Netherlands were dominated by Italy on Monday evening and slipped to a 1-0 defeat in Amsterdam.
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Interim head coach Dwight Lodeweges decided to make one change from the side that defeated Poland 1-0 with Donny van de Beek coming in for Steven Bergwijn and Georginio Wijnaldum was played out on the right-wing.
From the start in Amsterdam, Italy were the stronger side and the came close to opening the scoring a number of times. However, Oranje survived until injury time in the first-half when Nicolò Barella headed past Jasper Cillessen.
Lodeweges tactical decision to play Wijnaldum on the right didn’t work and on the hour mark, Van de Beek was sacrificed for Bergwijn. By that point, Italy should have been 2-0 up but Ciro Immobile missed a great chance.
Denzel Dumfries and Luuk de Jong were also brought on but neither could have an impact as Italy easily dealt with a blunt Netherlands attack. Memphis Depay also picked up a silly yellow card late on which rules him out of the clash against Bosnia and Herzegovina next month.
Netherlands stay on three points and slip to second behind Italy, who have four. Poland beat Bosnia 2-1 in the group’s other game.
The team is trailing by one goal and not creating enough chances then the coach decides to take off Van Der Beek. What a move
That’s why he is not going to be the trainer. De Jong for de Roon, Memphis to left, Promes to the right, and Wijnaldum and van de Beek attacking middle. Aké for Wijndal. Push the backs up the field and have Veltman play a higher line with van Dijk hanging deeper. But that’s just me.
‘Time for a change’ is right!
If Oranje is going into Euros and WC with Bergwijn, Promes, Malen, Boadu, Van De Beek, De Roon, Hateboer, Dumfries then they won’t win it, and thats what its about.
They are not good enough. Maybe one, two including squad.
They have had chances.
There are a raft of young top players coming through that we need to find out whther they can step up and add to the team.
In De Jong, Virgil (Ake), De Ligt (De Vrij) the Netherlands have the best centre defence/transition from defence to attack in the world. Its simply a case of building from there.
To begin with, get the right two players either side of Frenkie.
OR bring through Gravenbach or the like now and allow Frenkie to start transition then go with the play in a freer role.
OR perhaps bring through Reis to do De Roon’s graft. They have to look for improvement bc its not good enough and time is ticking away.
And it has to be about getting some pace and skill on the wing to create dynamic width and goals. Ihatteran and Stengs should be given a couple of starts, at least. We have the likes of Unuvar not too far off so why are they still persisting with Promes and Bergwijn?
Or find a proper 9 with Ihatteran or the like putting pressure on Depay for the left wing. I don’t understand why Weghourst doesn’t get time. We need to get back to a presence in the box. Weghourst seems the best at the moment, better than De Jong. Let others come along and put the pressure on him.
Set it up solid. And let the boys play!
?———De Ligt——Virgil——–Wijndal
—-Reis———-DeJong——–Wijnaldum—
—Stengs———Weghourst——–Depay—-