Stefan de Vrij has left the Netherlands squad after suffering an injury in the 2-2 draw against Montenegro on Saturday.
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Towards the end of Netherlands draw in Montenegro, De Vrij went down and had to be replaced by Matthijs de Ligt. After the match, Louis van Gaal said he did not believe that the centre-back would be fit for the crucial game with Norway on Tuesday.
The KNVB has now confirmed that De Vrij has left the group and returned to Italy as he looks to make a recovery.
Van Gaal will not call-up a replacement because De Ligt and Nathan Ake are available, while Daley Blind could also be played in the centre.
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After the game, LVG said that the Norway result added pressure on the Oranje. I wish he said anything else, because this means they are very fragile and canβt handle the best case scenario stress
So sadβ¦
Just more bad news. People have an over-inflated opinion of de Ligt. He’s still young and often clumsy – it may sound harsh but de Vrij is 5 times the player he is. Almost a guaranteed at least 1 major screw up every couple games. If that happens Tuesday, Oranje may pay dearly for it.
POSSESSION FOOTBALL
The Oranje team must quickly forget the draw in Montenegro and focus on the final match against Norway. Oranje benefited from the sharp striker Erling Haaland absent due to injury. While the Oranje also lost 1 centre-back Stefan De Vrij who was injured in the last minutes against Montenegro.
Louis Van Gaal had to make tactical and formation changes against Norway. And the best tactic is to be yourself by playing Possession Football. Orange must take the initiative to control the game with the ball position.
From the last 6 matches, Van Gaal managed to win 4 matches and 2 draws. Louis Van Gaal played in a 4-3-3 formation with Depay as a striker flanked by 2 wings. Frenkie De Jong in position 6 or defensive midfielder plus 2 attacking midfielders which are usually occupied by Klaassen & Wijnaldum. Against weak teams, this formation went well. But against a compact team with a layered defense this formation is not effective, attacking midfielders, especially Wijnaldum, are rarely involved and seen in the game. The Oranje are often seen playing with 10 men as Wijnaldum is often out of sight.
A good move is to play with 2 holding midfielders who act as controllers. Van Gaal had time to do it with 2 players number 6, namely Frenkie De Jong in a duet with Teun Koopmeiners who entered the 70th minute, and it went well. Unfortunately the duo of almost the same age only lasted 5 minutes after which Frenkie De Jong, who had just received a hard tackle from a Montenegrin player, was replaced with Ryan Gravenberch, who was less focused on defensive issues. Be an incident where it looks like the Oranje midfield no longer dominates after Frenkie De Jong left.
Without realizing it, the goalkeeper was actually the weak point in the match against Montenegro. Bijlow looked insecure, if Ramko Pasveer was there maybe Oranje wouldn’t concede. Analyzes such as Van Der Vaart & Driessen looked for scapegoats and cornered the Koopmeiners in Montenegro’s first goal. Even though the position of the Montenegrin midfielder was closer to Bijlow who came out of his place and Bijlow failed to intercept the ball from the Montenegrin player. Montenegro’s second goal was a disaster for the Oranje. And the first culprit was Daley Blind who did nothing and allowed the ball to be headed by a Montenegrin. Bijlow was again in the wrong position so that the Oranje goal conceded for the second time. Once again I say, if Ramko Pasveer who is on the rise with his club Ajax Amsterdam is played in the match, maybe Oranje will still come home with a win.
Therefore Van Gaal had to dare to make changes by replacing Daley Blind with Tyrell Malacia and Justin Bijlow with Mark Flekken. Malacia have pace and will feature at De Kuip where his club originates while Mark Flekken has done well in the Bundesliga and has conceded the fewest goals. The injured Stefan De Vrij was replaced by Mathijs De Ligt.
In midfield the Oranje have to play with a double 6 to dominate possession. In the match against Montenegro, in 24 minutes Koopmeiners managed to provide a complete pass as many as 34 times while Wijnaldum who played for 66 minutes was rarely seen and only made 16 complete passes. The duo of Koopmeiners and Frenkie De Jong will complement each other because Frenkie is good at dribbling and short passes while Koopmeiners is good at providing long passes and through balls. For the 10th position behind the strikers, give creative player Memphis Depay the opportunity to create. Depay is able to control the ball well, if placed in 10th position he can choose to distribute the ball to the right, to the left, serve the striker or accelerate and shoot.
For the left wing, we still put Arnaut Danjuma who played well at Villarreal and the right wing to Steven Bergwijn who has speed and can also cross. In the striker position, trust the pure striker Wout Weghorst to be the target man. Sebastian Haller is a big striker who has played well this season because Ajax has given him a lot of playing time. Therefore Weghorst should also be given a fair chance to prove his goalscoring ability by giving him confidence as a starter so he can get into the rhythm of the game. And also when there is a corner kick, there is already a goal of a big tall striker as well as when crossing from the wing.
Bergwijn and Koopmeiners can take corner kicks, with Depay focusing on finding space to shoot, and the 3 big Man (Weghorst, Van Dijk and De Ligt) will try to win the aerial duel. For direct free kicks on goal, there are other variations besides Depay, namely Koopmeiners with the strength of his left foot, Depay for direct free kick with right foot.
Starting XI: Flekken, Dumfries, De Ligt, Van Dijk, Malacia, Koopmeiners, F. De Jong, Depay, Bergwijn, Weghorst, Danjuma
Super Sub: Malen & Klaassen