Dutch Football was one of the world’s footballing super-powers; now the Netherlands team is lagging far behind the world’s best teams. After tremendous success at back-to-back World Cups, the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2016 European Championship, despite being in a relatively easy qualifying group.

Now, the aim is to put that failure to bed and get to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Unfortunately, the campaign has not gotten off to a scintillating start, with four points dropped in the first three matches. What went wrong, and what is being done to remedy this epic downfall?

End of a Generation

The Dutch have always produced a factory line of talent, but the last generation was something very special. Players like Rafael Van Der Vaart, Robin van Persie, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder could have played for any team in the world at their peak. Nowadays, these players are all on the wrong side of 30 and have declined drastically. Robben and Huntelaar are the only two still playing in one of Europe’s top five leagues and Sneijder is the only one to have made an appearance for the national team so far this qualifying campaign.

It was not supposed to end up like this—there was supposed to be an easy transition—because the very next group of players were supposed to be just as talented. Royston Drenthe, Maarten Stekelenburg, Ryan Babel, Ibrahim Afellay and Eljero Elia were at one point some of the most sought-after youngsters in Europe. Not one of them has lived up to his potential. In fact, the only one still with the national team is Stekelenburg who is desperately trying to revitalise his career with Everton.

These players were supposed to be the backbone for the Oranje by now. Instead, the team have had to rely on former stars who are past their prime and youngsters who are not ready to lead a nation to get results.

The pressure is on for players like Virgil Van Dijk, Kevin Strootman, Georginio Wijnaldum and Quincy Promes to mature quickly and run the team. Although none are over the age of 26, they are the veterans. Perhaps it is unfair to put all that pressure on their shoulders, but this is the situation that the Dutch team is in. Yet another youth movement in the Netherlands is needed to save the national team.

Back to Dutch Football

Louis Van Gaal might have been thought of as a genius during the 2014 World Cup, but his philosophies are most likely what have put the Oranje in this mess.

For decades, the team had success playing 4-3-3. This was instilled into the nation by the legendary “Total Football” side of the 1970s. This style has is based on fluid, attacking play, where the forward players can interchange positions to confuse a defence and create scoring opportunities.

The one downside to this style is that is leaves massive holes defensively. To counteract this flaw, Van Gaal completely changed the style of play. He decided to adopt the more defensive and counter-attacking style of the 5-3-2.

This change in formation is what allowed the Netherlands to dismantle defending champions Spain in the first game of the 2014 World Cup. Unfortunately for Van Gaal, there are a number of key short-comings with this new formation that he drilled into his team which were later exposed.

First and foremost was the reliance on individual brilliance from Arjen Robben, who was incredible during the World Cup. When he was not in the squad, this Dutch team struggled to create chances. The second was that the system was foreign to many of the players.

The 4-3-3 is something that is played by almost every team in the Eredivisie and all throughout the youth level. It is something that every Dutch player is accustomed to. In these short tournaments, often coaches have limited time to cement their own philosophies and style. That is why the 4-3-3 was paramount to to the success of the national team; it was something that could be done by players without much training as a unit.

Player Selection

Now that is looks like the national team is returning to their philosophical roots with the 4-3-3, it is paramount that Danny Blind makes the right team selection. This might seem like an obvious statement, but it is something the former international player has struggled with.

A perfect example of this was his team selection in the recent defeat against France. Blind kept the same general squad that he had a few days prior which thrashed Belarus 4-1. The difference is that France and Belarus are not at the same level, and it was complacent to think that they could get the same result by playing in the same way.

In both games he had a midfield consisting of Wijnaldum and Strootman. Both are tremendous talents with the ball but struggle when the team is not in possession. This was fine against Belarus as the Dutch had possession for most of the game. So it was confusing as to why these players were thrown out there without any protection against a France team which would obviously have much of the possession in midfield.

Instead of adding in a hard tackling defensive midfielder like Jordie Clasie, Blind inserted Davy Propper, another creative midfielder. Low and behold, Pogba’s goal was partially due to poor goalkeeping, but it was also caused by Strootman who failed to close him down. Had that been Clasie, there is little doubt Pogba would not have had that much time on the ball.

Another perplexing selection was the centre-back Jeffrey Bruma. He was partnered with Van Dijk in both qualifying games and they looked shaky. Bruma has taken massive strides in the last few seasons which earned him a move to Wolfsburg, but he and Van Dijk are not natural partners.

Van Dijk has consistently been a top five centre-back in the Premier League since moving from Celtic. If he has one flaw is he occasionally gets careless in possession. So why pair him with Bruma, who also struggles with the ball at his feet; especially when arguably Hollands most talented centre-back since Ron Vlaar, Stefan De Vrij, is sitting on the bench? The no-nonsense De Vrij and the skillful Van Dijk could have been the perfect pairing.

The onus is on the Dutch coaching staff to get the most out of the incredible youth talent on offer without wearing them out. Players like Memphis Depay were perhaps relied upon too early in their career, and have since struggled. Keep this impressive spine of Wijnaldum, Strootman, Van Dijk, De Vrij and Vincent Janssen, but continue to sprinkle younger players like Riechedly Bazoer, Davy Klaassen and Rick Karsdorp into the side. Let them grow together and this “rebuild” could be much quicker than most pundits would suggest.

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