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Showing posts from May, 2021

Scheming Oranje's Approach to this Summer's Men's European Championship

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By: Kees van Hemmen                     The provisional squad for Oranje, the Dutch Men’s national team, was released this past week for the upcoming European championship. It had some interesting selections, and coupled with news of Virgil van Dijk opting out of the side to continue his rehab, made for some interesting choices for bondscoach Frank de Boer. While I am not Frank de Boer, I do like making interesting choices. And so, below you will find both the final squad I would take to the tournament, as well as a couple of potential lineups I might use with available personnel. Sprinkled in, you may even find some complaints about the provisional squad itself along the way. One piece of housekeeping we should take care of before I jump in: the way I look at international squads has some built in assumptions. Primarily, I'm of the mind that how a player plays for their club, on a consistent basis, matters far more than how we...