Tunisia might well be the weakest 2026 World Cup nation ever, but they’re not easy to predict.
Where Koeman was able to spend months analysing Sweden and Japan, Tunisia has had two national team coach changes this year. First Lamouchi, after Tunisia underwhelmed at the Africa Cup and now Renard after Tunisia’s loss versus Sweden. He took the reins versus Japan and who knows, we might see yet another coach tomorrow.
Koeman will be best advised to just focus on what we can do.
Left back Ali Abdi: “We were never given time to build, every time they (?) break us down, change things and start again without pushing through. We go to this World Cup with players who never really practiced together. Japan prepped for four years and we only had days.”
All this results in lots of miscommunication during their games. They have not been able to reclaim a ball around the opponents box and they conceded 5 goals in two games, from personal errors. more than any other nation.
Which system Tunesia will play?
Renard said after their Japan loss: “We lack structure and clarity. And when we finally started to get some form of structure, it simply wasn’t enough.” Lamouchi started working on a 4-4-2 shape, but abandoned this after a loss in a friendly versus Belgium and he switched to a 5-3-2, a system his players had never played before. This was versus Sweden and they copped 5 goals. The squad has 4 wingers and three strikers and in the 5-3-2 system, 4 of them can take a seat in the stands.
They can’t even have their defenders on one line, breaking their own off side trap, which allowed Isak to escape the trap and prep the first Sweden goal. Coach Lamouchi decided to bring two attacking mids as controlling mids, a central defender as wingback and a left winger as right back. Somehow, this didn’t work. He is still wondering why. The Tunisian federation decided to can him.
Renard copied the shape of Japan in his first game: 5-4-1 and was able to get ball possession in the wide areas, but that never amounted to anything.
The space was kept limited, but still their defence was vulnerable, due to the lack of forward pressing by the central defenders. The defensive mids were constantly bamboozled by the Japanese and Ueda had the freedom of the pitch due to the defenders’ lack of forward thrust.
As their defenders are not comfortable pushing up, Koeman might be tempted to use Memphis from the start. The coach wants to find options to let Depay build on his rhythm and Tunisia could be the ideal opponent.
One would expect that Tunisia at least can play counter football, like Sweden and Japan, but no. The 5-4-1 was executed at the expense of the wingers and Renard used the playmakers on the flanks, which resulted in a terrible lack of depth.
The Tunisia goal versus Sweden was a freak situation, from a long throw in. The only real attempts on goal were all from dead ball moments. That is the only threat they’ll carry.
How to prep the team?
Koeman will not know what to expect. The 4-4-2 is bound to fail, but the 5-4-1 was only selected because Japan plays like this. Koeman will have to prep the team for different scenarios. One thing we do know, is that the distances between their players is an issue. They are not well drilled and our forwards could have a field day.
We are facing a team lacking quality and confidence. Tunisia wants this tournament to end. For Oranje, an ideal opportunity to build confidence for the knock out stages.
One reason why Koeman might not use Memphis is the yellow card situation. Van de Ven, Summerville and Depay have allow and picking up a second one means a suspension for the first knock out match.
I think it might be good for Koeman to use another left back, as Mickey hasn’t been doing too well.
We might see:
Verbruggen
Geertruida Van Heck Van Dijk Hato
Gravenberch Kluivert Frenkie
Malen Memphis Gakpo
I expect there will be limited space for marauding Dumfries and as he has had a tough season with injuries, we might want to give him a rest.
Summerville and Brobbey will be keen subs for the second half.
Kluivert deserves a run against this opponent, as I think Reijnders’ game is less suited against this – most likely – compact playing Tunisia.
I predict 5-0. Memphis, Kluivert, Malen, Gakpo, Summerville and Brobbey on the score sheet.
“Somehow, this didn’t work.”. Haha! Great analysis as always, Jan. I’d love to work new players in to gain experience and confidence, but I also want to preserve continuity and get the team firing on all cylinders. Maybe a first half – second half approach?
I’ve purchased a few jerseys for my daughter over the years. She has a 2010 Oranje jersey that would now fit a child’s doll, and a Lieke Martens jersey with the lioness badge. But ironically her favorite is a 2022 Tunisia jersey that matches her personality perfectly — Sassi!
I feel Koeman should risk Summerville and Van de Ven in case they coped up a yellow. Summerville > Malen and Van de Ven > Ake. That’s the purpose of bringing players along for moments like this. With these changes, I don’t think the dynamics of team be very much affected.
I think Koeman should be very careful. We should be ready to take on anyone in the next round, but need to strategize. I really feel like this is not the typical relax and try the 2nd team or bench members. Finishing 2nd means taking on Brazil. Brazil have issues in qualifying and in friendlies leading up to the WC. They had a mediocre game vs Morocco. But they’re still Brazil with insane expectations at home and abroad to win. Despite all their current issues, they would have a decent shot to win against us.
Morocco is a very high octane team firing on all cylinders. Yesterday’s game vs Haiti was a great one to watch for neutrals. It was open and they were attacking in wave after wave. I’m not saying Morocco are a much easier team, they are in a form from the African Cup and even getting to the semi-final in the last WC. But given the choice, I would play them over Brazil.
As far as Tunisia, they have been one of the most disappointing teams so far. Sweden and Japan had a field day with them. I am expecting we do the same. The goal differentials will matter as to who finished top. I hope Sweden doesn’t make it too easy for Japan.
Anyways, I’m not sure if FIFA now have amnesty on yellow cards after the group stages. If not, unless a player from the starting team is carrying a yellow or an injury, I would start them for continuity and chemistry. I definitely want to see Brobbey start. Get him some more goals to boost his confidence. Kluivert should start over Reijnders. I don’t mind seeing Hato in the 2nd half if we are up by a decent margin. No Memphis unless we have a 3 goal margin.
Koeman might have wanted us to lose by playing Memphis again!!!
Germany beat Curacao 7-1
Curacao tied Ecuador 0-0
Ecuador beat Germany 2-1
Welcome to the World Cup 2026 everyone!
Personally, I’ve enjoyed watching Curacao — they’re lively and creative and certainly look to go forward. They just don’t have the refinement or cohesion yet that’s needed to excel at this level
They have been very impressive considering that they such a small population. I’m not sure Germany was taking this game seriously or not, but they have not looked good.
Up by 2 goals within 6 mins! Happy for Brobbey to get his 3rd goal. Please do not touch him Koeman before the 75th min. Game slowed down significantly. Not much happening on the left with Gakpo. Seems like most of our attack is coming from the right. Dumfries has been active, but Malen has been very ineffective. We need to put in a few more.goals against this Tunisia team that looks like they wanna go home right away.
Japan/Sweden still scoreless. That fits us very well.
Agree! Just starting the second half now. I figured many changes were coming, but Koeman and I obviously don’t see things the same 😉
Most of the team has played okay so far, but for me Gakpo, Malen and Gravenberch have been too quiet, and unless he’s crossing the ball, Dumfries looks like Bambi on ice!
I’d love to see Reijnders and Gravenberch develop into a dynamic midfield duo with Frenkie supporting, but they tend to disappear a little too often.
Also, I just really prefer this two-tone orange and black look vs the all orange. Just looks more authentically Dutch!
Virgil to me still seems slow / hesitant to rotate in coverage. Tunisia just had a break with a clear overload on the right, but he didn’t communicate or react to cover Ake until the ball was essentially in the box. The sequence yielded a corner and Tunisia scored off it…
So stupid and disappointing. There you go. This defense gives up a corner goal from Tunisia who haven’t done anything meaningful so far. This is why it’s so hard to take this team seriously. You can’t go anywhere when you keep giving up easy goals. Personally, I’m impressed by even smaller teams that play their hearts out with laser focus and concentration while defending.
And with Japan now scoring, we are tied on points and goal differential
Own Goal is becoming a real scoring threat for us!
Haha, yeah. Good redirect of that corner by Van Hecke
1-1 now in the Japan/Sweden game. Elanga is looking like a superstar LOL!
Yes. That was a big help! Speed kills
We’re looking a little nervy on defense. Giving up far too many blasts from just outside the box.
Memphis now coming in for Brobbey…
The combination Malen/ Dumfries once again isn’t working. Sometimes Malen is playing as if the Netherlands is up by 6 gols. He shown no urgency. He lost many balls today. No need for him to be a starter.
If we have to go further in this world cup, Gakpo has to be consistent. He can’t be one day good, one day bad.
Today he was horrible.
Against Morocco, you neutralize Hakimi, there is no Morocco. Van De Ven has been slacking, I’m not sure who’s going to handle him.
Agree. Malen just hasn’t been doing anything right lately. And yes, his chemistry with Dumfries is also broken. Summerville absolutely must start versus Morocco and from here on out. This is where we will miss Timber against players like Hakimi. He is a RB but I’m sure if he was available, he would play LB over VdVen and Ake. Ake is doing fine defensively, but he’s not been visible much on offense when he got the chance. It’s clear age has caught up to him slightly as you can see he is not that energetic high flying player for 90+ mins.
And Gakpo again shows he is average when he is not given space to operate. The man needs to change his mentality. If his dribbling game and his cut to the right are taken away, he needs to be supplying crosses to the middle. You kind of see Van Dijk, Frenkie, favoring going to the right a lot more than they go left.
I also want to see Verbruggen come and contest balls on in coming crosses and corners. He stays at his goal line. With that height, he needs to be more confident to assert himself aerially. Either punch the ball or outright pull it down. You can’t always trust your defense to clear everything. I know it is a gamble for goalkeepers to come out, but he needs to develop that innate instinct better and not depend on his reflexes at the goal line.
It was a pretty dull game for having no scored three goals, and the second half was pretty apathetic. I share your concern about Dumfries interaction with the eing on his side, whoever it is. Gakpo’s impact seems proportionate to the space he’s given and today he had little.
Morocco may be inconsistent, but they’re looking to go far again in this tournament, so we are going to have to play a great game to handle them. They are certainly a tough first knockout around opponent!
After the Sweden game I was expecting Oranje to up their game versus Tunisia. More chances, less sloppy play, and maybe a 5-0 win (at least). Instead we saw a Dutch team dropping back in quality. It’s always like line dancing with Oranje: two steps forward, one step back kinda thing.
I thought it was weak. Of course Tunisia doesn’t want to play and don’t give much space away, but if you go and play walking football you can’t create much.
And how sloppy were we? Passing that never got anywhere. Dumfries crossing balls from one corner flag to the other flag. Gravenberch shooting balls into Row Z.
I thought it was pathetic.
Malen and Gakpo were never able to take on their men. I expect Koeman to bring dribblers, against this Tunisia. Kluivert, Lang, Summerville…
Players like Reijnders are really wasted in these games.
But ok, we qualified as group winners. Big deal. The real test will come Monday. I will prep a pre match post I am not going to do a post on this Tunisia game.
Well Japan, took the easy but tricky road, our schedule as it seems now:
R32- Morocco
R16 – Canada
QF – France
SF – Spain
Final against??
France is really the one team I would like to avoid more than any team. At least until the SF. I rather play Spain over them. The only thing holding them back is Dechamps tactics because they are stacked on paper.
I would say it is a good WC if we did one better than QF from Qatar. Looking at the squad man to man from 4 years ago, we have improved players in Gravenberch, Reijnders, a more mature Frenkie, Verbruggen over Noppert, And if Brobbey /Summerville can keep this form, definitely better than our previous frontline. Koeman is Koeman, so no upgrade there
Well Japan’s path depends on getting past Brazil. I still see them defensively suspect at times. They have a decent shot beating Brazil but a lot of things have to go right for them.
If we want to be World Champion we need to take it one game at the time, we are still tweaking the team, who could imagine Brobbey (our third striker) would be first now, and yes on a good day we can beat all including France, YES WE CAN….
Also don´t see Malen playing at starting 11 against Marocco.
Yes, take it one game at a time. We have to be ready to beat anyone and everyone. I am a realist and understand the strengths and weaknesses of our team. But I also like the path of least resistance. Sometimes in tournament play you need luck and hope to avoid teams that could be more challenging than others.
Y’all see a gol Dembele just scored. This is what we need Malen to do on the wing but he can’t. Very simple and you don’t have to be a Messi to do that.
This generation is way too average
The Norwegian defender gave Dembele acres of space on that flank. That is why these type of players will definitely make you pay for that kind of play.
Summerville had a similar goal vs Japan which is why Malen should definitely be on the bench.
Same Dembele goal again! Same defender with acres of space. LOL!! What an idiot.
I think Malen is a top striker in a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1. Koeman said it constantly in the run up to the WC, “Malen is doing well at Roma. That is not exactly how we play, so careful with the comparisons”.
We know Summerville didn’t play due to his yellow (and calf?). But he will from now on, until Koeman wants to shore up midfield with the box, when we face the likes of England or Spain. But I can see Summerville even pushing Gakpo out of the team.
Koeman keeps on stressing that Gakpo is played in too late all the time. He is facing two or three opponents in that situation. Gakpo is amazing when he is the first to get the forward ball as he can dribble, is fast and can play the inside pass or shoot on goal.
I think Malen’s role will be reduced to sub who might come in when there is a lot of space to run into, and then probably as a striker.
it’s good to have different striker profiles, but Brobbey is the only true #9 at this level. Weghorst might claim the same but he is simply not good enough for 90 minutes.
I think VD Ven will be ok versus Dembele. He will need to give 100% focus on stopping him and not think too much about attacking.
Dumfries will also have his hands full with MBappe. I think normally, France would be too strong for us.
But I do believe we can beat any other team on a good day.
But hey, let’s try and beat Morocco first. That will be hard enough as it is.
Agree Jan. I’ve never really been a Malen fan. He tends to be successful only in certain limited situations against certain types of teams. But I’m glad we have him for those situations/teams.
One of the best things about this 2026 Orange team is the diversity of options we have in attack — Brobbey, Gakpo, Summerville, Malen, Dumfries, Weghorst, Lang, Memphis, etc. — so many different styles and proficiencies across the front line, which, if we use correctly, will enable to us to defeat any tactic used against us. None of them are true superstars, but if we get to the point where they’re comfortable working together and we can consistently change the point of attack, it will be very difficult for opponents to gameplan for and stop us.
All that said, we’ve also got to get those players the ball in positions where each of them can be dangerous, and so we’ll have to see if our midfield is capable enough to manage that task
@ Jan
How would you approach the game against Morocco? How would handle Hakimi? What would be your starting 11?
I have issues with De Jong. When is he finally going to show up? He did very little 4 years ago. I haven’t seen the De Jong from Ajax. The De Jong that we saw against France and Germany a few years ago at the nation league. The De Jong that used to carry the ball forward, dribble his way forward, penetrating. Teams used to be so concerned that they used to put 2 people on him. I haven’t seen that in a long time.
The old De Jong would be our key to this team success.
I thought Portugal looked pretty dismal against Colombia who really took the game to them. Then I remembered who was their manager. In contrast, Congo rallied to make the knockout round by just attacking in waves.
So many of the European countries are playing dull tactics so far while the South American and African teams are much more adventurous. Thankfully, we’ve been more attacking (at least in spells) than many of the other European teams and hopefully we’ll keep up that philosophy as we advance
Agree. Spain, England, Portugal, Germany all looked bad. Portugal probably wanted to finish 2nd and avoid Argentina on the right side of the bracket? 0-0 vs Colombia did just that.
I am all for playing flowing, open, and attacking football. But a lot of times that kind of strategy opens you up defensively in a do or die knockout games.
My thing is to always balance offense and defense especially against tougher opposition. We can’t leave the entire pitch for the opposition to run on. Van Dijk and Van Hecke were half way inside the opposition’s half a lot of times in almost all our group games. Can you imagine trying to do that vs Mbappe/Dembele/Barcola/Doue?
Style is great. Fun for neutrals to enjoy, get excitement, and feel good. But substance matters as well. You need to know when to use which strategy. Play to your strength but also compensate to adjust your weaknesses.
My other fear is penalties. It just seems that Dutch teams are horrible when it comes to penalties. I think I read the team hasn’t lost a game in WC competition going back to 2010? We got eliminated on penalties in 2014, 2022 and in this long tournament, that will most likely come up again where teams play not to lose. We need to take penalties seriously. Have designated takers. Make sure they don’t get subbed off. Practice, practice, practice.
Just read the horrible, heartbreaking news for Gakpo and his partner. Puts the WC in its proper perspective.
Very sorry to hear about Gakpo’s loss. Thats a terrible thing to go thru in the middle of a tournament. The report says he has decided to stay with the team. Huge respect for him. I hope he finds the mental fortitude to be able to perform under the circumstances.