Little Vurn gets call up

It may have gone unoticed but Blind announced his Dutch squad on Friday and little Vurn got his first call up since joining NUFC.
I'm pleased for the lad as he has always going about his business quietly on and off the pitch and does't rattle any cages.

goalkeepers:Tim Krul (Newcastle United), Jasper Cillessen (Ajax), Jeroen Zoet (PSV), Kenneth Vermeer (Feyenoord)

Defenders Daley Blind (Manchester United), Jeffrey Bruma (PSV), Virgil van Dijk (Celtic), Terence Kongolo (Feyenoord), Bruno Martins Indi (FC Porto), Jairo Riedewald (Ajax), Kenny Tete (Ajax), Joel Veltman (Ajax), Paul Verhaegh (FC Augsburg), Stefan de Vrij (Lazio), Gregory van der Wiel (Paris St Germain)

Midfielders: Ibrahim Afellay (Stoke City), Vurnon Anita (Newcastle United), Marco van Ginkel (Stoke City), Nigel de Jong (AC Milan), Davy Klaassen (Ajax), Wesley Sneijder (Galatasaray), Georginio Wijnaldum (Newcastle United)

Forwards: Memphis Depay (Manchester United), Bas Dost (VfL Wolfsburg), Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Schalke 04), Luuk de Jong (PSV), Jeremain Lens (Sunderland), Luciano Narsingh (PSV), Robin van Persie (Fenerbahçe) , Quincy Promes (Spartak Moscow), Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)

 

No room for Janmaat? Interesting...

 

He's hardly warranting a start for us at the moment, let alone the Netherlands.

 

Think he was left out the last couple of squads too if I'm not mistaken.

 

I'm pleased for him. I think Steve's style will be much more suited to playing him. Up until now I think he has suffered a bit with others not on the same page. He looks like he has been coached properly to pass and immediately look for the space to move into. Doesn't help much when the rest of your team mates pass and stand still like a statue. Looked decent so far this season.

 

who is this Luuk de Jong person, and when did he learn how to play football ?

 

He probably knew how to play football when he was with us but he was playing with a team devoid of any creativity whatsoever

 

Exactly and he was being played rw

Plus pardew played him in the wrong position

 

Good on him. Steve obviously has him playing a completly different game and it's showing with 3 very tidy performances

 

And managed by you know who.

 

Surprised to be honest, he hasn't exactly been pulling up trees.

 

If he did know how he certainly concealed it effectively

 

I think his chronic lack of pace was perhaps a hinderance

 

The same guy who got Demba Ba flying

 

De Jong would score goals in the PL. He was played out of position by the now Crystal Palace 'manager.'
Of course, the latter has been responsible for single handedly wrecking the confidence of several players, but lets not go there. He's currently doing what he does best - Starts off well at a new club before he's really had a chance to impart his system.

 

So how long does Pardew need to continue to be successful before you will accept it as evidence of decent managerial ability ?

 

Lets see what he does at the end of this season/ next. If he consistently keeps Palace as a top 10/12 side then okay. If however, Palace finish near the bottom or get relegated then hopefully this argument can be put to bed. I suspect it will be the latter, following on from his managerial career in general. A trend of one good first full season followed by absolute rubbish.

Lets not beat around the bush - He has a very talented Palace side. Not one that he built by the way. He has inherited some very good players. Anything less than mid-table with that bunch of players means that he's bang on average.

 

Not sure about this. While he does have good players and obviously brining in Cabs is a great piece of business for Palace, this is a team that we all predicted we would easily finish above last season. Are we saying since the start of last season that Palace's squad has strengthened in quality that much? And if the answer to that is yes, does Pardew not deserve some of the credit in bringing that about since he took over?

 

Forever and ever amen. I love the cherry picking - he is to blame for De Jong, but Demba Ba must be a fluke. He killed Vurn but had nothing to do with Cabaye's success. Some players thrive under certain managers, some players thrive in certain leagues, some thrive in certain systems, some thrive when surrounded by better players.

Maybe just maybe De Jong wasn't exactly fully fit when we got him and found the league a bit of challenge in his half cocked state. Just maybe though...

 

Did Cabaye and Ba experience huge upturns in form when they arrived at SJP? As far as I can see, Ba was a prolific goalscorer at Hoffenheim and had a similar record at West Ham before he came here. Pardew then recruited Cisse and put Ba's nose out of joint putting him on the left of a front 3. Cabaye was proven at Lille before he came here. All that's remarkable is that Pardew didn't manage to ruin either of them before they moved on.

De Jong is a different matter. I don't think he was cut out for the Premier League in the slightest. Pleased he's got off to a good start at his new club but he really didn't look like being any good when he arrived. I'm not pinning that on Pardew, more on whoever was responsible for bringing him in.

My main criticism of Pardew was that he ran out of ideas, and persisted with brain-dead ideas that never, ever worked, and made predictable and lazy substitutions. Corner kicks, both defending and attacking, were woeful for the longest time. Setting up defensively to hold on to 2-1 defeats. The list goes on.