Individual Talents vs A Talented Team
Whoever the next manager is, he has to get set to work at transforming the Netherlands from a squad with such obvious, world class individual talent into a world class team. If, as expected, the core of the team do stay together for one final tournament, then he has to get the likes of Huntelaar and van Persie playing together. van Marwijk couldn't work out how to get the best of them in a formation with two up front, and often chose either one or the other. The fact is though, between them, prior to Euro 2012, they had scored more goals between them than all four of England's registered forwards. If Holland are going to be serious challengers at the 2014 World Cup, they need their two best strikers singing from the same hymn sheet. In van Marwijk's era, there was also reportedly dressing room unrest to contend with, as well as over-inflated egos. His son in law was van Bommel, and some of the teams senior players alleged that he received preferential treatment from the manager. van der Vaart might attest for this, as it was van Bommel who kept him out of the starting XI for much of Euro 2012. Despite the fact that Holland were in danger of going out from the first game, Marwijk chose not to pick the more attack-minded Tottenham midfielder. van Marwijk and van Bommel have gone now though, so any of this nonsense can be well and truly put to rest. If Holland are going to rise from the dead in Brazil, they can't afford any immature conflicts and in-house fighting. It is time they played as a team.