So what results in the last match in these groups deliver us the dream opponent, .......and what result a nightmare. Which one would be your favourite best 3d of the countries in these 3 groups?
Finland is only marginally better as Macedonia and have to say Belgium doesn't do this a whole lot better so far
Meeste kansen gecreëerd in de groepsfase:Donyell Malen - 5 (in 93 minuten)Memphis Depay - 5Frenkie de Jong - 4Patrick van Aanholt - 3Denzel Dumfries - 3Marten de Roon - 2Wout Weghorst - 2Georginio Wijnaldum - 2#NED— Bart Frouws (@bartf) June 21, 2021
Dumfries the Beast is in a goal-scoring drought... unacceptable!! Anyway, nice win overall. My only concern is the there is a sizable gulf (10 meters or so) between the three CB's and the midfielders... creating way too much space and time for the opposing team to launch long-distance missile shots. Both Ukraine and N. Macedonia have exposed this flaw. I think Austria (Alaba?) had also one really nice shot from the distance that went close. Portugal (CR7 and Bruno Fernandes, B. Silva) will make a meal out this vulnerability. Hopefully this will get fixed! I don't want to re-live the Maniche nightmare
Agree. In the KO teams tend to tighten up and win by 1 (unless they score more with counter attack). Top 5 performances IMO so far: 1. Wijnaldum 2. Dumfries 3. Frankie De Jong 4. De Vrij/De Ligt
https://www.espn.com/soccer/uefa-eu...ng-red-zone-how-fresh-are-europes-top-players Euro 2020 stars entering red zone: How fresh are Europe's top players?
What I did like about this game is that it gave us clarity on the two most important questions. Going forward Malen over Weghorst and De Roon over Gravenberch (unfortunately). Gravenberch just doesn't have enough bite to fill the role we need from him at this moment. I wonder how Klassen or Koopmeijers would have done as an alternative, but unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see that. So against better teams it looks like we will need De Roon. In that case I'm fine keeping Blind as the 3rd CB for his play-making ability which we will need.
FdB will play extra cautious in the knockout stage (rightly so) - so De Roon is guaranteed to start the next game to add reinforcement steel to the midfield. I think that's been the the plan all along... to have De Roon up against the powerhouse. I'd probably lean towards Weghorst atm. Not only he's more experienced, but also he adds different dimensions to the offense (e.g. attacking the long/high ball, holding-up play, etc.) Save Malen for the second half... he would be a very dangerous weapon coming off the bench when the opposing defense is tiring out. Really need the three CB's to "click" well... understanding and covering for each other. They are getting better, now that they've played 2+ games together. I am not super comfortable with Stekelenburg and PVA when it comes to keeping a clean sheet.
I don’t think anyone here actually thought FdB was ever going to start Gravenberch over de Roon. I won’t be too harsh on Gravenberch given that it’s his big tournament debut. He will surely come good, special talent. However, moving forward this isn’t the time to be finding yourself, we need every player to deliver, stat. With that being said, de Roon has actually managed to not totally suck like the games prior to the EC. The whole team has undergone an overnight transformation in performance as far as that’s concerned. So I’m Ok with de Roon as long as he doesn’t start sucking again. Depay is the only one that still needs to catch on, unfortunately. I thought Malen played really well in this formation give or take the odd misplaced pass or overzealousness. Imo he needs to start next to Depay. Really liked Gakpo’s cameo. Hope he gets more minutes along the way.
de Roon surprisingly is the only Dutch player to receive a YC in the group play. A second one and he would have been suspended for the next match.
Your happy with Blind in defense? Good on the ball but cannot run or cover for anyone. Athletically challenged big time. I thought perhaps he would get the De Roon role as the DM, but he does not have the legs or lungs. De Boer is Playing with absolute fire having him in Defense. De Vrij not exactly fleet of foot either let it be said but he’s a real defender playing at a high level. If Oranje playing with 30 yards behind them I don’t like the risk. Entire team must be dialed in when defending and limiting the opponent’s space. Now is the time for tactical fluency in Defense
Gravenberch needs to get better in defending and use of the ball going forward. Big bright future for him.
Blind is not as exposed with De Vrij and De Ligt alongside him. Thought he’s been doing quite okay defensively (though to be fair, the offensive levels of Austria and NM weren’t that high). I liked Blind’s ability to send the ball forward. Took pressure off a bit from Frenkie. But, as I posted earlier, somebody needs to be tighter to the midfield otherwise the opposing team would take advantage of the extra space and shoot happily from distance… so maybe Blind (+ De Roon can work on practice to plug the hole.
Go back to Nation League final, Portugal did a very job pressuring FDJ and Blind and Oranje did not have answer (and we had Koeman and VVD). The Netherlands' first shot in this game came in the 65th minute; by which time Portugal had already had 14 shots and opened the scoring. Hopefully FDB prepared the game well this time. This team needs all to step up, PVA and de Roon to do a better job defending. If opponent making FDJ and Wijnaldum chasing the ball/defending most of the times, pressuring FDB and Blind from the back then there will be no attack. I'd start Malen and only uses Weghorst if Oranje behind and switch to 4-3-3 to tie a game. I'd like to see Gakpo before Promes, Berghuis or LDJ for sub. If we can get past the round of 16, the road to SF looks achievable. If we can get there, anything can happen (and we have Krul for PK).
This is what worries me about Timber. The opponents havenot been that good and only if our luck continues we will get a relatively "easy" opponent popping up from the best 3d out of the D/E/F groups. Gravenberch has played more and shown more than Timber in the CL/EL/Eredivisie, yet he falls short atm in the Euros. Timber hasnot been really tested in these 3 matches and we now get attackers who know how to exploit inexperienced opponents.
I really would put in Koopmeiners as an extra lock on the door next to de Roon instead of Blind. So my back line would be: Dumfries-de Vrij-de Ligt-Koopmeiners-Wijndal Wijnaldum-de Roon- de Jong Weghorst-Depay/Malen
Oranje had only two days rest for the final, after playing 120 minutes. Portugal was hosts and had one day more rest, playing Switzerland and beating them in normal time. This is not to be underestimated: "Clear conclusions were drawn from more than 27,000 matches between 2001/02 and 2010/11. After only two rest days (e.g. Thursday-Sunday or Wednesday-Saturday as a match schedule), football teams have: - Less chance of winning (-40%) - More goals conceded in the last half hour (+75%) - Fewer goals in the last half hour (-70%) This effect is stronger if a team plays an away game after only two rest days. Because then you have to travel. Which comes at the expense of recovery time." https://www.vi.nl/pro/waarom-het-onverstandig-is-om-veel-te-wisselen-tegen-noord-macedonie
Rapportcijfers Oranje | Blind en Wijnaldum uitblinkers in ploeg zonder zwakke schakels Het Nederlands elftal won ook zijn laatste poulewedstrijd in de Johan Cruijff Arena. De ploeg van bondscoach Frank de Boer was met 3-0 te sterk voor Noord-Macedonië. Traditioneel na elk duel van Oranje deelt verslaggever Mikos Gouka weer cijfers uit. Om in aanmerking te komen voor een beoordeling moet een international minimaal 30 minuten gespeeld hebben. Mikos Gouka 21-06-21, 20:21 Laatste update: 21-06-21, 20:26 6 | Maarten Stekelenburg De doelman hield de nul, maar werd wel tweemaal gepasseerd. Beide keren redde de VAR. Daarnaast belandde een onhoudbaar schot van Trajkovski tegen de paal. 6,5 | Denzel Dumfries Dumfries had zomaar opnieuw kunnen scoren, maar keeper Dimitrievski redde toen de PSV’er alleen voor hem opdook. Halverwege gewisseld. inexcusable miss. we don't accept that from you DD!! 6,5 | Stefan de Vrij Degelijke eerste helft, wederom spelend als centrale verdediger aan de rechterkant. Werd halverwege ingeruild voor Ajacied Jurriën Timber. 6,5 | Matthijs de Ligt Kopte na rust van dichtbij bijna raak maar Trickovski redde op de doellijn namens de bezoekers. Na rust nog een fraai afstandsschot. 8 | Daley Blind Alsof de Ajacied bezig was aan een potje voetbal op een zomeravond ergens in een park. Altijd goed opgesteld, altijd de goede oplossing. 6 | Patrick van Aanholt Patrick van Aanholt lijkt elke wedstrijd een stap vooruit te zetten. Nog niet bepalend zoals ploeggenoot Dumfries aan de rechterkant, maar groeiende. 7,5 | Frenkie de Jong Spelmaker bepaalde weer het tempo van Oranje. Hield de bal in de ploeg waar het moest en bemoeide zich met de aanvallen. In slotfase gewisseld. 8 | Georginio Wijnaldum Wijnaldum had na het seizoen voldoende aan een paar dagen Dubai om uit te rusten. Onvermoeibaar met als beloning twee treffers na rust. 6,5 | Ryan Gravenberch De vervanger van Marten de Roon kreeg de volle negentig minuten van bondscoach Frank de Boer. Voor rust nog wat slordig, na rust heel degelijk. 7 | Memphis Depay Memphis opende de score en gaf de tweede treffer op een presenteerblaadje aan Wijnaldum. De spits groeit naar zijn beste vorm. 7 | Donyell Malen Donyell Malen liet zich nadrukkelijk zien bij zijn eerste basisplaats dit EK. De aanvaller bereidde de 1-0 voor en was bij de 3-0 op fraaie wijze betrokken. 7 | Frank de Boer Borduurde één helft verder op de ingeslagen 5-3-2 weg en koos één helft voor 4-3-3. Met 9 uit 3 wedstrijden glansrijk groepswinnaar. Invallers 6 | Steven Berghuis Het slachotffer van het 5-3-2-syteem wilde zich graag tonen zoals op de trainingen. Was betrokken bij de 2-0, maar verder iets te vaak te slordig. 6 | Jurriën Timber Dit EK bracht de jonge Ajacied al een basisplaats en een invalbeurt van een helft. In beide gevallen bleef hij op degelijke wijze overeind. - | Cody Gakpo Speelde te kort voor een beoordeling. -| Quincy Promes Speelde te kort voor een beoordeling. -| Wout Weghorst Speelde te kort voor een beoordeling.
Interesting thought… I can see Koopmeiners being part of the back three (he has played CB at AZ numerous times). The only (and big!) issue is that Koopmeiners is getting a cold treatment from FdB judging by the number of minutes he’s had so far. So yeah, good idea on paper but won’t happen
Piece on why Weghorst is the better option than Malen https://btranalysis.blogspot.com/2021/06/wout-weghorst-and-occupying-bodies.html?m=1