Euro 2012: Van Tiggelen blasts Van Persie

Former Holland defender Adri van Tiggelen has encouraged Oranje boss Bert van Marwijk to include Klaas-Jan Huntelaar in the starting XI for the next two group stage matches.

The inclusion of  Huntelaar would inevitably relegate Arsenal talisman Robin van Persie, who did little to nothing against Denmark in Holland’s first match of Euro 2012, to the bench.

“I guess it is about time that Klaas-Jan Huntelaar starts up front, I am kind of fed up with Robin van Persie,” he told NUSport.

“It is a fact he did an amazing job at Arsenal this season, but his performances have been heavily disappointing in the Netherlands national team.

“Besides, we have two defensive midfielders who are hardly involved in attack. If Denmark benefited from that, Germany and Portugal will definitely do it as well.”

To be fair to Van Persie, Huntelaar had a golden chance to level the scoring for the Dutch, but the chance went begging after the referee ruled that the goalkeeper was fouled.

I think Van Tiggelen comments are a bit harsh, but understandable when looking at Van Persie’s 2011-12 form with Arsenal.

You’d always fancy Robin van Persie getting his name on the score-sheet, especially when given the amount of chances he had against Denmark.

I give all the credit to the Danes, who constantly forced RVP onto his weaker right foot.

Denmark was brilliant, Holland was not. Sometimes it’s just that simple.

With that said, star winger Arjen Robben was just as poor as Van Persie.

The Bayern Munich standout became notorious for smacking the ball into the stands against Denmark.

In case your wondering, you don’t get any points for doing that.

Now then, the only positive takeaway for the Dutch was the play of Wesley Sneijder.

But that pro was turned into a con when Sneijder revealed that he picked up a knee injury in Holland’s first match of the group stage.

“I have some trouble at the back of my knee,” Sneijder told Telegraaf.

Can it get any worse for Holland? Surely not.

All things considered, Holland can still qualify for the knock stages, but they’ll need to get a result against Germany, and preferably three points.

However, I don’t see that happening. Portugal played very well against Germany, and failed to get a proper result. On the other hand, Holland looked ordinary against the Danes, who looked like they had goals in them throughout the match.

Expect a rampant Germany when these two teams meet, with Jogi Löw getting the better of Bert van Marwijk.