Tag: Veerman

by Jan

A tale of two strikers?

This new Nations League campaign kicked off with a number of die hard soldiers of orange left out. The fans were keen for Koeman to finally allow the youngsters the spotlight and he responded by telling De Roon and Wijnaldum they weren’t going to be part of the plan moving forward.

Daley Blind saw it coming and decided to cut Koeman off by pulling out. Memphis wasn’t selected as the 30 year old failed to find a club in time and De Vrij wasn’t part of the squad due to a hamstring issue, but is still on Koeman’s radar.

In the run-up to the Bosnia Herzegovina game, Bergwijn’s transfer to the sand pit was made public, reason for Koeman to immediately close the door on the former Spurs forward.

I do have a personal opinion about this. Koeman welcomed Wijnaldum into the squad last year, when Gini made his way to the sand pit. Now, Koeman claims this was because 1) Wijnaldum didn’t have many other options and 2) Wijnaldum has had so much contribution to the national team. But he also said  now, that the competition in Saudi Arabia was too weak and players who go there will fall behind. C Ronaldo and Kante of France will disagree, by the way. But there is footage of a press conference from last year where Koeman explicitly states that the competition in Saudi Arabia is very good, than many top players play there and why should he not select Wijnaldum, for going to that league.

Koeman is not always very honest, in these sorts of things. Man management can still improve.

But, having said that, I personally also don’t think we will miss Bergwijn much, to be honest.

Anyway, new names. Memphis needs to be replaced and with Wieffer, Koopmeiners, Veerman and Frenkie de Jong injured, it was time to mould a new midfield together.

Schouten and Reijnders impressed at the Euros so it was a no brainer for them to be starting, but the rise of Gravenberch in Liverpool under Arne Slot has placed the lanky former Ajax player squarely on Koeman’s radar.

The quartet of Gakpo, Simons, Zirkzee and Reijnders really bamboozled Bosnia Herzegowina and with Schouten and Gravenberch behind them, they must have felt like they were playing on the streets.

Zirkzee got the nod versus Bosnia and Koeman already stated that Brobbey would play the second game.

The inclusion of Brobbey would be the only change for the Germany game, as Koeman was clearly quite happy with the performance on Saturday.

Brobbey played without additional pressure, versus Germany, it seems. From minute one, he was switched on, strong and focused and direct opponent Tah will have had some bad dreams after the game. Brobbey was instrumental with the two goals. He chested a long ball by Verbruggen in the path of Gravenberch, who delayed his move, taunted the defender to come and take the ball and right on time he toed the ball in the path of the onrushing Reijnders who scored a class goal.

Brobbey was also key with an assist for the 2-2, after a through pass by Simons, allowing Dumfries a tap in.

The Inter defender, quite rusty, could have scored the winner, if he had scored the free header, earlier in the game, but the biggest and best chance fell to Xavi Simons, after a breathtaking wonder pass by Gravenberch.

After the game, the pundits ( Van der Vaart, Van Hooijdonk) and even Koeman, couldn’t hide their appreciation for the gifted midfielder, who was the ultimate Man of the Two Matches (arguably with power house Reijnders).

Some conclusions from the game.

We know how to play attractive football

As said, those four forwards (you can add Lang, Malen, Stengs, Koopmeiners, Memphis to the list, they will be able to play along really nicely) played with a big smile on their face. Our midfielders are a joy to watch as well, the connoiseurs usually lick their lips when watching Schouten’s “short” game. And this is even without Frenkie, Wieffer, Koopmeiners, Timber and Veerman. The Germany game resulted in a record number of attempts on goal (from both teams) and the 2-2 is actually a low score compared to the attempts and touches in the boxes.

Quick goals

Ronald Koeman’s teams try to sprint out of the traps. Reijnders scored a quick gola after 1.39 minute. Veerman scored a quick one in February versus Germany. Klaassen scored three years ago after 55 seconds versus Turkey and Johan Neeskens scored the fastest goal versus (West) Germany in the World Cup finals in 1974, after 86 seconds.

Gravenberch rules

The Liverpool midfielder had a pre-assist versus Bosnia and a fine assist for Reijnders versus Germany. As mentioned, he should have another one if Simions had scored from that amazing long pass. Gravenberch had the most interceptions (4), the most duels won (6) and only 4 of his 40 passes didn’t get to a team mate.

Wingers aren’t full backs

Holland does play a lot of football on their own half. Was it the early lead? Or simply the strength of Germany? Oranje defends compact, with a strong focus on closing the passing lines. Oranje defends in a 4-4-2 concept and the wingers (Cody Gakpo and Xavi Simons) were tasked with defending the German full backs.

Koeman stopped the 3 at the back concept and this particular defensive move is almost like a reversed system of that 3-4-3. Now, it’s our wingers defending their full backs, in stead of our wingbacks attacking their full backs. And sadly, wingers are usually not very good in defending. Case in point, Germany’s second goal was allowed because Gakpo forgot to track back to keep an eye on Joshua Kimmich.

Raum runs into space behind Simons back and Kimmich is already on his bike to get to the far post. Geertruida would come to replace Simons to shore up that defensive situation, pushing Dumfries further up.

Mathijs de Ligt is the pantomime villain

We all know it: when a goalie or a central defender makes a mistake, it’s usually a goal. If a forward loses the ball, it can also result in a goal conceded but it usually takes a couple of moves for this to happen so the attacker usually is not vilified. Sad for De Ligt, he made a marking error versus Dzeko on Saturday, but Koeman praised his passing and build up play. That part of De Ligt’s game came under scrutiny against the Germans, when a pass got intercepted by Musiala and led to the 1-1.

Mathijs had 5 successful long passes, but no one remembers those. I also need to say that there was still some football being played until the ball hit the net, but the criticasters all pointed towards De Ligt. His body language wasn’t great afterwards and Koeman hooked him, partly to protect him. “I could see the mistake was still playing in his head and I didn’t want him to struggle and play with the brakes on. JP Van Hecke came on in the second half for his debut.

Options galore, in midfield and in defense

Nathan Ake had to leave the pitch with a painful ankle but with the likes of Geertruida, Hato, Beelen, Timber, Van Hecke, Botman (currently injured) and Van der Ven (currently injured) it does appear Oranje is in good shape. I’m sure Nagelsmann will be quite envious of his Dutch colleague.

 

by Jan

What Oranje can expect from England

We’re playing against a top team, with absolute word class players but also against a coach who is said to wear a seat belt on the toilet, always going for security.

And for a reason. When Southgate was up for the job he asked advise from top data statisticians in football and their response: don’t concede! This nihilistic approach became his mantra.

The most criticised manager of this Euros is going to play a semi finals for the third time in a row. Before him, they only reached a top 4 position once since the 1966 World Cup debacle win. Southgate has done away with naive playing and the criticism doesn’t really affect him. The tactical plan basically results in a boring, chess match and Southgate doesn’t give a flying f***.

Due to their defensive strength, England will be a tough opponent for us. They like to look back at the 4-1 thrashing at the Euros 1996, which is the last time in a big tournament they beat us. And Southgate was on the pitch that day.

Southgate never complains about the lack of goals or attempts on goal. He can’t be bothered. But he will moan and whine about players losing possession. The term “clean sheet” can now be heard in most post-match interviews.

Jude Bellingham: “We had a tough match, but we didn’t concede. We only needed 1 goal to win and we eventually got it.”

Declan Rice: “We built this team on not conceding.”

Jordan Pickford: “Clean sheets are the foundation. If you want to win a tournament, don’t concede goals.”

The fear of conceding is easy to see in the way they attack.

Just like Oranje, Southgate uses the box concept, with two 10s (Foden and Bellingham) and two holding mids (Mainoo and Rice). Due to the fear of conceding a counter, they don’t really look for Foden or Bellingham often, with vertical passes but we will need to be alert of course.

Slovenia plays the most like Oranje, when out of possession. They fold back to a 4-4-2 and one of the strikers is constantly shielding Declan Rice. In that match, England had 72% possession but didn’t get the ball into the Slovenian box in the first 25 minutes of the game. Slovenia kept on playing towards their right side, the English left. Kieran Trippier and Guehi are not the best build up players, as Trippier is playing out of his usual position, a right footer on the left. He’s regularly clueless on the ball, to be fair. Both players had about 115 touches in that game, passing the ball to one another.

Slovakia does the same and Southgate eventually responds by putting right winger (!) Saka on the left back position. Southgate hopes Luke Shaw can take the LB role versus Oranje, but the Man United defender hasn’t played a full match since February. Put thim against Frimpong, Malen or Xavi and he’ll be punch drunk within 10 minutes.

England created the least opportunities of the semi finalists and with players like Kane, Saka, Bellingham and Foden, that does say something. Although… Southgate won’t give a crap.

A counter against England will be tough. Players like Kyle Walker, John Stones, Declan Rice and Kobbie Mainoo know what is needed to stop a counter. But it’s behind Trippier where Oranje can have fun.

England won’t play the high press. Should they score first, you can expect them to fold back. Southgate: “We don’t have the players for the high press.”

Against Switzerland, Mainoo is man marking playmaker Xhaka. In the second half, the former Arsenal midfielder decides to wander about and play more deep which results in Mainoo letting him go, allowing the Swiss player the run of the game.

It is very likely that England will play 5 at the back against Holland, as we play in the same way as Denmark, with two 10s attacking the space of the holding mids. The defenders were struggling against Denmark, with the penetrating runs by the Danes and he will also have seen that Oranje struggled versus the 5-4-1 of the Turks.

No matter what, England will allow Holland the ball and England will play compact a bit deeper than for instance Austria or Spain. England will not allow much room in the centre of the pitch.

It seems logical to play Wout as deep #9 with Memphis in the 10 role. The English central defenders – surprise! – are not as strong aerially as they used to be (Ferdinand, Terry, Adams).

England has placed one counter attack in their five matches (two incl 30 mins extra time). England doesn’t like open games. Too much chaos for Southgate and Kane is not a striker with speed. The danger men are Bellingham, Foden and Saka. These two can definitely hurt you.

Conclusion:

England won’t have it easy against Holland. But… this is the same the other way around. The match will be tight, probably another chess match with the key area, the midfield (as per usual). Should Oranje score first, there are great attacking options from the bench for Southgate, with speed ( Toney, Palmer, Eze, Gordon) and guile (Alexander Arnold, Watkins).

I expect a narrow win for Holland: 2-0, with Memphis on the score sheet and Malen as the second goal scorer.

I would start with Brobbey, myself. He’s a tank, he’ll make war with the two CBs of England. Memphis and him do seem to have a good rapport. I’d also start with Xavi, I think he deserves to start as he too has speed and guile (like Malen).

Should we need more in the second half, use Weghorst to play against the war-weary English and Malen’s speed in case we are in front and need to counter attack.

I think Reijnders and Schouten should not be separated, and Gakpo will obviously also remain in the team.

Wout won’t be happy, but hey.. we’re not here to make him happy. We’re here to win games.

 

by Jan

Oranje fights itself into semi finals

At some point, you stop worrying about the how and just want to celebrate the result. The first semi finals since 2004, when Portugal defeated us in the semi finals. A great comeback – the first since the 3-2 win over France in 2000 – and it’s always good to win a game when you don’t play great.

Oranje’s start was pretty good. Turkey played with 5 at the back and in the first 10 to 15 minutes, our “box” in midfield performed really well. Xavi found space in between the lines, Memphis was threatening and Schouten penetrated well on the right hand side.

Memphis had the first chance in the first or second minute and with a bit more balance and luck, he could well have scored the first for us.

But Holland can’t repeat the positioning game we played versus Romania. The main issue is the lack of patience. We try to make every touch count and the somewhat erratic play went against us. Sloppy touches, wrong decisions and on top a tactical change by the Turkey coach and as a result, our dominant midfield…well… disappeared.

This image from the 8th minute shows the triangles we should be using more often.

Turkey does what it has to do to avoid the Dutch press, by playing long opportunistic balls towards their speedy forwards. As a result, De Vrij stays hanging deep a bit and this means Schouten is forced to move to the right to create space and as such abandons the box concept. De Vrij is too static and we can see Virgil gesticulating to him at times to move forward more.

This is an image from late in the first half (Turkey is leading) and Turkey forces us to one side and tries to suffocate us there, stopping our flowing build up. It is during the stage in the game when Oranje loses grip on midfield that Turkey scores and we make a series of errors leading up to the goal.

For some reason, Dumfries allows the ball to go out of play, resulting in a corner kick. When Guler has the chance to bring a cross in, several things go wrong: Dumfries is not aligned with the defence and he puts the goal scorer on side. It’s Simons and Ake’s job to block the cross but they lack the aggression and allow the cross in. And to add to this, the rest of the defenders are all ball watching and “forget” the three Turks at the far post. I also think Verbruggen could have done better there.

Koeman knows he has to respons and takes a page from the Austrian text book, when Rangnick decided to bring a typical #9, a target man.  In our case: Weghorst. The not 100% fit Bergwijn makes way and Simons moves to the right, while Memphis becomes the new #10 behind Weghorst.

Still, we keep on doing things wrong. The combination Schouten / De Vrij falters and stutters, we try to find the complicated solution instead of the simple pass and our defence was too scared to press up, due to their speedy attackers. Still, we manage to get back into the game as a result of a good opportunistic attack. First it’s Memphis offering Weghorst a chance. The goalie could have let that one go in to the side netting, but he touched the ball, so it become a corner. Schouten and Memphis take it short and the club-less talisman puts the ball with feeling onto the head of De Vrij: 1-1. A symbolic assist for Weghorst for blocking the defender.

Montella’s Men do lose their head a bit after the equaliser. Their defenders start to trickle back, and their wingers leave their position, making the spaces wider for us. Koeman immediately responds by bringing speed in Van der Ven and guile by bringing Veerman.

Some good play between Veerman and Weghorst brings the ball to the right flank, which is abandoned by Kadioglu, who had a top game again, by the way. Dumfries hits the ball low and it’s Gakpo ghosting in from the left to surprise the Turkish defender: 2-1 (goal attributed to Muldur).

The 2-1 is the sign for Turkey to throw everything at Oranje. Several top blocks by defenders (Van der Ven, Schouten and even Weghorst) save the day and Bart Verbruggen had a top save right at the death to secure the win for us.

The Turkish left flank offers us problems so Koeman brought Frimpong to fix that side of the pitch and Zirkzee – in his debut – to keep the ball a bit longer – in stead of Memphis.

We can conclude that Oranje got a bit lucky and needed fixing by Koeman to get the win. It’s the Austrian Opportunistic Target Man approach that got us the win, and not the famed positioning game. As a result, we don’t really have a foundation to build on for the England game. And luckily for us, neither have England.

Despite the less that great execution of the plan, I do think the core of this Dutch team will need to start versus England.

I don’t believe making wholesale changes will help much. Expect the same back four and the same goalie.

I also think Schouten and Reijnders will start, but i wouldn’t be surprised to see Weghorst from the start.

He will make war, he will keep 2 or 3 defenders busy and he will be a nice target man for Memphis to play off of.

For me, Xavi and Memphis are not compatible as #10 and #9. Memphis needs a runner behind him to find the space he abandons. Xavi is a “ball to feet” player. Weghorst deep and Memphis circling him will be more effective.

The question was and will be: who will be our right winger? Malen will be less useful as I don’t see England playing high up the pitch. I think it will be Xavi, Bergwijn or Frimpong.

Now we have two classic semis to watch, with the four strongers European teams at the kick off. Any team can beat the other team. Who knows?

I think Verbruggen and De Vrij were the top performers for us (despite de Vrij’s limited build up play against the Turks). I found Virgil wanting in some situations, a bit too easy, to lacksydaisical (?). Schouten was fine, Reijnders a bit more anonymous. Memphis in the #9 role was again disappointing with lots of loss of possession but showing class as the #10. I thought Xavi was wasteful, at times looking too much for the complicated pass. Gakpo had his moments during the game and did get “his” goal. And Weghorst did exactly what he needed to do. We can’t ask more from him.

 

by Jan

What can Oranje expect from Romania?

I’m sure we all remember the last Euros? We were headed towards the finals, we “only” had to deal with the Czechs and Denmark, right? Will Romania our Czechia this time around?

Lets look at this strong collective from Eastern Europe.

Team Manager Iordanescu Junior sums it up: working hard, is the secret. Players are supposed to give it all. Make dirty yards. Put the body on the line. Go with your man. Etc etc.

Defensively, this resulted in some solid blocking They only conceded 25 goals in 27 matches. Not bad, considering Koeman conceded 20 goals in 17 international matches.

Romania plays in a 4-1-4-1 formation and tries to keep 10 man behind the ball. Dragus is their lone striker. Romania keeps the spaces tight and their tactical discipline and their physical strength results in them being tough to beat.

The 4-1-4-1 in action (yellow = Romania)

No high press, but playing compact and drop deep to protect the box. The only time they do press high is when the opponent has a goal kick to take, for instance. When the opponent demonstrates enough skill to play out from the press, the Romanians will take the hint and sit deeper.

Romania will – like Austria – tend to push the ball to the flanks, when the opponent is in possession but they will not hunt like rabid dogs. Just contain the opponent, seems to be the mantra. They like to slow the pace down and force the opponent in their pace.

When the opponent hits high crosses into the box, Romania will deal with it. They have tall defenders and good headers. Do we attack with our wingbacks or full backs? No worries, their wingers will track back. Disciplined as they are.

If we start to play slow passes square, we are doing exactly what they want.

Lots of space for speedy runners like Frimpong or Xavi

The trick is to play balls in behind and pinpoint through balls into feet. Runs in behind will be crucial against them and as they won’t pressure the ball dramatically, players like Veerman or Blind or Ake will have time to pick the pass.

Their controlling midfielder can be overpopulated by pushing a man extra up into midfield (Geertruida? Ake?) which means we can suffocate Romania and squeeze the life out of them.

If not, they will try to suss us to sleep by playing a slow pace, chess game.

Their only striker Dragus is a hand full though. He’s tall, quick, strong and he can dribble. We will need to have our rest-defence down pat, as they will find space and time to counter attack.

Romania will try to go for the long diagonal ball and send a forward after it in space. Second ball battles, they love as well! When they do have possession high up the field, they will push 3 more players towards it to play their short game and manoeuvre themselves towards the goal.

Here you can see the diagonal ball to the corner…

Romania is unique in this way, as most nations try to combine with short passes through the centre, these days (Spain, England, Germany). We’ll need to be ready for some long balls and second ball battles.

Romania also shoots from distance a lot. They can be opportunistic when close to the opponents box. The weakness in passing is their goalie, who doesn’t have the technique modern goalies have. When pressed he will frequenly yank the ball forward and mishit it and put it out of play.

In an attacking sense, their corner kicks – taking short and swift – can be dangerous. On the other hand, they are vulnerable on the transition as their centre back prefer to stick close to the box and aren’t as agile as they should be. Their left flank is usually quite open.

You can see two attackers high and wide on the pitch, stretching the rest defence

In short, Romania doesn’t have super stars in the team but they do have a good team! Oranje needs to play with urgency and intent. Romania is risk averse and will wait compactly on mistakes by us.

I would suggest a line up with Frimpong and Gakpo on the flanks, and Simons and Memphis centrally in attack.

I’d play Geertruida as right back as he can come into the midfield. I’d also prefer De Ligt against their attackers. De Ligt is also a good cross passer and long ball passer. For midfield, Veerman and Reijnders or Schouten. Should Veerman not be up to it, Daley Blind in midfield will be an option.

I predict a 3-0 win, with Memphis, Xavi and Gakpo on the score-sheet.

 

by Jan

Oranje’s worst game in decades

Oranje blew Austria off the pitch, as we have been doing for decades. Their last victory over us was in 1990, bwoahahahahaha losers!!! We were able to play from under their press and Malen scored our first goal in the first five minutes of the game, after a wonderful move, including the likes of Geertruida and Schouten! Koeman had prepped his team well and picked the perfect line up. Reijnders had a tap in for 2-0. Then Malen 1 on 1 against the Austrian goalie and obviously he scored! In the second half Gakpo immediately was sent away by Simons: 4-0. Depay followed up with his first of the tournament and Holland’s fifth, while Weghorst was able to score a “Van Persie” header: 6-0.

Koeman: “This team is hungry, the fight, they make the right decisions and as a technical staff we did prep them really well. I’m proud. We might be able to go all the way, you know?”.

Sorry guys, I have to redo my post.

I do not know what I saw. I watch Oranje since 1970 or so and I don’t think I have seen many games as bad as this. We played bad against Portugal in 2006, but at least we put up a fight.

Where did we go wrong? Under-estimating the opponent? Impossible. Anyone with eyes would know how Rangnick’s Austria plays. Was it too warm? Well…. Austria played in the same circumstances. Was there not much to play for for Oranje, as we were qualified already? No, because we could win the group or become 3rd or 2nd, so much to play for (apart from new contracts….).

It was a complete dressing down and the performance and lack of outlook for improvement are more sobering than the loss. Sure, finishing 3rd is not ideal but who knows… it might actually be better than 2nd. But that is all in hindsight. Losing is crap but losing this way is horrific.

We need to start at the start.

Koeman (and the players) mentioned before the game – many times – to be fully aware of what to expect from Austria.

So there is no excuse there.

Koeman’s line-up baffled me. He started with Geertruida, because Dumfries had a little issue. He could play, but why risk him. Fine. Geertruida did ever so well in previous games, in particular the game versus Canada, with Frimpong in front of him.

So you think: Frimpong will play!

But no. Donyel Malen is on the team sheet. A player who is renowned for his lack of work ethic and defending. Not a winger I would play against Austria! And have Malen and Geertruida ever played together??

And I think: don’t use Veerman. This game will be physical, our players won’t get much time on the ball and will be hassled on the ball. That is not how Veerman can play. Use Reijnders next to Schouten and put Xavi on 10. Simple.

Koeman uses Veerman as he is “the one who can play the ball over the top”. Huh? Schouten, Reijnders, Ake, De Vrij and Van Dijk cannot play these balls? Come on!! 30 mins into the game and Koeman ruined Veerman who spent time crying on the bench. ( I don’t think Davids or Robben or Van Bommel would cry. They’d kick a water bottle, a door, a linesman and go shower).

In the first 5 minutes of the game, Oranje was able to pass the ball to 3 team mates in a row only twice!!! Austria did it 42 times. Wow. This feels like Oranje versus Cyprus, but with Austria as Oranje and Oranje as Cyprus.

Our 4-1-4-1 set up got us in to trouble as well. As we ended up mainly with three midfielders ( Gakpo and Malen staying wide) and thinking that 3 midfielder would be enough. Well, with Arnautovitch dropping back and with their wingbacks joining midfield, our midfield was squeezed as a mouse by a boa constrictor. At times our 3 midfielders faced 5 opponents. And always there where it hurt: in the centre.

The first goal of Austria was a typical example. Arnautovic keeps De Vrij busy, the free man pushes up with the ball. Geertruida needs to make a decision and leaves his wing to confront the man with the ball, expecting Malen to track back to help out. Malen recognises it too late (again!) and decides to dash into the box and ends up scoring from the wingback’s cross.

In those first 5 minutes, Geertruida – right in front of Koeman!! – is gesticulating and screaming to his team mates as the Koeman tactics were wrong. Austria does it differently. No Baumgartner and with Sabitzer playing way higher up.

Schouten can’t defend the space, Veerman is lost. Geertruida constantly needs to choose and Van Dijk – our captain – is not able to fix the issue on field.

Oranje started zonal but you can’t defend the space if you constantly have less players in that zone than the opponent.

After 20 minutes, Koeman decides to go man to man on the field and instructs his players as such. But man to man means that if you lose your man once, you are in trouble.

Veerman can’t cope with the intensity and was hella untidy on the ball. Almost half of his passes didn’t end up at their destination and he fumbled possession a lot. Simons comes on for him and Reijnders goes back to the six position.

In my view, Malen should have been taken off as well.

Funnily enough, we should have been 2-1 up by them but both Reijnders and Malen miss sitters (at this level). Both miss kick the ball and in both cases I think it’s a matter of stress. Of muscle stress in the body. Both chances were easy, bread and butter opportunities. Hitting the target but seeing your attempt blocked is always a possibility, but misshitting the ball is usually a result of not being “loose”.

Koeman gives his players the hairdryer at half time, and I’m fairly sure this went both ways! The players must have psyched themselves up as early in the second half, Geertruida – now in midfield- wins the ball and launches Simons. He finds Gakpo who does a Gakpo: 1-1.

We all thought: business as usual now. But our midfield keeps on getting in trouble as we do exactly what Austria wants. We fail to play the ball through the centre, and are pushed to the flanks where they can press us easily.

Their second goal comes from their left, again. And again it’s Malen jogging back to cover his man, giving him all the time to pick a pass. Van Dijk and De Vrij leave a lot of space in between them allowing for these penetrating runs from the Austrians. And we see a series of errors. First Malen jogging back. The two central backs opening the door. Schouten defending and blocking the ball like a little girl and Gakpo needing to track back 50 meters to cover for another team mate and eventually, also Gakpo marks the player in wrong way.

We get back into the game using Plan B: Wout Weghorst. And within minutes, the simple approach works: good cross, header back, excellent ball handling (but not hands) by Memphis: 2-2.

And I foolishly thought: okay, now we’ll get them.

But, they got us. In the 83rd minute, it was Marcel Sabitzer running like a mad man with the ball, while Oranje was dreaming of another get out of jail card, it was Schouten who let his man go, De Vrij stepping up to put pressure on …. empty space and most tellingly leader and captain Van Dijk lurking two yards behind the last line of defence, thereby playing Sabitzer on. Who scored magnificently.

So both Gakpo and Schouten are guilty of letting a man go, but… it was never their man! Chaos on the pitch.

This Oranje was dressed down completely. Including the coaching staff!

After the match, the commentary of the players was dumbfounding. Sombre, cliched comments like “I wasn’t good” and “we need to do better” and “they were everywhere” and “I wasn’t sure who would pick up who”.

Captain Van Dijk didn’t get much more out than container terms and cliches

Jerdy Schouten was the only player who actually talked about football, tactics and application. All the others were quick to defend poor Joey, by saying “the coach could have subbed all of us”. Well well well…

Even Koeman had to admit: yes it was a disgrace. And he got the question: if we are kicked out of the tournament after the first knock-out game, what will this mean for your future? Koeman has a contract till 2026 (incl World Cup). Koeman made it clear he’d probably pack his bags if that was going to be the case.

All in all, in my book, Memphis was one of the better players and scored a really good goal. Gakpo had his moments. Ake was as per usual pretty good and Verbruggen can’t be faulted, but otherwise…

The most disturbing thing for me, was the lack of maturity, the lack of tactical smarts and leadership on the pitch.

Sure, Koeman didn’t pick the right players nor tactics, but when you have experienced players from City, Liverpool, Inter Milan and Atletico on the pitch, you expect leadership. It felt like Geertruida was the only player, with Schouten, who was trying to make a change really early in the game already.

Where was Van Dijk? Who can play the Van Hanegem, Van Bommel, Wes Sneijder or Frank de Boer role? Grabbing a team mate by the ears and read him the riot act? Did it come to this in our society (not just football): we look at the coach to see what needs to be done? We look at the WHO to tell us what to inject? We look at the government to find out what is appropriate and what is not?

Disgusted. In one word.

Tell me your solutions please. And not “Koeman needs to go!”. That doesn’t help now Tell me your solutions for the next games.