At the beginning of the evening on Monday, Sipke Hulshoff’s instructions blared across the training field on the KNVB Campus in Zeist. The 48-year-old Frisian is the field coach and therefore the most important assistant of Ronald Koeman, national coach of the Dutch national team. Koeman is the manager who oversees everything, he doesn’t find leading field training the most enjoyable part, which is partly why he has brought Hulshoff to his staff.
His specialty is honing attack patterns and specific match situations. He also does this at Feyenoord, where he is assistant to coach Arne Slot. Orange requires a different approach. International matches are short, the number of training sessions is limited and you are dealing with internationals who have different views on the game at their clubs. For that reason, stability is important at Oranje, from there we can build.
Once a playing method has been chosen, it is not obvious to change it quickly. When Koeman took office at the beginning of this year, he plainly opted for the traditional 4-3-3: four defenders, three midfielders, three attackers. Better known as the ‘Dutch School’: attacking football through a careful structure, with real wingers.
“Depth counterside, of course! Great Noa,” Hulshoff shouts enthusiastically to PSV striker Lang.
“Now the gas is on,” it sounds, to make it clear that we need to speed up.
“You don’t always make a run for yourself, nor for someone else,” adds Koeman.
While most attention was paid to Koeman’s words in the press conference on Monday afternoon – this group “corrects” each other too little and is “too nice” to each other – in the background, a different way of playing is being worked on in relative silence. In preparation for the important European Championship qualifying match against Greece on Thursday. The contours can be seen in a training session on Monday, where many basic players are missing because they are resting after playing for their club the day before.
It is striking that the Dutch team uses a different formation during an exercise to fine-tune the attack structure: there are now three defenders in the center (instead of four) and two backs ‘high’ on the sides. There are two attacking ‘tens’ running between the two central midfielders and striker Wout Weghorst.
The aim of the exercise is that when the opponent puts pressure on the defense, the attackers are quickly reached via midfield and the sides.
“Very good boys, lure and accelerate,” shouts Hulshoff.
“Speed up Matthijs, come on man!”, he says to defender De Ligt.
“Depth on the inside, good choice!”, he says during a through pass to Steven Berghuis.
Crucial international matches
After the summer holidays, Koeman started calling some key players. He wants to do things differently, after three defeats and eleven goals conceded in four games. Putting pressure on the opponent (‘very poor’), the defensive positioning (‘not good’), the mutual communication (‘not good’) and the technical development of the game (‘not seen enough’) are causing him ‘headaches’.
The urgency to change something quickly is undeniable, the Dutch team awaits crucial international matches against Greece, Ireland and France in the qualification for the 2024 European Championship in these months.
He knows he might be criticized, but he does it anyway. Koeman switches to a formation with a block of three central defenders and two ‘wingbacks’, attacking full-backs. With this he thinks he can better organize the pressure on the opponent and build in more defensive security. When all players are in Zeist on Monday, he will inform the entire selection. The plan is that they will play against Greece on Thursday.
It is a turn out of necessity, after Koeman largely broke with the tactical line of his predecessor Louis van Gaal at the 2022 World Cup during his presentation in January. Koeman emphatically went for 4-3-3, not for Van Gaal’s criticized, more conservative 5-3-2 system.
When Koeman took office, he spoke to key players about this change. What played a role in this is that some previously hinted that they were not always happy with Van Gaal’s way of playing. Koeman now says about this: “They wanted something different, in the form of us putting more pressure forward.” That is what he emphasizes, it is about the intentions with which the other system is implemented. “I want to push forward, play offensively, not wait.”
The discussion about 4-3-3 and the Dutch School – regularly sharpened by The Telegraph, in favor of the way of playing – seems to have been pushed into the background for the moment. With Koeman, Van Gaal (already before the 2014 World Cup) and Frank de Boer, several national coaches have now come to the conclusion that the classic system no longer suits this Dutch team.
Systems such as telephone numbers
At the same time, the importance of game systems should not be overestimated, Koeman believes. Something that many top trainers have been saying for some time. “The system is perfect before kick-off. Everyone is in the right place. But then the game starts and the players destroy it by running around.” This quote, or words to a similar effect, is attributed to the Uruguayan Washington Etchamendi, who made waves as a trainer in South America in the 1970s. For César Menotti, former national coach of Argentina and former coach of FC Barcelona, team formations (4-3-3, 5-3-2, 4-4-2) were like telephone numbers: meaningless.
To indicate: the value of classical systems thinking about football tactics has been under discussion for decades. According to some top coaches and analysts, it is now largely outdated. The game has become so much more dynamic and faster in the past twenty years that the formation on paper hardly does justice to the positioning and movements in the field, let alone the offensive or defensive intentions of a team.
There is more passing, more running, more changing of position and more playing between the lines. Defenders who cover the entire flank are in fashion, while classic wingers with ‘chalk on the studs’ have become rare.
It’s about players recognizing spaces, understanding the opponent’s movements and, above all, the intention with which a team plays, Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola said in an interview. Then, according to him, it does not matter whether a team plays with three or five defenders on paper, with or without a striker.
It is an echo of Van Gaal’s theory, who insisted at both the World Cup in Brazil (2014) and Qatar (2022) that his choice of five defenders and two strikers did not mean that the Dutch team would play less attacking football.
Sprints in depth
The main reason that Koeman is changing course is that this selection is better equipped for a more modern way of playing. The Dutch team has several central defenders at the top of Europe, giving Koeman a lot of choice for the three positions at the back. And the fast, physically strong wingback Dumfries is at his best when he can make sprints in depth.
Flexibility and anticipation are the key words. “It looks like we have five defenders,” says captain Virgil van Dijk, after the 3-0 win over Greece, with three assists from Dumfries. “But if they put pressure with two men, there are three of us at the back. If the three of them put pressure, you try to solve it differently. You have to be able to switch to a formation every time that gives you a good position in possession of the ball, even if we lose the ball. It is always organizing, communicating, looking at each other.”
Up front, the Dutch team has two attackers, Xavi Simons and Cody Gakpo, who are most dangerous when they come from the axis of the field – and not when they are stuck against the sideline. Koeman positions them against Greece for that reason as a ‘double’ 10 behind striker Weghorst. “We liked it up front, we had a lot of freedom,” says Gakpo, who made it 2-0 and had a nice rush that made it 3-0. “Because we play with five at the back, we have a little more room to play at the front.”
Although their role is not entirely without obligation; the three attackers must constantly provide depth, says Koeman, something that was emphasized in training this week. “Then you tear a defense apart. And you get spaces in other places.”
It is nothing new for Koeman. In his previous period as national coach (2018-2020), he started a number of practice matches in a 5-3-2 formation. But at the time he was not satisfied with the field occupancy. “You often have an extra man left at the back, but you don’t have enough elsewhere,” he said later. After which he switched to 4-3-3.
Late on Thursday evening, Koeman acknowledged that he “may have” been wrong about the qualities of the players up front. He assumed that 4-3-3 would also be possible with this group. “Only, I didn’t see that again.”
To a question from one Telegraphjournalist how anxious he was for the match against Greece because of his conversions, Koeman said with a quip: “I knew that the chopping block was already ready at your house.” Then more seriously: “I had something more that I felt in my stomach: things must be going well.”
Next test: Sunday evening in Dublin against Ireland.