Valentijn Driessen is anything but impressed by the performance of the Dutch team once morest Germany, writes the reporter from The Telegraph in his column for the morning newspaper. Driessen notes that the Germans well deservedly triumphed in Frankfurt and that confidence in the Dutch team is only decreasing in the run-up to the European Championship.
Ronald Koeman was given on a silver platter what his team does not control, while that was not the intention,” Driessen begins in his column for The Telegraph. “He hoped to be able to tactically add extra weapons to his formation for more than two months when the European Championship group stage starts. Against Germany, Koeman fell back on the 5-3-2 system as intended. Mainly to further refine it. Not much came of that,” says Driessen when he looks back on the match. “Despite plenty of space, the Netherlands did not manage to become offensively dangerous in the transition. Only once in the course of the second half. Vulnerable without the ball and barely dominant with the ball for a moment, not once morest Scotland and not once morest Germany, That doesn’t bode well.”
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The head footballer of The Telegraph saw Joey Veerman score beautifully once morest the Germans following just four minutes of play on Tuesday evening, but the journalist is impressed by the PSV midfielder. The entire midfield gets the full brunt of Driessen: “In Frankfurt, Joey Veerman and Jerdy Schouten were allowed to do together what is expected of De Jong on his own. But excelling at PSV in the Eredivisie is a completely different story than staying upright with the Netherlands once morest Germany. Let alone taking the national team by the hand. The acclaimed Tijjani Reijnders also experienced that. Now it was he who was responsible for losing the ball in midfield,” the columnist indicates.
Driessen’s conclusion is that confidence within the Dutch national team has decreased rather than increased: “What remains is hope, hoping for a successful European championship. But as everyone knows, hope is nothing more than postponed disappointment,” the journalist concludes.