The former Ajax and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 legend has insisted that Netherlands’ downfall at Euro 2012 was due to the mistakes made by the men at the top of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB).
Johan Cruyff has hit out on the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Royal-95-c40387 Dutch Football Association (KNVB) after watching Netherlands crash out of the Euro 2012 from the group stage.
The 2010 World Cup runners-up were tipped as one of the favourites along with Germany and reigning European and World champions, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Spain-c3011, ahead of the competition.
However, the Oranje crashed out of the competition from the group stages after suffering three defeats in a row against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Portugal-c2984 respectively.
Cruyff, who represented the Flying Dutchmen in 48 matches and made more than 500 appearances at club level before hanging up his boots in 1984, is of the view that the Dutch governing body should be blamed for the Oranje’s disappointing
run at European Championship.
The 65-year-old confessed that there were too many problems in the Dutch team, and KNVB failed to fix the issues.
“Every problem starts at the top. There have been huge mistakes. Especially in the last year. Our performances went downhill, and no measures were taken. Many teams have taken more and more characteristics of Dutch football, and
we were pretty much the only team not to. What happened at the European Championship was a result of two years earlier [at the World Cup]”, Cruyff stated in his weekly column for Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.
The Oranje were without their first-choice left-back, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Erik-Pieters-c12766, at the competition. Jetro Willems, who had a good 2011/12 season at Philips Stadion, was picked up by Bert van Marwijk, and remained his first-choice down the
left side of defence.
The former Ajax Amsterdam legend, who led the Amsterdam giants to three consecutive European glories in 1971, 1972 and 1973, admitted that it was the only good move by the Oranje.
“The only bright spot was the debut of Jetro Willems. That is the only innovations I have seen from the Dutch team”, Cruyff concluded.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Belgium-c2850 in an international friendly in Brussels on August 15.
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