“In the first half our problem was that the distances on the ball were far too great,” the Barcelona midfielder told reporters. NOS. “If the distances are very large between players, you cannot play quickly. Then there are no connections, because the next player is 20 or 25 meters away.”
Valentijn Driessen: Sad Dutch team not in polonaise, but full of grumpy to the World Cup
In addition, De Jong also thought that the Dutch team did not play well, especially before half time. “We make too many wrong choices. In the second half it was a bit better. Not that we played well, but in terms of control. It is mainly the positioning offensively that makes it not run smoothly. We have to improve that. It was not good, we are aware of that. In any case, it has to be better than tonight.”
Virgil van Dijk is disappointed in Poland despite the Dutch team’s more than comfortable starting position heading into the World Cup
De Jong smiled, but it was not really nice that the central midfielder occasionally even ended up in the left back position. “That is not ideal. That is coordination, for sure. And sometimes you have to go along, right. But in principle you want to prevent that.”
Can the Dutch national team become world champions?
Frenkie de Jong goes to North America to become world champion with the Dutch team to become world champion for the first time. Is that realistic? “The potential is there. There are matches we play in which things look good, but of course we have to improve a lot to become world champions. We are also working on that. It’s about coordination.”
Ronald Koeman cracks the Dutch team when they conceded Poland’s goal: ‘This was very bad’
| Position | Team | P | GS | W | V | G | DS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | +19 | |
| 2 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | +6 | |
| 3 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | -6 | |
| 4 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 | -14 | |
| 5 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 3 | -5 |