#4 Too much too soon for young players
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If Holland fails to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, it will be the first time they will be missing from successive major competitions since 1982-1984, but things were different at that point of time. They had a few youngsters coming through the ranks with the likes of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard all making the 1986 World Cup squad.
Back then they had a future to look forward to with the trio of Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard all developing very well at Ajax and PSV and on the verge of making historic moves to AC Milan.
That was then, this is now, and what happened back in 1986/87 seems to be worlds away from what’s going on at the moment. 17-year-old Matthijs de Ligt had made his national debut after only seven Eredivisie games for Ajax this season. He may become an immense talent in the future, however, he had been fast tracked to the first team of the national squad because they simply had no one else.
The Dutch are throwing in these young players with the hope that one of them will be the next big star and bail them out of trouble. Don’t be surprised if, in the not too distant future, Justin Kluivert gets a call up simply because he scored a goal and is the son of former Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert.
