Netherlands was among the last 4 teams in World Cup and now, a couple of years down the line, they are not even in Euro main draw and that, the boss Danny Blind believes, is something that everyone involved in the country’s Football is finding hard to accept.
In Blind’s view, now, the team should be built in a way that the young players are given some key roles as it’s up to them to make Netherlands become a world class team again in future.
However, Blind doesn’t want all the older players to be sidelined completely. According to him, the legends like Robben and others who are going around, Netherlands still has a lot to gain from them.
But, as far as the development of the team is concerned, for that it’s necessary the youngsters are drafted in and play along with those few veterans so that they learn how to go about it at this level.
Some of the Dutch veterans who are normally the guaranteed picks are injured right now and would be missing out in England friendly giving Blind the opportunity to see where the youngsters whom he is talking about stand with their game and whether they are good enough or not.
This is by no means an English side of the old when they used to be very predictable and easy for the opposition to contend with and Blind knows that and he even looked impressed with how the Three Lions have managed to pick themselves up after the Brazil disappointment and have built a nice group.
Meanwhile, making an interesting call; the boss has handed the skipper’s duty to his son Daley for England game hinting that he rates him for the leadership role in the long term.