Valentijn Driessen lashes out at Ronald Koeman
1 min readValentijn Driessen leads the way when it comes to the disappointment of football-loving Netherlands. Football-loving Netherlands is very disappointed—let that be clear. Of course, attention is drawn to the substitutions of the Netherlands national team. 'Dramatic substitutions by Ronald Koeman spell doom for the Netherlands national team,' Driessen begins his tirade.
Just after the final whistle in Dallas, Driessen quickly put his pen down in order to give the matter a firm dressing and rightly so. Because this bore no resemblance to what Koeman managed with the Netherlands national team. Completely unnecessarily, Oranje handed over a lead in the 89th minute and finished 2-2 in Dallas. In particular, due to cowardly substitutions by national coach Ronald Koeman when leading 2-1, a draw could be recorded.
The World Cup must be underway properly, but the Netherlands can barely be bothered. 'Koeman and game controller Frenkie de Jong promised improvements after the defeat against Algeria and the escape against Uzbekistan. They could somewhat understand the negative sentiment in the Netherlands about Oranje, but that would have the team turn things around against Japan,' Driessen says.
'It is far from that the Netherlands national team is ready yet. The match against Japan showed anything but any guarantee of a good World Cup, let alone a dazzling one. In the first half, the team struggled with a crippling dose of World Cup stress. It was not only cautious; it was even very fearful. Oranje was mainly focused on defending without taking any initiative. The tempo was distressingly low and there was absolutely no movement. The plan was to gamble on one or two switching moments— a corner or a free kick', analyses Driessen Oranje.
'Attacking initiative was hardly taken. Malen was still involved at two moments, but again could not make the difference. The striker’s position is becoming an ever bigger problem, even though substitute Depay showed nothing'.
'The smell of Virgil van Dijk and Crysencio Summerville after a thoroughly boring first half, despite a Japanese equalizer. Instead of pushing on after 2-1, Oranje pulled back and Koeman made changes to his team for the World Cup match. He took all the speed to the side with Cody Gakpo, Donyell Malen and Summerville and went for pulling ahead. The extra defensive accents came with Teun Koopmeiners as right winger and with Nathan Aké bringing in an additional defender. That the 2-2 in the 89th minute was a Japanese header that was deflected and thereby changed direction, didn’t matter. Oranje asked to be put under pressure by Japan and thereby called all problems upon themselves', Driessen lashes out at Koeman’s substitution policy.
Driessen does not fail to take a swipe at a few grassroots players who should be the ones to pull the wagon. 'You can expect from a national coach and the leading figures in the team, such as Van Dijk and the colourless playing De Jong, that they will make the right decisions. Because they all got carried away defending the lead instead of taking initiative on the ball to put the Japanese definitively on their knees, it went wrong after all,' Driessen points to the disappointing Van Dijk and Frenkie de Jong.
Comments9
I think the most important thing is the decision-making in the final pass. The article hints the pressing triggers are on point, but the finishing and the timing of the third-man run still looks slightly off. 🤬
Goal!! or not, our wing play needs more end product. X player got into good positions, but the final ball was missing a bit too often, and you cant do that at this level 😂
Bro if the winger keeps drifting inside like that, it kills the overlap. Give me width and then the fullback runs, that is how you get chances in the final third. 👀⚽
"dropped back" was the right call, tbh. But then we gotta punish them faster on the counter, not recycle possession slowly every time.
The way the article describes the press, it sounds good on paper, but against teams that play through the half-spaces we always get exposed. I still think the first priority should be winning duels higher up.
"PSV need more control in midfield" is facts tbh. If Xavi is the one carrying the ball forward every time, teams will just crowd him and make him recycle possession.
🔥🔥 zzz defense transition though. When they lose the ball, it turns into a sprint-fest and our centre backs end up chasing shadows.
That PSV midfield shape was weird at times, Sangare looked a bit isolated. If they want control, we need one more body in that half-space, not just running.
If PSV go with that high press again, i swear it better not leave gaps for counters. On paper it looks fire, but in these games one bad turnover and youre done.