Team created by a collaborative effort of 27DONI72, Milos, StuartBannigan and gurkenjoe93












Honours:

• FIFA World Cup

Runners-up (3): 1974, 1978, 2010
Third place (1): 2014
Fourth place (1): 1998

• UEFA European Championship

Winners (1): 1988
Third place (1): 1976
Semi-Final (3): 1992, 2000, 2004

• UEFA Nations League

Runners-up (1): 2019


COACH: Rinus MICHELS




The best ever Netherlands players 23-man squad



GOALKEEPERS:

● Hans VAN BREUKELEN
● Edwin VAN DER SAR

DEFENDERS:

● Cor VAN DER HART
● Wim SUURBIER
● Ruud KROL
● Ronald KOEMAN
● Adri VAN TIGGELEN
● Frank DE BOER
● Jaap STAM

MIDFIELDERS:

● Wim JANSEN
● Willem VAN HANEGEM
● Johan NEESKENS
● Arie HAAN
● Ruud GULLIT
● Frank RIJKAARD
● Wesley SNEIJDER

FORWARDS:

● Abe LENSTRA
● Johan CRUYFF
● Rob RENSENBRINK
● Johnny REP
● Marco VAN BASTEN
● Dennis BERGKAMP
● Arjen ROBBEN




_____________________________________________________________



RESERVES:


GOALKEEPERS:

● Just GÖBEL
● Frans DE MUNCK
● Eddy PIETERS GRAAFLAND

DEFENDERS:

● Bok DE KORVER
● Harry DÉNIS
● Wim ANDERIESEN
● Kees KUIJS
● Roel WIERSMA
● Rinus ISRAËL
● Berry VAN AERLE
● Michael REIZIGER
● Giovanni VAN BRONCKHORST
● Virgil VAN DIJK

MIDFIELDERS:

● Puck VAN HEEL
● Kees RIJVERS
● Willy VAN DE KERKHOF
● Jan WOUTERS
● Aron WINTER
● Ronald DE BOER
● Edgar DAVIDS
● Clarence SEEDORF
● Phillip COCU
● Mark VAN BOMMEL


FORWARDS:

● Beb BAKHUYS
● Kick SMIT
● Faas WILKES
● Coen MOULIJN
● Piet KEIZER
● René VAN DE KERKHOF
● Patrick KLUIVERT
● Ruud VAN NISTELROOY
● Dirk KUYT
● Robin VAN PERSIE

I do suggest some changes for this team:

First of all: Sneijder should be in the first 23. He was our most important player in 2010 when we reached the WC final. I think he should replace Rijvers.

Furthermore: this team has 2 SB and 5 CB so I think another SB should be added. Van Bronckhorst seems the best option to me: he has 106 caps (3rd all-time) and was a starter for more than 10 years and in 5 big tournaments (2000, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010). In 2010 he was our captain and he scored a briljant and crucial goal in the semi-final. The only problem is who to replace. The best options I guess are van der Hart or Stam. Van der Hart was the better defender but Stam played perhaps a more important role in WC/EC level. I'm not sure wich one to pick so what are your opinions?

Finaly: I don't think Moulijn should be in the first 23, he is perhaps our best winger ever but I think that Rep or Overmars played a more crucial for the national team. Even the national coaches of that time doubted his importance for the team. Moulijn played 38 matches and scored 4 goals. Rep played 42 matches with 12 goals, was part of perhaps our best attack ever with Cruijff and Rensenbrink, furthermore he played an important role in the 74 and 78 teams that reached the WC final and is still our leading scorer on world cup level with 7 goals. Overmars played 86 matches (and he was injured a lot during his career) and scored 17 goals. He had an important role in the 1998 and 2000 teams. My personal pick would be Rep though.

I agree with you about Rep for Moulijn but tbh I wouldn't swap Rijvers with Sneijder. Sneijder may have played an important role at WC 2010 & EC 2008 but Rijvers simply had not the chance to show his class at a WC mostly because the stupid KNVB didn't nominate him from 1951 to 1955 (although Rijvers was at his prime there). If KNVB would have allowed professional players earlier the Dutch team would have surely played a bigger role at World Cups during the 1950's (with Rijvers, Wilkes, etc). IMO Rijvers was way better than Sneijder and deserves a place here but this is just my opinion
Btw, I'd also keep Van der Hart in the team as he's probably the best Dutch CB ever..

I agree with you about those players being better players but the players I mentioned contributed a lot more to the national team. For instance: van Beveren is still considered the best Dutch goalkeeper in history (at least in the Netherlands, I don't know about the other country's). Better than both van der Sar and van Breukelen in nearly every aspect but he hasn't contributed that much to the national team (mostly because of injuries and a fight against Cruijff, wich is stupid because you can't win any fights against Cruijff) and therefor van der Sar and van Breukelen should be in the team.

Really van Beveren? Here in Germany mostly van Breukelen is considered to be the best Dutch GK ever (of course he also belongs to the most hated Dutch players, alongside the "Lama", Van Basten and Ronald Koeman ). But regarding the discussion Sneijder vs Rijvers, Stam/Van der Hart vs Van Bronkhorst I'd like to hear the opinions from the other members. As Charruan is now absent for more than three months I don't think there will be a change in the topic but we can at least discuss about it

I'm very surprised not seeing Rep in first team, I think he should be in.
About the GK's question, well.. italian football fans know at most van Breukelen, van der Sar, Jongbloed and de Goey only history football fans know van Beveren the same for other dutch legends like Lenstra, Moulijn, van der Hart, Denis and Rijvers.
Sneijder IMHO doesn't deserve to stay in first team, he is too discontinuos, if he will do excellent perfomances also this summer I think he could deserve a place in the team.

Here is a short video with van Beveren. I will post a little more tomorrow.



About van der Hart/Stam vs van Bronckhorst is also because the team has only 2 SB's but 5 CB's

I agree about Rep, he was a goalscorer in both 1974 and 1978 WC's.

Last weeks there was a program on Dutch TV called: Het beste Nederlands elftal aller tijden. In this show they tried to create the best Dutch team ever. It was based on internet votes so the results itself were crap (mostly recent players over old players, for instance Frank de Boer over Koeman, van Bronckhorst over Krol and Bergkamp over Gullit so I don't take it seriously). But during this show a dozen of Dutch experts shared their opinions on different players and that made it intresting. Some of them were people that had seen players as Wilkes and Rijvers live. They all said unanimously that van Beveren was not only better but superior to van der Sar (and van Breukelen) in every single aspect of the game except the kicking part. They claim that he was even one of the best keepers in football history.

Some suggestions:
- Nigel de Jong can be added to the reserves.
- as mentioned before: Moulijn should be replaced with Rep
- Not sure what to do with Sneijder, Robben and van Persie. Not sure about adding van Persie to the first team because he might be our all-time top scorer but he mostly scores to the smaller teams (the only exception is Spain during this WC) so perhaps he should stay in reserves. Maybe Robben can replace Kluivert? Sneijder I don't know: he played over 100 matches, was the best player in the 2010 second place and he is the Dutch player with the most matches in World Cups (17). Based on this he deserves to be in it but I have no clue who to remove. Maybe a defender and move Rijkaard to the defenders but then again I also don't know what defender to remove. What do the others think?

Van Persie usually disappears in difficult matches I don't think he deserves the first team.

That was my thought aswell

Robben could be... But Van Persie no, and about Sneijder I don't know, he is irregular player but we have to remember he was the best player in Netherlands in 2010, when Netherlands played very well (during the tourneament less the final, in the final Netherlands only kicked spanish players )

About who should replace who... I haven't idea, I can't take off players from the first team, the logical change for me is Rensenbrink for Robben but I'm not sure yet because I don't know very well Lenstra to say who should be replaced by Robben. (one of these two player in my opinion, but I don't know who...)

Rensenbrink? You really want to take out the best Dutch winger of all time and the best Dutch player in 1978 WC (who nearly scored the winning goal in the last minutes of the final but the post was in his way)? You can take out Lenstra, Moulijn, Kluivert or Rijvers but removing Rensenbrink is just laughable. We should rather put Rensenbrink in first team instead of Bergkamp while Robben could enter the squad instead of Kluivert..

Thats why I didn't tell anything... Lot of players who could be considered as legends of Netherlands... And I think Robben should be there, but instead of who? I told wingers because It should be the natural change, of course Robben could be there instead of Kluivert, Lenstra, Moulijn... But I'm telling the "natural" change, winger instead of winger... That change in the team is something that we should think before doing anything, because for me Robben can be there instead of all strikers in first team (except Van Basten and Rensenbrink, and maybe Bergkamp but I have weakness for this player so... , but as I told, I meant wingers...) And well, I didn't tell anything about Lenstra because I don't know too much this player and I don't know how important was he for Netherlands right now...

Sometimes my not perfect English leaves misunderstandings like this, my apologizes