Frenkie de Jong flops, Peter Bosz has to make himself tougher.

The Netherlands national team played Sunday evening Dutch time in the last moments to a draw against Japan. Oranje looked on course for a 2-1 victory, but conceded the equalizer in minute 88, giving the Netherlands, in a sense, a false start to the 2026 World Cup.

The first half saw little to no pace in the team’s play under head coach Ronald Koeman. In addition, almost all attacks went down the right and there was hardly any danger created.

Probably PSV coach Peter Bosz will have been extremely annoyed with Frenkie de Jong as well. At least, not directly with De Jong but with the decision by the national team coach to let De Jong drop back when Japan had possession. Our so-called star footballer from FC Barcelona, who almost never dares to play the ball forward, but almost always chooses the easy option by passing it wide and back.

Peter Bosz must have to make himself tougher, that can hardly be anything else. Bosz would never choose to let De Jong drop back into the team’s own sixteen-yard area, but would simply have him press. Even NOS analyst Rafael van der Vaart had during half-time critical words for Oranje and also pointed to the midfielder.

Van der Vaart saw that the Netherlands didn’t have a pace in the game where De Jong was also highlighted. ''It’s going so slowly. It’s knitting: they bring him on, wait, and look. But you have to have already seen that. Van Dijk has to get the ball and play it through in one go to Gakpo. At a certain point they can no longer double up. What Pierre shows is very good. Let them just cover him with two men. Then they lose two men. So Frenkie de Jong doesn’t have to get on the ball at all. Those others have to dribble past. But of course he always wants to keep searching. But then you take people with you as well,'' said the former international midway through the match on NOS.

This is what Van der Vaart said after fellow analyst Pierre van Hooijdonk had noted that De Jong wasn’t feeling right on the ball. ''Japan has set themselves up for the Netherlands national team and in particular for the role of Frenkie de Jong. He is every time extremely well shielded. He just gets encased and doesn’t get on the ball in the way we would like. You then see that the Netherlands national team doesn’t get to play football, hardly at all. If they do once get a bit further and higher up the pitch, Summerville and Gakpo are in double coverage. It’s very busy there,'' Van Hooijdonk said midway through his analysis.

Two years ago during the Euro 2024, the current PSV captain Jerdy Schouten filled in perfectly for Frenkie de Jong, and during that tournament Schouten—unlike that tournament—was able to look for the playing solution instead of only choosing a few passes wide and a few passes back. As everyone knows, Schouten has been ruled out until at least the new calendar year, and such a player would have been of great use to Oranje at this World Cup and certainly also against Japan.