Daley Blind - Deal Confirmed

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Yeah, a first choice LB is indeed needed, but Evra can play another season if we get someone who can allow us to rest Evra without fear of impending doom specially as we have no European distractions.
 
Only bad thing about him (at least today) is that his first touch lets him down too often. Anyone else notice that?
 
Yup, the whole Netherlands team seemed to be wearing wooden boots for periods of the match. The left side of their defence looks a lot more secure than the right though.
 
RustyS said:
Only bad thing about him (at least today) is that his first touch lets him down too often. Anyone else notice that?
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Yup. In a first half especially. They all have difficult 1st half for some reason on this tournament.
 
You can't really pick today's performance apart too much. The only time I saw his first touch let him down was when he received a poor ball that was too far away from him for him to get his foot around...

The problem for Holland as a collective today was that they were giving the ball away centrally so much. In the first half, Blind was looking to get forward to supply RVP and Robben as much as possible when Holland had the ball. When Holland gave the ball away with poor passing, it left space in behind both wingbacks and exposed Martins Indi to a lot of pressure, too. The poor passing of the midfield trio was the poorest part of Holland's display, not the defense. Second half, with the introduction of Depay, saw Blind perform a very restrained and defensively minded job for the team as there was no way van Gaal was going to commit the leftback higher up the pitch with Depay on the same side.

In general, Blind looked very composed and solid. Made a couple of decent interceptions and didn't give the ball away under pressure. Still rate him very highly.
 
He might not be world class but he is a player who can get better with time. Similar to Fletcher in that regard. I don't see any harm in signing him for a reasonable fee.
 
confirmed - really wastefull today again.. hard to say which of the two with janmaat is more average..
 
He never had pace, we knew that which is why he was never a serious option as a first choice left back. If we signed him it would be to play central midfield where he's impressed this season for his club.
 
Disappointing performance, but it was always going to be tricky against Sanchez. Probably showed a bit of naivety at times with the amount of times he got tight to Sanchez and subsequently turned so easily. He is a good player though and he was playing in a different position than at left wing-back where he has impressed. I still hope we sign him, as he is an intelligent and solid player who could prove to be a very good utility player.
 
Van Gaal trusts him and he doesn't generate stupid fouls too much near his box. Does his job at the left.

If he's enough against Chile or Spain then he's not that bad after all.
 
Did very well against Sanchez, never let him settle and was constantly in his face hassling him.

I've been impressed with this guy. He isn't showy, he just does his job and does it well. We could do worse.
 
Juan't Mata said:
Me too. We can easily get by on a midfield of Herera + Blind/Carrick until Jan and then we should have look at Strootman. Evra will be gone in 12 months so Blind will also get more gametime as a LB in future years and Carrick will likely be gone next Summer too.
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Exactly. He can be backup LB for years to come, and will be great competition for Shaw.
 
The muppet in me would love to see a midfield trio of Blind, Herrera and Vidal/Kroos with Blind playing the holding role next season. That would be some midfield. There are a number of ways things could pan out with Strootman being an option in January but as others have mentioned, he'd be a quality buy for a relatively small fee with lots of versatility.
 
His calling card would be his versatility. With Shaw now in place we already have 2 LBs so he would not be used there. So he would be purely a signing for the midfield. And I do not think he is good enough at that position to make much of an impact there.
 
I don't think we are interested in him. I'd be quite surprised if we sign more than one Dutch player in the next two windows and Strootman is nailed on to be one of them.
 
Keeps It tidy said:
His calling card would be his versatility. With Shaw now in place we already have 2 LBs so he would not be used there. So he would be purely a signing for the midfield. And I do not think he is good enough at that position to make much of an impact there.
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He's that sort of good enough just like Carrick, where there will always be that endless debate how good he actually is, while van Gaal would value him.
 
Wasn't this guy a CM? Did Van Gaal turn him to a LB?
 
I thought he was one of the best 3 Dutch players on the pitch today along with Robben and Kuyt.

Very efficient in recycling possession for Holland when switched to holding midfield. Very different player to De Jong. Didn't make as many fierce challenges as De Jong but retained possession much more impressively than De Jong and was spot on positionally throughout the second half when Holland switched to 4.3.3
 
Herman Van Rompuy said:
I thought he was one of the best 3 Dutch players on the pitch today along with Robben and Kuyt.

Very efficient in recycling possession for Holland when switched to holding midfield. Very different player to De Jong. Didn't make as many fierce challenges as De Jong but retained possession much more impressively than De Jong and was spot on positionally throughout the second half when Holland switched to 4.3.3
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Would be a very useful squad player for us, or any team
 
I thought he looked quite uncomfortable in the centre, some of his passing was terrible. From what we've seen at the WC, he looks far more comfortable at the back.
 
Sam said:
I thought he looked quite uncomfortable in the centre, some of his passing was terrible. From what we've seen at the WC, he looks far more comfortable at the back.
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His first pass after the switch was a real slice but after that I don't think he gave the ball away once. He also slipped when making another pass, if I recall correctly which might be creating the impression he was uncomfortable. I'd be interested to see the stats for his performance today.
 
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