Sometimes it’s hard to hide behind the bitter truth. Ronald Koeman probably made quite a few mistakes during this Euro, but one quality about him deserves appreciation: he speaks honestly. At the end of the 3:2 loss to Austria, the coach of the Dutch national team admitted to the cameras: “The only good thing that came out of the game is that we are alive. We were not aggressive enough, the players did not communicate with each other and sometimes we ran like headless chickens to the wrong places. If you play like that, you can’t succeed.”
With only 4 points and barely third place, the Netherlands is indeed in the next stage, but realizes that so far they are showing football that is not even enough for the quarter-finals, even if the next opponent in front of them is modest Romania. So far the orange shirt looks heavy on the body of several players and there is a huge gap between the color and quality brought by the Dutch crowd, who flooded the streets of Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig in the last two weeks, and their idols on the grass who do not deliver the goods, and mainly benefited from the favor of the system to be in the round of 16.
Before the tournament there was one big question mark regarding the connection of the Dutch team. As you remember, Frankie de Jong, who was injured in the Clasico in April, was removed from the squad at the last minute due to injury, as was Ton Koepmeiners who gave a great season in Atalanta. Without those two, Holland’s link is both inexperienced and not strong enough to lead Holland to success, at least from what we’ve seen so far. When you look at the Spanish, German, French, English or Portuguese link, there is nothing to compare at all. Holland is very far from the world top.
Time to wake up, Memphis and the friends (getty) Yordi Firman, Tiani Reynders and Jordi Sahouten recorded less than 30 joint appearances on the eve of the tournament and only in the last two preparatory games did they play side by side. Firman was a disaster and was replaced against Austria in the 33rd minute after losing 13 balls out of 29 and went down almost bitterly crying to the bench. When the almost only alternative is Georginio Wijnaldum, who is far beyond his peak, and when Xavi Simmons sometimes functions as one of the attacking trio, Holland’s link is uncreative, powerful or accurate.
One of Holland’s main failings is in its pressing game, which has so far seemed uncoordinated and too airy, which allowed Poland to catch it off guard at the start of the first game in Hamburg, for France to move the ball without interruption for an entire half and for Austria to hit it time after time without mercy. A problem arose from the fact that on the one hand Holland does not have much possession of the ball (only 51 percent of the time) and on the other hand allows the other team to get into quality situations in front of them.
The numbers show that the Orange won only 3.3 balls in the last third of the opponent on average per 90 minutes, with only Georgia earning fewer such balls in the entire group stage. The Netherlands also allow 14.1 opponent passes until they win the ball back and rank somewhere in the middle of the table. Germany, on the other hand, wins the ball after 8.8 passes from the opponent. The Netherlands allowed their opponents to kick 5 times into their frame in each game, and there are only 4 opponents who allowed more kicks: Albania, Scotland, Poland and Georgia. The conclusion is clear: if your team does not press to win the ball, or the pressure is not effective, you are exposed to trouble at the back.
Firman, a shocking game against Austria (getty) beyond tactics, there is a leadership question in the team. Memphis Depay told a press conference this week that when he started his career in the national team there were 5-6 senior-veteran players and the rest filled their mouths with water. Today there is no hierarchy and every player has an opinion. We are in favor of democracy, of course, but it seems that this may also be one of the team’s problems. This Holland, devoid of Frankie de Jong, or other charismatic figures, is a bit lost. It has players with attacking talent and others with defensive experience, but it currently lacks a unifying figure.
Virgil van Dijk, who is supposed to lead this team in light of his impressive resume in Liverpool, has become a kind of scapegoat. Both in his performance on the field, his ability to lead the players in moments of crisis on the grass, and up to his statements in the media. Recently he had to defend after former players such as Marco van Basten and Raphael van der Vaart came down hard on him and not for the first time in his international career. “Virgil needs to take leadership and show responsibility. I’m sorry to repeat these things, but it doesn’t seem like he’s learning from the criticism,” Van Basten claimed after the loss to Austria. “He plays the way he talks. I would expect more passion from the captain of my team,” Van der Vaart added.
Despite all the problems mentioned above, the Netherlands are still here and quite strangely enjoying finishing third. It can only meet one team that has reached the final of a major tournament (England) in the past until the final match. That is, she is on the favorable side of the lottery. Beyond that, she can be encouraged by the good form of Cody Gakpo, who continues to deliver the goods in the attack for the second major tournament, as well as her goalkeeper, Bret Verbruchen, who in the meantime is proving to be the right choice for Koeman, even before we reach the penalty shootout, where he should excel. Holland got a second and a third chance and now they must make amends to continue their journey.