Orange call up for Krul.

Congratulations are in order for Tim Krul as he has been called up to the senior Netherlands squad for the first time in his career.

The 23-year-old is included for The Netherlands post-season trip to South America which will see them play Brazil on June 4th followed by a trip to Uruguay three days later. The call up is the next natural step for Krul and hopefully he will get the chance to impress whilst he is on duty with his national team.

It's easy to see that the lad has potential. It was evident early on when he made his debut against Palermo and kept us in the match. He made a few more impressive cameo appearances aswell, such as at West Brom on the opening day of last season when he came on for Steve Harper.

However I had started to doubt his credentials earlier on in the season when he came in once again for Steve Harper. He didn't do a lot wrong in all honesty, but he just looked a bit unsure and his kicking was a bit ropey. Nothing major, but certainly not the kind pf performances you'd expect from a player who is supposed to be the next great Dutch goalkeeper.

Low and behold I've changed my mind again on the lad. He lost his place to Steve Harper, which I was slightly pleased about in all honesty, but a further injury to Harper has give Krul another chance in goal, and this time around he looks like the kind of 'keeper we saw at Palermo and West Brom moons ago. He looks confident, assured, and seems to have sorted his kicking out. He can command his area and seems to have the confidence of the defence who constantly seem to deflect balls past him that ordinarily Krul would have got to.

Hopefully this international call up will give Krul the confidence to kick on claim the No1 spot for next season. He's up against Steve Harper and Fraser Forster in the battle to be number one next term and at the moment, based purely on nothing else but my opinion, Krul is leading the pack on that front.

So congratulations Timmy. Hopefully you'll get some time on the pitch and come back to us next season as a full international.

You see Jose, you CAN break into your national team with Newcastle United! :razz: