The Netherlands is one of the four undefeated in this World Cup (along with England, Morocco and Croatia) and much of that is down to the precautions his coach takes Louis van Gaal, old fox of strategies and lover of 3-5-2 of the one that has been showing off in Qatar 2022. Here, some data on those in the orange shirt in this Cup.
Operation on names
That van Gaal does not fall in love with the big stars It’s nothing new… And in this World Cup it happened again: in his debut he started with the defender Matthijs de Ligt (Bayern Munich), one of the best-known faces of the teambut it can be seen that he was not convinced and he had no itch to remove him from then on and bet on the kid Jurrien Timber, 21-year-old defender of Ajax, to complete the right sector of his line of three centrals. The famous plays as a libero Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) and to the left it moves Nathan Ake (Manchester City).
The DT was not desperate to put the goalscorer Memphis Depay, another of his figures. The Barcelona player did not physically arrive at the tournament well and only started the third game. Van Gaal also corroborated his fame as an enhancer for covered players with goalkeeper Andries Noppert, who entered the World Cup without a match for his team. “Only Louis could have thought of me for the World Cup. I’m proud and grateful,” said the player from 2.03 meters tallwho four years ago was a member of Italy’s B and between 2019 and 2021 was in the Second Division of his country.
Laterals to attack
When the Netherlands is in the attack zone a narrower team is made (4.5 meters more compact than Argentina in that situation according to FIFA statistics). This is reflected in the tendency of their full-backs to step on the rival area, supported by the line of three power stations that bank them in the background. This gave them notable returns in the round of 16 against the United States: center behind the right back Denzel Dumfries to the penalty point and goal of his colleague left Daley Blind (2-0) and a cross from Blind and a goal from Dumfries (3-1). Even the one from Inter also assisted in the 1-0 draw, again with a cross back into the middle of the area: the preferred formula of current football.
pressure in the middle
Of match with USA The very withdrawn posture that the Dutch showed in the first half drew attention, almost waiting in their field and coming out against (barely 37% of orange possession). It was not bad for them: 2-0 up at halftime, but it is clear that van Gaal was not very happy, although he is not a dogmatic of the game of possession either. At the exit of the locker room he made two changes and evened out the issue of possession quite a bit (it went up to 46%).
Of course, the modifications were in the midfield, an area in which the Netherlands exerts a lot of pressure to recover the ball: According to FIFA, it is the quarterfinal team that leads this category. His motorbike is Frenkie de Jong (Barcelona), leader of his team in kilometers covered with 45 so far in the World Cup. As a counterpart, the orange cast It is not characterized by pressing the exit from the rival bottom due to the lack of attackers.
Everyone steps on the area
Like Netherlands does not play with a classic nine -rather it has the skilled Memphis Depay (1.77 meters) moving everywhere and messing up the rival defense like a false nine- many of his midfielders reach the area in a definition position. This was seen in large doses with Cody Gakpo (1.90), author of three goals in the group stage: headlong, anticipating the goalkeeper at the door of the penalty area to look for a front cross (vs Senegal); with an unassailable left-footed shot from the door of the area (vs Ecuador) and entering the area with a dominated ball and taking a cornered right foot (vs Qatar). But also in the aforementioned goals against the United States or with the flyers Davy Klaasen and de Jong officiating as fishermen and sending them to save rebounds of the goalkeeper in the small area.
Van Gaal has three classic nines on the squad, but so far they have been having little action. Vincent Janssen (1.84 meters; Belgian Antwerp player) started his debut and lost the position, later entering only half an hour against Qatar. The giant Wout Weghorst (1.97; of the Turkish Besiktas) has played 33 minutes, spread over the last three games. While the most famous Luuk de Jong (1.88 meters; exBarcelonatoday at PSV) has not yet had the opportunity to wear the number 9 shirt.
ball recovery
To the Netherlands too It was very difficult for him to recover the ball against the Yankees: it took him 17.3 seconds to do so when he had averaged 11.25 in the first phase. In addition, he lost it faster: 9.4 seconds in the duration of the tenure against the USA against 14 seconds on average in the group round.
It is worth noting that Argentina is among the best in the World Cup when it comes to recovering the ball: it takes 9.1 seconds to do so (best number among those classified to the quarterfinals).. While his holdings last 15.7 seconds on average (behind only England, which has 17.5).