The Netherlands’s field tilt – a statistic that shows how far away from its own goal line a team is passing the ball – was very low again, below the halfway line, implying a lot of safe, if not pointless, passes. In the last 15 minutes of the first half of the World Cup qualifier against France, much of the Dutch possession was indeed pointless, or, at least, ineffective. They were directionless when trying to advance.
Last year, Dutch journalists Michiel de Hoog and Sander Ijtsma from De Correspondent offered a pertinent explanation for the on-going malaise in Dutch football. They argued that Dutch football had simply become too obsessed with ball possession, a basic tenet of the late Johan Cruyff.In the Dutch league, the average field tilt was 54 meters, two meters less than a number of other European leagues (56 meters), they found. Dutch clubs and the national team had a pathological obsession with possession.
That was in evidence against the runners-up of Euro 2016. So it was, back in March, just days after Cruyff had died after an illness, when these two teams played out a friendly at the same venue in Amsterdam. The game was paused in the 14th minute. A huge banner depicting Cruyff's Dutch jersey number, 14, was unfurled and a minute’s applause followed.
Dutch football was united in grief because its godfather was no more. But the visitors were already leading by two goals. Holland were, at best, abject. They played at the level of minnows, like the Faroe Islands. In a 5-3-2 formation, they were completely dysfunctional. Bruma, van Dijk and Daley Blind, the head coach’s son, failed miserably in central defence.
On Monday night, by the time the ineptness of Dutch possession showed, particularly in the second half, Paul Pogba had rifled in a long-range shot, with a mild outward serve, past a fumbling Maarten Stekelenburg. At last, the boy wonder, with his astronomical price tag, performed for Les Bleus – solid and efficient, with measure and a good degree of decisiveness. After Pogba’s goal, the outcome was never in doubt, because, throughout the 90 minutes, the Dutch simply weren’t comfortable on the ball.And so the Netherlands remain in transition, with poor game play and, equally, poor results.
It's been downhill since the World Cup
Two years ago, the Netherlands had set the Brazil 2014 World Cup alight with Robin Van Persie’s dainty, looping, diving header against Iker Casillas and Spain. The Dutch had gone on to provide more memorable moments during the tournament with Louis van Gaal transforming a blue collar squad into genuine contenders. In the quarter-finals van Gaal famously subbed his preferred goalkeeper Jasper Cilessen for Tim Krul, who parried two Costa Rican penalties in the deciding shoot-out.
Argentina eliminated the Oranje in the semi-finals, but the Dutch were cunning and effective, and not as negative as they had been at the South Africa 2010 World Cup. Yet, after the surprising achievement in Brazil, the Netherlands have plummeted during qualification for Euro 2016.Wales, Albania, Northern Ireland, Hungary, Ukraine and Austria were all participants at the European Championship, but Holland had failed to make it out of a qualifying group with the Czech Republic, Turkey and Iceland, who would become the barnstorming sensation of the tournament.
The downturn has felt existential in Dutch football. After good results at the 1978 World Cup and 1988 Euros, Holland played badly at the next major tournament. In international football, cycles are not uncommon – Germany also struggled after World Cup wins in 1990 and 2014, but the Dutch demise is universal in its proliferation: not just a whacky blip, but cutting across playing personnel, coaching, youth development and board level.
When the Big Four went missing
The "Big Four" – Robin Van Persie, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart, who have been at the heart of the team for years – have declined. They play in peripheral European leagues, or, in the case of Robben, at Bayern Munich, where he constantly struggles with injuries.The defeat against France marked the first time in 14 years that none of the Big Four featured for the Netherlands, because of injuries or non-selection. But, in general, there is a paucity of top-tier prospects at the youth level in an academy system that was once a conveyor belt of prodigies. Again, the theory of cycles may apply.
The Dutch FA, the KNVB, reacted to the crisis by analysing everything from resource allocation to the ingrained Dutch tactics of a 4-3-3 formation with a focus on possession. The KNVB wants the Oranje to regain a prominent role in international football, but have acknowledged that the Russia 2018 World Cup will probably come too soon for that. Group favourites France offered a fine chance and benchmark to push on with the rebuilding process.
If much of the Netherlands’s game was apathetic, there were positives too: the back four were firm and the overall play, disciplined – a mirror of the team’s limited qualities. The hosts might well have snatched a draw but for a clear penalty-offence by Laurent Koscielny, missed by Slovakian referee Damir Skomina, and a fabulous reflex save by Hugo Lloris from Memphis Depay’s close-range attempt.
In doses, Blind’s team demonstrated an admirable blue collar collectiveness – a rightful recognition that, at this moment, the Dutch must take a humble route to recalibrate their game.
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