compare Ziyech with Eriksen. Ziyech is physically better (more pace and stamina) as Eriksen, who's doing pretty good at Spurs so i dont see why Ziyech wouldnt be ready for a move to the PL. If you ask me, from all the dozens of players that moved to the PL from the Eredivisie over the years i have the least amount of doubt about Ziyech. And people only doubt about him because he doesnt play at one of the big clubs in Holland, same thing happened with Virgil who wasnt even good enough for the top clubs in Holland according to everyone else... And Haller would be a waste of money really, i dont get why people rate him so high. Slow on the first yards, slow feet, not explosive, not that great with the head and doesnt have a great shot. Most goals he makes even come from penalty's, he's decent in link-up play but thats about it. Then i would pay a few million more and get Selke from Leipzig (now that would be a investment that makes sense) or give Atletico a call and get Baston, who might be even cheaper as Haller. Plenty of young strikers around who have a lot more to offer then Haller.

It's really not that bad of a league and what you expect? Price/performance wise your not going to get it much better and if you pick the right ones, your going to get a 'ok' player at worst and that's why so many ex Eredivisie players are walking in the EPL right now. It's worth the gamble. Btw you can't expect if you pay 10 million for a player that he's going to light up the Premier League every week. If you can get Vilhena on a free, then I would do it cause the kid has plenty of potential. He only has attitude problems, like so many other cocky young guys who make too much money for their own good.

I just dont get why you would change so much. Why did Virgil play on the right with a 3 man defense and when you play with 2 guys in the back, he moves to the left (like always). Things like that dont make sense to me. Its just making something as simple as football overly complicated so the coach can gloat with it when it does work (the 1 time out of a 100). A lot of guys dont have a lot of confidence in the team, you can see it all over the pitch and then the coach decides to change everything up again. I just dont get it.

Koeman really annoys the hell out of me sometimes with his ridiculous tactics.

Probably i already said this before on here but he didnt look good to me even in the Dutch League. On the ball and if you dont put pressure on him then yes, he's a good player with the ability to deliver a great pass but i've seen him struggle plenty of times in the Dutch League. I would have never bought Clasie. He has no pace, no stamina, not particularly quick on his feet and he's a midget. Thats a lot of stuff you have to compensate for with your passing ability's and if your not on the level of a Ozil or Iniesta, your just going to have a hard time outside of Holland (which we have seen him have in the Dutch national team. Watch the friendly against France for example, Pogba made him not just look bad but he made him look utterly silly). Clasie just was no Strootman or van Ginkel in Holland and even Bazoer from Ajax, who just turned 19, already made a bigger impression on me then Clasie has ever done in the Dutch League. For example, i was watching Dortmund against Schalke a few weeks back and Dortmund bought Weigl for half the price Clasie went for and that 20 year old kid is already twice the player Clasie will ever be so you can get great/exceptional players for not even that much. I just dont see it in Clasie, he's a old-fashioned player if you ask me.

That kid is nowhere near ready for that, i see only one player in the Eredivisie atm thats ready for a step like that and thats Ziyech. All the other talents first have to become big boys, carry their team and make the difference. Plenty of guys have the talent to make it in the Premier League but they are not ready atm. All tho maybe if i had some cash i would pick up Pereiro from PSV as quick as possible, you couldnt go wrong with that investment really.

Toivonen wasnt even anything special while he played in Holland, he was a 'OK' player at best for PSV and he certainly was no Tadic or Pelle in Holland. The Dutch competition is pretty crappy compared to the Premier League but every year there are a few gems walking around in there and its just a matter of picking out the right ones at the right time.

For who's struggling with their streams: HD Acestream: c25b448994bd0153f88f6e6bb2181dae99a7b471 Dutch commentary tho but proper video

There were a lot of clubs interested. Newcastle, Sunderland, Norwich, Stoke etc but he was too expensive for their likes.

Ziyech is not a winger tho, he's a classic attacking midfielder and im surprised no club in Europe picked him up this summer. By far the best attacking midfielder atm (last season as well) in the Eredivisie, that kid has everything. He's creative, has pace, great technical skills and a very good shot in both legs really. Im 100% convinced that he's going to be a class player in a few years and if i was Koeman, i would pick him up if there's some budget left in the winter cause the current squad could use a player like Ziyech. He wont be cheap tho

If the club can reach a agreement with Celtic then Virgil is going to Southampton a 100%. Money isnt really a big factor for him, he had better offers before he went to Celtic but he wanted to make sure he would be playing every week. And im sure he still wants the guarantee, as far as that is possible in football, that he will be playing weekly. Virgil wants to break into the Dutch national team, thats his dream, and for that he needs to play every week on a high level. Plus Ronald and Erwin Koeman know pretty much everything about Virgil cause their father Martin was one of the scouts that brought him to Groningen and with Tadic and Forster he has 2 old teammates in the current squad. As long as the club really wants him, its pretty much written in the stars that he will come to Southampton and i have no doubt in my mind that he's going to be a world class defender in a few years. I've been following Virgil for years now and that kid has everything you want. He only has one flaw, he gets sloppy/lazy and starts to slack when he senses he doesn't has to give a 100% on the pitch. Its what cost him a transfer to the top clubs in Holland (shame cause otherwise he probably would have 10+ caps for Holland already at this point). He's just one of those guys that needs a challenge and who needs to be pushed from time to time. And haven't seen this come up yet here but since people love compilations, here's some Champions League highlights from him: https://vimeo.com/87620747