Advertisement
Hiddink is in his second spell with the Dutch national team.
Past it

'Old fashioned' Dutch boss Hiddink is finished, says de Boer after Iceland defeat

The former Ajax and Barcelona midfielder feels that the veteran was the wrong choice to be Louis van Gaal’s successor and his methods are too dated.

NETHERLANDS LEGEND RONALD de Boer has claimed that coach Guus Hiddink is “done” after Oranje slipped to a 2-0 defeat to Iceland.

Two goals from Gylfi Sigurdsson were enough to give the minnows a shock victory over the World Cup semi-finalists, who have now lost three of their four games under the 67-year-old.

And De Boer, who represented his country at two World Cups and two European Championships, feels that Ronald Koeman should have replaced Louis van Gaal after the World Cup.

“I think Guus Hiddink doesn’t really have a game plan in my eyes,” he said as a pundit on Sky Sports.

“He doesn’t show the guys ‘this is the way we want to go’. I want to see, for example, running midfielders supporting Van Persie. I don’t see any of this.

“There’s plenty of games to play and change it around. But the pressure will be enormous now for Guus because there was criticism for his nomination beforehand.

Koeman was ready to take over, he was really outspoken, he really wanted to take the job. With all due respect for Hiddink, he’s 67 years old, I think he’s done, in my eyes.

“Of course he has a great record. His ideas now are old fashioned. With Koeman he showed with Feyenoord he can really shape [a team] and also he knows the mentality of those young boys, Guus is more of a people manager with an arm around them. But those guys need guidance.”

De Boer also pointed out that many major national teams have been struggling in Euro 2016 qualification, citing Germany’s loss to Poland as an example.

“You see Germany also struggling. When you have a good World Cup everyone expects you to walk over these kind of games but that’s not the case.

“I’ve always said if you’re five per cent less in giving everything then the gap is almost away. Normally when you give everything you’re just a better team and you’ll make the difference.

“But if you give five per cent, or even three percent, you’ll struggle. And I think that’s what’s happening with this team.”

Neymar did more damage to Japan today than Godzilla did in that whole movie

Suarez is ready for El Clasico, insists Iniesta

Your Voice
Readers Comments
7
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.