Devilish Dutch dilemma
The Beatles or the Stones? Los Angeles or New York? Manchester City or Manchester United? A perfect example of questions I can decide on in a split second. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar or Robin van Persie? Give me a minute. Never mind, you won’t get my answer before the European Championship.
For a few months now, Holland has been under the spell of that last dilemma. Coach Bert van Marwijk made a joke about it earlier, asking if there were already political debates about it. To be honest I can’t answer it. It’s a real ‘Bert’s Choice’. Imagine Huntelaar as a striker. Top scorer in the German Bundesliga and maybe the more complete striker. Sounds great and he’ll probably do more than well. But now imagine the Dutch bench. Robin van Persie, the velvet attacker. Robin van Persie, the magical Gunner. Robin van Persie, biting his nails on a bench in Charkov.
To make it a little easier we have to go back to last season and Arsenal. Everybody would agree with me that ‘skipper’ Van Persie saved the season for the Gunners. But those beautiful goals were also created because of the sublime passes from Alexandre Song. Holland hasn’t got a Song, but they do have Wesley Sneijder. Sneijder would never waste an opportunity to shoot. So it just doesn’t work out for Van Persie with those kind of attacking midfielders at his back.
I think the question is not who the striker would be, but where you leave Van Persie if you put Huntelaar in the front position. On the left? Arjen Robben. On the right? Ibrahim Afellay. In the middle? Wesley Sneijder. Good luck, Bert.
I decided to ask my followers on Twitter and was surprised by the responses. What I saw was not even close to an ultimatum. It was unanimous: Huntelaar. There were even people writing it down in Caps Lock. They were literally screaming for The Hunter. I could see them sitting behind their computers. Yelling at me.
While my ‘interactions’ on Twitter kept on going, with the Huntelaar-supporters getting more and more aggressive, I realised they were right. In a certain way. Huntelaar, number nine, should be the striker indeed. Just like Van Persie.
Krul (Yes, correctly, that’s Krul.)
Van der Wiel – Boulahrouz – Heitinga - Schaars
Van Bommel
Robben, Sneijder, Afellay
Huntelaar – Van Persie
Go get them, Lions.
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