Tag: Hungary

Decent win Oranje, still headaches for Koeman

While the Ajax legends would dazzle in the Johan Cruyff Arena on Sunday evening, it was the legends-to-be playing Hungary in the Arena on Saturday. More on the Ajax – Real Madrid game later.

Expectations were high: Frenkie was back and we would be able to qualify for the final round in the NAtions League, if we would win. But… Hungary would take our place, if they would win it!

Where is the box?

Koeman made some wholesale changes. The tactical solution with “the box” in midfield was abandoned. Koeman’s favorite tactics work well against strong opponents, but when the other team parks the bus with low blocks, making sure the centre of the pitch is full, it might not be the best solution.

No box in midfield. Playing a 2-5-3 system it seems…

Players like Xavi Simons, Calvin Stengs or Steven Berghuis as right wingers will always come inside and join midfield, making it harder to play through the opponent. With a proper 4-3-3 and keeping the width, Oranje expected to have more attacking joy and for this reason Koeman also picked his target man in Weghorst, who would be serviced with crosses into the box (or so was the plan from the outset.

Koeman also surprised with Van Hecke as the central defending partner for Virgil van Dijk, as the Brighton man impresses regularly with his vertical passing and dribbles into midfield. Koeman clearly expected a defending Hungary, waiting for a counter opportunity.

Constant man-more situatio, with Reijnders and Gakpo completely open.

Once can imagine Koeman’s (and our) horror in the first 15 seconds when an opportunistic Hungary got some lucky touches and was able to get a player through on goal, one v one versus Verbruggen. The Brighton goalie was able to block the attempt and the ref stopped the game for off-side, but it was an early warning!

Hungary CHANCES?

Was Hungary playing all attack? Did we prepare for the wrong game?

We were off to a shaky start, as the coordination between Timber as left back and Van Dijk was wanting at times, while Van Hecke had a nervous beginning with some sloppy touches. Koeman must have implored his lads to make sure we start well. “Not starting well” is an ongoing theme for Koeman and his teams. And again, we look off the pace and in need of some quick fixes.

Four Hungarians versus two defenders…. oops!

And this rest-defence topic would stick to the team for the whole game. Yes, we scored four and kept a clean sheet, but Hungary could have scored three goals on the break themselves if their final ball was a bit better. Still a lot to improve for Koeman.

Here we go, two versus one here

Having said that, that midfield does swing. Gravenberch and Frenkie together is very nice on the eyes. I also thought Malen and Dumfries worked really well on the right ( Dumfries with a goal and an assist, well done!). The switch from side to side worked well and Van Hecke got himself into the game well, with his passing and dribbles.

Second half, we played them like a Boa Constrictor would, sucking the oxygen out of them but still they found too many changes to break through of defence. At one time they got flagged for off side which in my view was level.

Work to be done!

Still work to be done for Koeman, but I think he will not use this midfield trio in the next round, when we play Portugal, Spain or France. I do assume it’s back to the midfield box then, with a Schouten to shield our backline. When Dumfries or Frimpong are in the team, they can definitely take that right flank and a more controlling midfielder can sniff out the danger in time to protect us.

There was a medical incident in the first half, which will have had an impact on the Hungarians: their assistant coach Adam Szalai got unwell and lost consciousness and panic broke out on the sidelines. Obviously, the ref stopped the match and it took the medics 15 minutes or so to deal with the situation. When the poor chap was back on planet Earth and on his way to the hospital, the match resumed with a penalty, as a Hungarian defender had just handled the ball.

So the double punch of the assistant coach potentially in life threatening situation and a goal conceded right after will have had impact on the Magyars. Weghorst scored and decided to celebrate his lion claw celebration which was frowned upon on social media, by people believing he should not have done that.

I personally think it’s a bit over the top. The Hungarians decided to play on and then it’s just another match again and of course you can celebrate your goal! Is my view. As if celebrating more modestly would help the guy more in his rehab?

It was great to see Frenkie again, considering he has hardly played after being out for so long, he did amazingly well and would be my Man of the Match ( the media picked Denzel). You can see he is still a bit rusty, but what a joy to have Gravenberch and Frenkie in that engine room.

I secretly wonder if the NT coach will consider player Frenkie as left centre back once Virgil retires, allowing for a midfield with Gravenberch, Schouten and Reijnders, while Frenkie can play out from the back like Baresi/Scirea/DannyBlind/Beckenbauer used to do… Put Van der Ven in as left back as he can cover for Frenkie with his speed.

But that is for later….

Bosnia Line-up?

The Tuesday match versus Bosnia will not be very relevant for the competition so I hope we’ll see some interesting changes.

I would play Frenkie again, for a half, so he can build up his rhythm a bit more, but otherwise I would go for:

Playful Oranje wins first two games…

And sets a record too. Ten World Cup qualifications games won, in a row. That record belongs to Bert and Louis of course :-). But this has never been done before by Holland.

And the youthful Oranje learns fast from the old master LVG. Three days after Turkey, Holland plays an even better game (against a weaker opponent…granted…) and scores 4 away goals.

Jeremain Lens scores twice and has one assist as he had to replace Arjen Robben who got a groin response in the warming up. Van Gaal: “I won’t take any chances with players’ fitness. Robben is too important and as we’ve seen, his replacements can do well too. Heitinga had cramp in the Turkey came and I didn’t want to risk an injury for him in this game. Besides, Vlaar is an inch taller, so that helped too against the headstrong Hungarians.”

In the stadium where Bert van Marwijk’s Oranje played great games, the new Oranje started to show itself in full form. It might not have been a flashy game like the Hungary 0-4 game in 2011 but this Oranje did very well.

Lens was able to score his first 3 minutes into the game on a perfect cross by team mate Narsingh. Hungary could equalise after a couple minutes, when Clasie allowed Gera the chance to dive over his leg. Dszudszak didn’t fail but it was Feyenoord defender Martins Indi who headed Oranje back on course on a perfect Sneijder cross. Holland didn’t make that many mistakes this time around, although Clasie was lucky that he wasn’t penalised with a second yellow and second penalty when he handled the ball just before the break.

Oranje defended calmly and had some attractive attacking plays over the wings. It never panicked, even when leader of the pack RVP decided his thigh muscle needed a rest. The hungry Huntelaar would take his place and after Lens’ second goal, the Hunter scored his goal, taking him closer to the record top scorer, assistant coach Pat Kluivert. Huntelaar is now on par with Cruyff and Lenstra.

Skipper Sneijder was pleased but also critical. “Our first half was not great. Our ball circulation was too slow. But in the second half, we improved and played well. Every lose ball was ours, we had speed on the wings and we controlled the game. We also demonstrated that every one wants to work. Everyone is keen to close the gaps. Than football is relatively easy and fun. This makes we are always tight and close and there are several options.”

And truth be told, even Robin van Persie, super striker, was working and challenging where he could.

Bruno Martins Indi was replaced by team mate Joris Mathijsen, as a result of injury as well, while Adam Maher came late to replace Kevin Strootman, who still played a good game, but was less deciding this time around compared to the Turkey game. Strootman was kneed in the back.

Van Gaal: “We got six points, but lost a couple of players: Krul and Fer first. Now Robin, Bruno, Kevin and Arjen Robben…”

Louis van Gaal is a contrarian. Whenever the media are ready to criticise, he defends his team. Whenever euphoria comes up, Louis will criticise his team :-).

“Listen, a 1-4 against Hungary is quite a good result, in Europe. I think we have made a statement these last four days. But… I am not satisfied. Hungary was in disarray in the second half and we didn’t respond good enough. We could and should have scored a couple more. We didn’t take all our chances against Turkey, and this made me sit nervously on that bench. But this time around, we were sloppy with our opportunities again.”

LVG was pleased with Clasie’s performance. “He played well. He did much better than against Turkey. The only criticism I have, is that at times he was too slow to push up for the lose ball. That is part of his job. To be alert and always be in time. That is the objective. And he didn’t manage to do this always. But the whole team deserves a compliment. This team has hardly played together and most are pretty young.”

Van Gaal likes to compliment himself too. “And I am allowed to say my subs were ok? I replaced Robben, had to replace Robben, and Lens didn’t disappoint did he? Huntelaar came in and scored too. And Mathijsen had to come on without a warming up and played strong too.”

When the reporter said to Van Gaal, that despite Van Gaal’s decisions it was actually Lens that scored, not Van Gaal, the coach became prickly. “If I am not allowed to say I coached well today, I will shut up.”

But he finished positively. “This shows that the Eredivisie is actually a strong league. We have technically and tactically strong players. We shouldn’t have allowed that penalty though… but we have good young talents and very good internationally experienced players. Good mix.”