Tag: Luuk de Jong

by Jan

Van Nistelrooy’s PSV

PSV has been doing great business this summer. Roger Schmidt’s project wasn’t what was hoped for and as he’s turning heads in Portugal, club legend Ruud van Nistelrooy reluctantly took the reins and is making headlines with his TD John de Jong and new MD Marcel Brands.

Sangarue and Gakpo still wear the PSV colours, Luuk de Jong is back. Guus Til will bring depth and goals, while the goalie issues seems sorted now with Benitez between the sticks.

Conceding Less Goals

This was one of the missions for the summer. Joel Drommel, albeit talented, wasn’t the man for the job (yet). A tad nervous, uncertain and lacking courage with high balls. They found the ideal shot stopper in France. Argentine Walter Benitez was statistically the best goalie in France and his mission is to play CL football and get into the Argentina squad.

PSV has a list of players that left Holland at a young age, only to return to PSV to get games in their pocket and as a result an invite for Oranje. Ki-Jana Hoever wants to do what Donnyel Malen, Jeffrey Bruma and Karim Rekik did before him. The youngest ever Liverpool player in the FA Cup will focus on the right full back spot. The season’s preparation demonstrated his comfort on the ball and his smarts in the build up. His weaknesses? Typically, his defensive abilities, but Ruud van Nistelrooy was quite happy with how Hoever developed in this short time at PSV.

Youth Sensation

Xavi Simons is a brand and a youth sensation. With his blonde, curly hair he became an icon as a kid for Barca and he slowly moved to the big boys’ matches via Paris SG. He realised that he would have a hard time playing week in week out in Paris, so he decided on a loan spell to PSV. The talks between him and the club were such that he actually decided to leave PSG and sign with PSV all the way. Simons wants to get the same status in men’s football as he had in youth football. He’s got all the tricks and never loses sight of the space when in confined spaces. Xavi has superior technique and an eye for the through ball. The only question is: how well is he equipped physically, to play 90 minutes at high intensity, 2 matches per week?

Guaranteed goals

No other active Eredivisie player scored more goals in the Eredivisie than Luuk de Jong. 135 goals. And as they saw in Sevilla and Barcelona, Luuk will score when the service is right. The new PSV skipper also has a tremendous role model function in the squad as everyone who knows him praises him for his professional approach. Another guaranteed goal scorer is Feyenoord’s topscorer from last season, Guus Til. Feyenoord couldn’t make a move as they needed to sell players first. Til didn’t want to wait and signed for four years in Eindhoven, where he hopes to play CL football. The midfielder is not the gifted technician but due to his work rate, depth and tactical discipline, every coach in football loves working with him.

New names

With the signing of Jarrad Branthwaite, PSV has another defensive option. Due to injuries, Van the Man needed more and Marcel Brands lured this tall defender away from Everton, where he signed him previously. Savinho is a player the fans will enjoy more than the tall English centre back. The Brazilian super talent is part of the City Group and asked for a loan spell at PSV. The Eindhoven club still have magic in its name in Brazil, thanks to the stints of Romario, Ronaldo and Alex, among others at the club. Savinho is an Antony like left footed right winger, who will benefit from the long term ankle injury of Madueke.

Tactics

Van Nistelrooy is no Schmidt. Where the German relied on compact organisations and turn-over moments, the former Man U striker is a believer of the Dutch School: possession, pass and move, forward press and attractive and attacking football. PSV will move closer to Ajax and Feyenoord in that way. Ruud used the 4-1-4-1 system a lot at Young PSV and seems to want to play like this with his current squad as well. With the extension of Gutierez, Sangare still on board, Joey Veerman, Guus Til and Xavi Simons, Van has quite some good midfield options to go to. In the pre-season, Van Nistelrooy used Sangare as lone defensive mid and has also played with Veerman next to Sangare and Til as shadow striker. “I like to be able to vary, to keep the opponent on their toes.” In Schmidt’s system, the team would overcrowd the ball and all players would move towards the ball, in order to take possession and quickly break out. In Van’s world, he will keep the players in position as much as possible. This will diminish the risk of not being able to win the ball and having opened up the pitch. Another benefit is, that it doesn’t require the intensity Schmidt demanded. In Schmidt’s system, the wingers played as midfielders and were coming into the space or squeezing inside. In Ruud’s system, the wingers are used as final station in the build up, before the killer pass arrives in the box.

Ruud wants to see one defender more than opposing attackers, at the back. This is usually the central defensive midfielder, as the full backs are needed higher to play triangles with the midfielders and the wingers. Luuk de Jong wants service from the wings and Gakpo and Savinho or Madueke are capable to take on opponents and bring the ball into the danger area.

This season will be really interesting, between PSV and Ajax. I can see Ajax focusing more and more on the CL win, while PSV just wants that title again!

by Jan

Focus on Oranje

After a string of disappointing finals (for the Dutch), we can now safely leave the competitions behind us and focus on the Oranje Nations League campaign.

Disappointing how so little of the Dutchies found glory, this final stage in the season. Gio didn’t make it with Rangers, Feyenoord wasn’t themselves in the Conference League finals (but Rick Karsdorp got his first big trophy) and Virgil missed out on his second CL trophy. Asensio is carrying that torch for us now, being half Dutch.

In the background, Van Gaal is stirring up matters again, with his left of centre selections for the Oranje Nations League matches.

There were some positive and some negative surprises.

On the positive, the selection of Karsdorp made all the sense in the world and he could not longer be ignored. Sadly for all, he got injured (groin) in the Conference League finals and had to pass on the invite.

On the questionable side, Vincent Janssen is called up again. The once prolific AZ top scorer disappeared in relative anonymity (for us Dutchies) in the Mexican competition but Van Gaal believes – in typical Van Gaal style – that he can make it work for Janssen in his tactical set up. We will see.

The return of Bruno Martins Indi is a surprise as well. Although, it has to be said, his stats are quite good and his build up pass has demonstrated to be around the best in the bizz, in the second tier of Dutch central defenders. Obviously, when Van Dijk, De Vrij, De Ligt, Ake, Blind and Timber are available, BMI will not get a look in. There’s also Struijk, Schuurs and Sven Botman, so I can’t see BMI making it to the World Cup.

Van Gaal does need 22 players at least for his practice stages and it’s always good to add some experience to the squad, for practice purposes. BMI will not be phased to work with Van Gaal, while a newcomer like Struijk might be.

Bologna’s Jerdy Schouten has finally been called up. The controlling midfielder made an impression in the Eredivisie playing for Excelsior and that got him his transfer to the Serie A where he impresses whenever he plays. The first half of this past season was one with injuries and frustration but since February, Schouten is one of the first names on the team sheet. His performances have also triggered interest from bigger Serie A clubs but the youngster believes in a step by step development of his career and will most likely focus on this coming season with Bologna (and the World Cup), with a move in the summer of 2023, no doubt.

Gini Wijnaldum also dropped out of the squad, in what people in Holland call “a Sneijdertje”. Which means, that it’s likely that Van Gaal is trying to motivate Wijnaldum to change clubs this summer if he wants a shot at the World Cup.

Jordy Clasie is also dropped, which is a surprise, as the AZ midfielder is in top form, key in every successful AZ attack. Owen Wijndal and Arnaut Danjuma are not part of the squad as they’re recovering from injury. Luuk de Jong and Marten de Roon are not needed as Van Gaal probably knows what to expect from them.

The Oranje coach is keen to see some new faces/names at work.

Van Gaal: “We do not have a lot of time to see new players at work, so I want to use these Nations League gatherings for this. I know what I need to know from most, but it will help me to see if and how I can use some of the new lads. I want to use my time in an optimum way. We have now and we have September and that is it.”

The look on BMI’s face when he heard he was selected again…. Priceless.

by Jan

Stars aligning for Oranje?

For many days, the overall view was that poor Oranje was having to slug it out with Portugal or even Germany in the first knock-out game. But it seems the football gods are with us… Even better, our march to the finals will actually be not that dreadful, considering Belgium, France and Italy – generally seen as the three favorites – are in the other leg of the draw.

It remains to be seen whether this is a good thing though. Traditionally, Oranje does well vs stronger teams. Remember the group of death(s) in 2006 and 2008? We obliterated the competition (well…) and got in trouble the next knock-out stage. Oranje now also play well versus teams that consider themselves stronger. Once an opponent parks the bus, we will find it tougher to break them down.

But, the stars in the sky might have aligned, it also seems the stars on the pitch have. The vibe in the squad is very good, players who tend to be a bit narcy when they are not the dominant player appear to remain calm ( Berghuis, Koopmeiners) and Frank de Boer is demonstrating day in day out in his interviews and press conferences that he grew as a coach. He’s likeable, he jokes, he laughs and analyses with clarity.

Malen and Memphis have produced some nice interaction. Add the quality, movement and silky touch of Wijnaldum and there is our holy trinity. Frenkie and Gini have a good understanding, as do Stefan de Vrij and Mathijs de Ligt. These two actually became firm friends in Italy and spend a lot of time, with the families together.

The PSV contingent (Malen, Dumfries, Gakpo, Memphis) work well together, as do the AZ and Ajax team mates. Berghuis might well feel at home with the Ajax lads…

I am loath to be too positive and chirpy, but I can see that with the right focus and the right line up / system, Oranje can indeed power forward.

it was quite eventful for Oranje, this past week. The group win was great, Memphis’ signature under a Barca contract clearly gave the mercurial forward a boost, but the loss of Luuk de Jong, who had to exit the camp with a nasty knee injury, means Plan B doesn’t exist anymore. And it also automatically means that Wout Weghorst will be relegated to the pinch hitter role.

Another player we will need firing on all cylinders is Frenkie of course. The player with the most successful dribbles in the Euros until now.

Playmaker, play accelerator, conductor, dreh-und-angelpunkt, we have had so many names already for the midfielder. His passing is usually mentioned as his key strength and this is indeed a highly important aspect of the game. But another aspect might need a bit more spotlight: the dribble. No one dribbles more and better than the Arkel born lad.

Goal.com asked Antoine Griezmann in 2019 which player was the toughest opponent for him and he immediately said: “Ajax’ De Jong! I tried to put him under pressure in the Nations League games with France and it was impossible, I never succeeded. He’s so slick, he just slips past you as if you’re not there.” Not much later, they became team mates.

Four players had 17 dribbles in this Euros, so far. Our Frenkie, Denmark’s Maehle, Switzerland’s Embolo and France’ Mbappe. Frenkie had 13 successful ones, compared to 8 by the others.

This is here is key moment. Holland is under pressure from Austria. Weghorst passes to Wijnaldum, who gets two opponents on his toes. Gini dribbles quickly to the side line, knowing that loss of possession is less dangerous there. De Jong gives him an option, on the side line and he has four Austrians putting pressure on. Sabitzer in front of him, Laimer and Hinteregger are lurking close while Schlager joins in as well. Most player would pass the ball backwards to Dumfries or De Vrij. But that would not solve the problem. We would still be locked in and under pressure. This is a typical ideal pressure moment for Austria.

Frenkie oozes confidence on the ball. He doesn’t panic and the four Austrians are hesitating. De Jong sees the hesitation and decides to use it. He sprints through the pressure with the ball in close control and it fits like a glove. Not only does he alleviate  the pressure, he turns defence into attack as he turns the situation in a 6 v 4 situation, what with Daley Blind and Pat van Aanholt immediately breaking out too, joining Frenkie, Weghorst, Memphis and Wijnaldum in attack. This move ends with a failed pass from Van Aanholt to Weghorst.

Another typical moment, also demonstrating the partnership in midfield. Holding mid Marten de Roon has the ball and almost stands still. Wijnaldum drops back and offers an option, leaving a gap in front of the Austrian defence. De Roon points to it, even, and Frenkie runs into that space and receives the ball.

He looks over his shoulder and sees that Laimer is too slow to react, so now Frenkie knows he can turn the player and get into a 1 v 1 situation on the edge of the box. He passes to Memphis whose shot is blocked. Another example where the obvious option would have been to pass the ball back.

The third example is in the North Macedonia match. Obviously, the pressure was off and Oranje was further helped by the offensive tactics of North Macedonia. Their pressure play resulted in space for us. Here is an example.

De Ligt has the ball and is pressured by Elmas. The ball goes to Daley Blind and Pandev is putting pressure on him. De Jong offers Blind an option, and while the ball is traveling, he looks over his shoulder, twice. Once right, once left. Before he has the ball, he knows the Macedonian defence is not pushing forward. He turns, he accelerates and he releases Van Aanholt. Wijnaldum could have done better from that Van Aanholt cross.

This type of play by De Jong makes it hard for opponents to press. A hesitation or a slow reaction and he is off and away. De Jong’s dribbles are as lethal as his passing. He can create something out of nothing. He doesn’t have a lot of assists or goals to his name. His forte is the pre-assist. His accelerations offer space and time to his team mates.

De Jong’s qualities are hard to express in statistics, although Opta Sports was able to somewhat approach it with their carries-stat. This demonstrates the ability to see a gap and the skills to carry the ball forward into that gap. The number of meters you carry the ball with your feet, basically. It’s not a surprise that the wingbacks score hight in this category as they usually have the flank at their disposal, where it is less busy. Carrying the ball forward through the spine is tough. There simply isn’t much space. De Jong is a maestro. He showed it at Ajax, now at Barca and at Oranje. Only Mateo Kovacic and the Spanish Barca colleague Pedri are able to show similar stats. But they tend to carry the ball backwards a lot too.

When Opta filters the stats in terms of carries forward, than Frenkie is the only midfielder amongst defenders.

The most important thing is, that Frenkie is completely convinced of his own playing style.

His response to a comment after the Real Madrid away game in 2019 says it all. Ajax won 1-4 but Frenkie had a difficult moment vs Benzema, when he tried to take on the French striker just outside his own box and lost the ball to the predator. This resulted in a big chance for Madrid.

Sports commentator Van Gelder: “I have a strong heart, but can you please never do that again?”

Frenkie: “No, I disagree. I think I need to do this again, but do it better. I made a good turn, but when I wanted to accelerate I got cramp in my legs and had to try and keep the ball…”

I think I need to do this again but better…. That is his mindset and that is why he can be of great value in the knock-out games. This mix of uninhibitedness and precision is exactly what we need. This puts the fear into our opponents, the knowledge that one little mistake can mean Oranje is thundering forward. De Jong’s dribbles give Oranje time and space, it also gives us a signature style of play.

by Jan

Great night for Oranje

I wish I followed my instincts and wrote in my previous post that I wouldn’t play with the same eleven vs Gibraltar.

I would have gone with a 3-4-3 and probably leave out Dumfries. I didn’t so I can’t claim to be smarter than De Boer but I have the feeling most of you would probably support that notion anyway.

Frank started the game with the same eleven as he did vs Latvia. I can understand the sentiment, but against a 5-4-1 dogged team like Gibraltar you really don’t need 4 at the back!

Even stronger: in the home game, I think De Boer should put De Ligt on goal!

The first half, we simply had too many issues breaking them down. The two main problems: the ball pace was way too low and our bright midfielders ended up clogging up the box with their bodies making it easy for the Gibraltians (?) to defend. That, and their excellent goalie of course.

Denzel Dumfries ended up with the most issues. And according to influential football magazine VI, he was the only player who got a bad rating. He himself has said, that at times he has “hard feet”, meaning, he lacks the technical finesse to play in small spaces.

The Gibraltar coach is renowned for his tight organisation and there was hardly any room for Dumfries to do what he does best: run into space.

He did play a crucial part in the opening goal in the first half, but Frank subbed him at half time and brought prodigal talent Ryan Gravenberch as midfielder, to cover the space on the right. His contribution would become vital, allowing Berghuis to grow into a Man of the Match performer.

The first 20 minutes were shambolic. Uninspired, slow and sluggish. The first goal made the difference, as we all knew it would. It should have been scored sooner though. The second stage of the first half resembled the Latvia match: heaps of opportunities and half chances, but no sharpness in finishing. Davy Klaassen was against guilty of not having his sights sharp.

In the second half, some things that could be predicted happened: the second goal broke the back of the opponent a bit. They got tired. They were no longer able to track everything. Gravenberch played his part too, being the deep lying playmaker next to Frenkie, allowing Berghuis to stay wide and forcing the defenders to choose: do we stay, do we press, do we follow the runner…

Here are some examples: Latvia had issues with Klaassen as they played 4-4-2 and didn’t have the man available to take care of the Ajax midfielder. Gibraltar had 5 at the back so there was always the free defender to pick up Klaassen. The two wide midfielders would assist with stopping Dumfries and Wijndal. Because of this, Oranje needed to find space centrally.

Look at this situation. Wijnaldum needs to pass the ball. We have four players standing in line, up front: Frenkie, Luuk de Jong, Memphis and Klaassen. The midfielders have pulled their direct opponents with them and as a result the spaces became even smaller. And with Berghuis moving inside as well, the suffocation was complete. Frank de Boer even mentioned this problem beforehand, when he said: “Playing more forwards is not going to work, as the spaces will get smaller. We need to lure the opponent away from the centre and then make quick combinations into that open space!”

Oranje runs into these spaces and fills them up and does Gibraltar a favour!

The two first goals are good examples of what is needed. The first goal is the result of depth without the ball. A run in behind and it’s Dumfries who creates it. Berghuis finds the ball in front of his left wand and knows how to bury it.

In the second half, for the second goal, we see what was missing in the first: players coming into midfield to ask for the ball and creating space behind them. Here it’s Memphis pulling a defender with him, and Klaassen does this with the left back. This results in Berghuis getting more freedom and Luuk de Jong is then one-on-one in the box: 2-0.

Gravenberch offers more options in midfield. The Gibraltar players are pulled into the midfield more and this is how the pockets of space appear.

The fourth goal is a perfect example. Gravenberch, Klaassen and Memphis join at the right side in midfield. The left midfielder is now forced to stick to them which puts Berghuis in a one v one situation with the left full back. In the first half, Dumfries runs would bring that left midfielder next to the left back, making it tough for Berghuis. The Berghuis cross ends up with Wijnaldum who scores the fourth goal.

Same story for the fifth goal. Gravenberch lures an opponent in, Berghuis gets space to play with. He then pulls two opponents towards him allowing Memphis to pass into Klaassen who runs into space. His pass to Malen is a simple tap in. The two final goals are the result of a similar situation but then with Wijndal on the left.

The big lesson for Oranje: lure the defenders out of their comfort zone and use the dynamics to play in the wide players who are capable of taking on an opponent with an individual action. Another big change, was to play Memphis in midfield and having him want the ball in his feet.

The win was predictable. The number of goals was enough, not overly spectacular, but enough. And Frank de Boer finally showed his qualities by analysing the first half and doing what was needed in the second half.

A good night for Oranje, also because Turkey forgot to win against Latvia. They threw a 3-1 lead away and had to be content with a draw. This resulted in a wry comment by De Boer: “Hmm, so the 2-0 against Latvia actually wasn’t that bad after all….”.

A big wet blanket was placed over the win by the sad demise of Daley Blind. In what was a rare outing up front for De Barr, Blind was pulled to the ground by accident and one of his feet got stuck in the turf, which may have damaged his knee or his ankle. Unsure at this point. It looked terrible and the Ajax star had to be taken of by stretcher. It didn’t look too good.

Frenkie and Memphis both were quite happy with how it all panned out. Both players realised during their post-match interview that things ended up pretty well for Oranje. “Yes, we did the job. It wasn’t great, I know. We started weak, it was sluggish, we had to get used to the pitch and they were really dogged. But I think if you told people up front that we would win 7-0, everyone would be happy. I think at least. The second half was ok. And yes, Turkey dropped points of course, so it actually was more than ok. Yes, we actually had a top night!” So spoke Frenkie de Jong.

Skipper Gini Wijnaldum had a frown on his face: “The first half was very frustrating. We were a bit pissed off at the break and unhappy. It resembled the match vs Latvia. So much good intentions but so little to show for. The 7-0 was fine at the end, but it could have been double figures and I’m not happy that we failed to do so. We didn’t really celebrate our goals, we were on a mission. And yes, it’s awesome that Turkey dropped points, but we need to stop looking at others and focus on our own performances and improve!”

Last but not least, Young Oranje did tremendous business. It beat Hungary 6-1 and Cody Gakpo was the main man for the Dutch. When the reporters after the game asked the PSV winger whether he was going to play for the seniors or the youngsters, Gakpo was about to answer. And then coach Van de Looi walked by and coughed loudly. Gakpo: “Oh, I think I’m not supposed to answer that question….” Young Oranje ended this little group as group winner: well done lads!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFXo1bcV0xo

by Jan

No delight for Oranje

I hope you didn’t read “No De Ligt for Oranje”… I didn’t mean to startle you. No worries, Mathijs will be playing, but I was referring to the lack of Turkish Delight. We lost. And I needed two days to write this review.

I read all your comments and I have to agree with most of it. I am not as harsh on De Boer though. And that is because I believe a National Team Manager is not there to make the players better, that happens at club level. Nor do I feel he needs to be able to motivate them. Sure, he needs to hit the spot with the players personally. He needs to forge a bond, he needs to know how to reach them, how to inspire them. But he is not responsible for a lack lustre performance in my view. Players need to motivate themselves. It’s Oranje. You’re wearing the jersey, you’re playing for your country. After all the drama and missed tournaments, you, as a player, should be motivated to your gums to do well. I don’t think De Ligt needed it, or Klaassen or Memphis.

Your job, as a team manager, is to pick the best players for the best team. And to assess what system suits them best. And then instruct them.

I can not fault him very much. Sure, picking the squad…. Weghorst vs De Jong. In hindsight, I am not sure if it would have made a huge difference. Weghorst wouldn’t have started. He wouldn’t have taken the penalty. I don’t think it would have mattered.

He picked a logical tactical plan. And one has to assume, based on his pre and post-match interviews, that he instruct them well.

I don’t think we can ignore the fact that the players let him down. As they let us down.

We lost due to two things: amateur hour moves in certain key moments of the game, and a couple of strokes of bad luck.

Lets start with the bad luck. The first shot on goal, by Turkey, was a goal. Ball deflected, Krul wrong-footed… Goal. The second goal was a penalty. I haven’t heard anyone about it, but in my view it was very very harsh. For an English ref to point to the spot. He didn’t tackle him, Malen simply arm wrestled with the guy and he decided to fold. While passing the ball to a team mate! Why give a pen? Harsh!

Ok, I rewatched the footage. Malen’s foot indeed hit the leg of the Turk. I think the penalty can be given. However, if this happens elsewhere on the pitch, a collision, and the player manages to pass the ball on, I don’t think it would have been given as a foul.

Then we had De Ligt’s goal not given. And a handball blatantly missed. That is bad luck.

The amateur hour can be boiled down to the turn-around. We are in possession – corner! – and out of that situation, Turkey is allowed – a couple of times – to break and threaten us. I am positive that De Boer has worked on rest-defence as this is a key topic these days, but the lads failed.

Check the image above. The counter towards 2-0 (the penalty). We have a 2 v 2 situation after a Holland attack. Wijndal is facing the ball. Tete and Frenkie are sprinting back. This cannot happen. And is the result of dreadful lack of leadership on the pitch. De Ligt? Blind? Krul? De Roon? Who is the asshole on the pitch making sure everyone is in his position? Where is the new Van Bommel, the Dutch Roy Keane, or Soren Lerby?

Here is the corner. Not in your view, to the left, are two Oranje players at the corner flag, for the short option. We have 5 in de box. That is 7. And Frenkie on outside the box. With Krul in goal, we have 2 defenders covering our goal. With two Turkey attackers waiting on the edge of the box to turn defence into attack.

Check this situation here, another attack by Oranje. Again we lose the ball. Daley Blind reads the situation and wants to foul the player but can’t grab him. Turkey finds Calhanoglu on the left flank. Tete manages to slow them down but Berghuis has no idea that Yilmax is getting away. His shot will deflect via De Ligt into the goal.

Gini Wijnaldum, the skipper on the night: “Yes, the situation in Turkey’s box, right before this, was their handling of the ball, but we have to be honest. We had 40 seconds or so to deal with it. We made more mistakes after that, more than the ref, and we can’t blame anyone but ourselves.”

The deflection was bad luck. But the lack of organisation and the lack of communication was simply bad execution.

Another problem the team had, was the execution of the team tactics. In the 37th minute, you can see Blind exploding in anger when Wijndal is going AWOL and leaves a huge gap. Oranje tried to put pressure on the opponent, collectively, but they fail again. The plan was to have Malen pressure the central defence, so their right back would be the free man. Then Wijndal was supposed to get straight at him, but the AZ defender is playing too conservative. Something you wouldn’t expect from him.

As a result, the above situation happenes. Blind and De Ligt get into a 2 v 2 situation. Turkey is looking for that by playing the long ball, whenever Oranje wants to press. We lack the body in midfield to challenge for the second ball. Whenever our midfielders want to push up, their star man Yilmaz drops into midfield to give Turkey more options and we were not handling that very well.

Here is the 3-0 in production. Yilmaz drops into midfield. No one is covering him. He gets the ball, Turkey evades the pressure and Yilmaz finds a free man on the left flank. Berghuis worst moments come now. as he first allows the left back to drift away from him, and when the left back gets ball, Berghuis forgets to block the pass-line to Calhanoglu. Don’t give the AC Milan man space and time to shoot on goal!

The third issue is the Oranje right flank. De Boer wanted to have a more defensive right back. De Boer thinks Dumfries isn’t the best option to play with Berghuis: “Steven wants the ball in his feet, and early. So he can go outside, of come inside, or cross early… Dumfries tends to run with the ball and suffocate the winger. With Tete, a more conservative player, the ball will be passed quicker to Berghuis.”

However, the plan fails. On the left wing, we could see some patterns, with Malen, Memphis and Wijndal. On the right side, it was poor. Tete and De Roon both play way to conservative and the forward pass was so late, that Berghuis was blocked in, by defenders and by the touch line behind him. As a result, the best way forward was by crossing the ball into the box, but both Memphis and Malen aren’t aerial super stars, so that simply didn’t pay off.

When De Boer brings Klaassen, Dumfries and De Jong, he brings opportunism. With Dumfries and Wijndal both playing high, and with the aerial threat of the Jong, Oranje starts to press. Memphis gets more joy on the left flank and ends up with two assists to his name, while both subs – Klaassen and De Jong – score. The Davy Klaassen goal was a beauty, of course. It seems a final offensive might have brought us the draw, or even the win, but an all or nothing approach resulted in a foul in our defensive third… 4-2. The missed penalty by Memphis was a fitting final chord for this match.

Apart from some referee mistakes, it seems Oranje mainly lost due to a tactics that wasn’t executed properly, with simply not enough dynamics in the attacking moves on the right to break down the Turkish defensive wall. And at the back, we gave way too much away. When the key players (Memphis, Wijnaldum. Blind) don’t show up on the night on top, all this results in a painful and unnecessary defeat!

Frank de Boer: “This was a a painful blow. Totally unnecessary. And it’s unbelievable, they had 5 shots on goal and score 4. I have never seen them so effective. Everything went against us. But we have 9 more games to go. We lost, we dropped points, but it’s not devastating. We shouldn’t be in tears or anything. We didn’t do well, we need to turn it around and we have all the options to turn it around. But we were sloppy in our passing, didn’t create enough. We had to change flanks quicker and more often. Turkey parked the bus and we were sluggish. It seemed as if we were not at the races, but that is optical. We worked hard but we didn’t work smart. We ended up in situations which we should have avoided. We claim a hand ball and 20 seconds later they score. We give a away a penalty while there were many players still behind the ball. And the second half just started or they had a third in our net. Unbelievable. But even at 3-0, I had the conviction we would turn it around. We scored two good goals but sadly we gave it all away in the end. I am not looking for excuses, don’t get me wrong, but a WC qualification game should have VAR. We would have had Mathijs’ goal and that hand ball. The goal line technology does make the game more just.”

As Cillesen ended the warm up with a knee problem, De Boer called Marco Bizot of AZ to join Oranje as third goalie.

De Boer was quized about his tactics. Why start with that eleven? “We played in this formated well in other games, created chances and converted them. Take Poland away, in the Nations League. We conceded early but we turned it around after creating many opportunities. We simply didn’t have it today, and every shot they took ended up in goal.”

Skipper Wijnaldum was harsh in self reflection: “We were weak. You need to be ruthless in certain situations and in the turn around in particular, we were too soft.” Frenkie de Jong: “This was totally unnecessary. With all due respect to Turkey, they really are a good side, but we shouldn’t concede 4 goals. We weren’t dominant enough.”

Daley Blind felt the team did fight. “We did play at a good intensity level, this game was decided on details. Moments. If you get two fatal counters after a corner or dead ball situation for you, well…. you clearly fail in your organisation. Their effectiveness was killing. Two shots, a penalty and a free kick. This is football at top level and details decide games. We were not mature enough.”

Is the playing style, the tactical plan, maybe too predictable?

Frenkie: “No, I don’t think so. We mainly made individual mistakes, decision making mistakes. And we weren’t solid on the ball. We wanted to find the forward pass and we did so too quick at times.” Blind: “Malen got two good chances and on the left we were able to play in between the lines. But we lacked precision in our passing. The second to last pass was usually not good enough.” Frenkie: “It sucks that we lost our first game, always important, but we can still come out on top. We now need to move up a gear.”

You need to be ready for the next game this coming Saturday. Is it all going too fast?

Daley Blind: “Well, it’s nice to be able to take revenge on Saturday and set things straight, but we hardly had any time to prep for Turkey and now we won’t have that much time for Latvia. We haven’t seen each other for a while and you really need more than one training session. But, it’s no excuse. We know each other, we should have done better. No debate.”

The last time Oranje left Turkey empty handed was in 2015. The National Team coach then was Danny Blind. He had just lost and told the press he had the feeling he had bad luck hanging on his ass. When Frank de Boer is confronted with that quote, he can muster a smile: “I don’t have that feeling, I trust we can correct this misstep in the coming matches.”

I think they will bounce back and get 6 points vs Gibraltar and Latvia. Yes, I can predict some really surprising results hahaha. But lets face it, if we love vs Latvia and Gibraltar, I will immediately give up this blog and become a fan of Germany. And Belgium.

I think we will see the following eleven:

Krul

Dumfries – De Ligt – Blind – Wijndal

Klaassen Frenkie Wijnaldum

Stengs Luuk de Jong Memphis

And we will beat them 4-0. Klaassen the first (of course), Luuk will score 2 and Memphis will score 1.

Your view?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42XPBKHT6EY