The Dutch legend was extremely disappointed with the Oranje’s group stage elimination at European Championship, and blamed the star players for the Flying Dutchmen’s downfall.
Johan Cruyff is of the view that Netherlands’ abysmal showings at Euro 2012 was mainly due to the poor performances of the star players.
The Oranje, who headed into the competition as one of the favourites to achieve European glory, failed to progress to the quarter-finals of the tournament. The Dutch suffered three consecutive defeats against Denmark, Germany and
Portugal in their Group B matches respectively, leaving them pointless at the bottom of the group.
The former Barcelona player was quick to point his finger at the Flying Dutchmen’s star players, who failed to deliver in any of their group fixtures.
“Oranje's downfall was mainly down to their sloppy build-up play, and the poor execution of the easy passes. Too many of the players failed to deliver at Euro 2012, and I'm mainly talking about the team's star players”, Cruyff
was quoted as saying in his column for De Telegraaf.
The 2010 World Cup runners-up had a good side with only one weak link, which was their back-line. Bert van Marwijk, the Orange head coach, tried to provide cover for his weak defence by deploying two defensive midfielders in his
side’s first two Group B fixtures while he opted to start with Rafael van der Vaart in the final game.
Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong were hardly seen making runs forward to assist the Oranje playmaker, Wesley Sneijder, leaving a huge gap between the two defensive midfielders and the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Inter-c39567 Milan star at the centre of the park.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Portugal-c2984 exploited Van Marwijk’s tactics perfectly to claim victories, and Cruyff was clearly not pleased with the Oranje boss' strategy.
“If these kinds of things go wrong in midfield, the rest of the team suffer, too. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wesley-Sneijder-c36799 started in midfield, and they all play for teams that sit deep when they lose possession. This
hurt the team, because their build-up play was never the way it should be when their opponents started to press”, the former http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Barcelona-c38604 player and coach concluded.
Tags: