Jetro Willems

He obviously hasn't impressed in this tournament too much but he is 18! It's easy for anyone at that age making their debut for their country to look a bit nervous. Luckily our scouts judge him over a prolonged period and not just on a few isolated games
 
cesc's_mullet said:
You'd think he would have been scouted throughout the regular season, and probably the scouts liked what they saw. Playing in a defensive post at that age, for Holland, speaks for his talent (or maybe the dearth in quality Dutch LB's?).
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It's actually lack of other options. When Van Bronckhorst retired there was already an issue. Pieters from PSV is usually playing in LB for Holland now, but he got injured and Willems replaces him in the PSV team.

There was a lot of debate as to who would play LB for Holland with Pieters injured, and the other options where old and slow Bouma (who isn't even a LB but a CB) and Stijn Schaars from Sporting who is actually a CM who played 1 game as LB in the Portugese league.

Willems had been doing fine to replace Pieters at PSV, so I guess that's the reason why he was picked for Holland too, considering there weren't many other options anyway.
 
I honestly dont think he was that bad, and can see passed the few games he played at this tournament.

Tbh he was thrown in at the deep end against 2 of the best teams in the world, and yes quite rightly he struggled.

Amagine putting Zeki Fryers out there against muller / nani? He would struggle hugely too.

This kid is 1 for the future, he is very raw yes, but i have no doubts he could be sculpted to become the next evra.
 
I think it says something about the state of football in Holland when the only left back they take to a major championship is a 18 year old who's played just a handful of first team games for his club. The difference in quality between Holland's best players and the rest of the squad is massive. The problem is that kids are stuck inside playing computer games etc. instead of being outside playing football. For a country as small as Holland it's bound to have an impact on the size of the pool of players they can pick from.
 
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