Netherlands – Germany 2-2: Important Lessons In Transition Versus Structure

The Nations League gives us very interesting fixtures, and this edition of Netherlands – Germany was no exception. In a match with a very high level of play, both on an individual level and from a tactical perspective, it was a classic structure versus transition battle that ran out to a balanced score line. Both teams showed what they can do when they click, but struggle to maintain the balance.

Tactical analysis and match report by Sander IJtsma.

The opening rounds of this Nations League series comes fresh off EURO 2024, where Germany probably featured in the highest level game of the entire tournament, but that was still ‘only’ the quarter final, where they crashed out against later winners Spain. While Germany’s result on paper fell far behind their actual level, Koeman’s Netherlands had the exact opposite experience. Constantly papering over significant tactical cracks, they ultimately lost to a late Ollie Watkins goal in the semi-final against England. 

Both teams held onto their managers, and both Nagelsmann and Koeman seek to rebuild a style of play, working towards the 2026 World Cup. For Nagelsmann, in the post Toni Kroos era, this clearly means finding a system that gives ultimate freedom to Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz in central offensive roles. The German national manager even declared both ‘potential Ballon d’Or winners’, which may not be all that far from the truth, but still serves to illustrate how much faith he has in his pair of young stars.

Koeman’s rebuilding is a bit harder to pinpoint, with just one match played and less pronounced choices expressed so far. Against Bosnia, Holland looked like they did for a while, offensively fluent and at times very nice on the eye, but defensively very fragile, with midfielders and defenders easy to manipulate through relatively simple routines. As such, hosting Germany, fresh off a 5-0 thrashing of Hungary, provides a very stern test.

The Netherlands lined up in their familiar 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 system – refraining from the 5-2-3 setup they applied earlier this season in a 2-1 friendly loss against Germany – with one rotation due to fitness issues and the idea to see various competing players active over these two games: Brian Brobbey over Joshua Zirkzee. Bart Verbruggen played in goal, behind Denzel Dumfries, Matthijs de Ligt, Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Aké. Jerdy Schouten played as the number six, with Ryan Gravenberch and Tijjani Reinders ahead of him. The front three consisted of Xavi Simons, Brobbey and Cody Gakpo.

Germany’s on-ball system is best described as a 3-1-5-1 setup, which originates from a nominal 4-3-2-1 formation. Compared to the previous match, Antonio Rüdiger and Nicklas Füllkurg were out. Marc-André Ter Stegen played in goal with David Raum and Joshua Kimmich as fullbacks covering the flanks. One of the holding pair of Pascal Gros and Robert Andrich usually drops between center backs Jonathan Tah and Nico Schlotterbeck. This leaves a very fluid trio of Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz and Florian Wirtz to roam behind striker Denis Undav, who, at 28-years of age, makes his first start for Die Mannschaft.

Koeman buildup, Deluxe Version

After an early wave of high pressure by either team, we got treated to a classic case of ‘Koeman buildup’, the Deluxe version this time. 

As so often under Koeman, the ball ended up with the goalkeeper after some sideways passing. Goalkeeper Verbruggen – selected in part because of his pinpoint passing – hit a well placed long pass into Brobbey, chested it down for Gravenberch, displacing Tah from the German defensive line at the same time. Gravenberch’s through ball sent Reijnders one-on-one with Ter Stegen in more space than he could have ever imagined, as both Tah and Schlotterbeck were way out of position. The Milan man made no mistake and gave Holland a very early lead. 

It took about then minutes before a Wirtz-Havertz connection meant the first German possession spell paid off. Until then, Germany readily succeeded in reaching the band of five behind Undav, but couldn’t muster any meaningful offense from it. Still, the balance looked off for Germany in the first fifteen minutes, with Dutch transitions in vast amounts of space providing more threat than their offensive 3-1-5-1 setup could produce So much was evident in Dumfries’ fourteenth minute set piece header, with the freekick originating from another Brobbey holdup play transition moment.

Zonal marking

As the first half progressed, the Dutch got forced more and more into a deep 4-4-2 block, where they played a crystal clear zonal marking structure. That’s probably the only sensible way to counter the free flowing five-men offensive band that Germany presented, but it’s still a positive sign to see the team in orange step away from the mantra of defenders following their men that we’ve seen so often before. However, with Germany more and more present in the Dutch defensive third, we saw increasing numbers more German box penetration, and this also resulted in a much more difficult Dutch outball.

Here’s how the German setup transformed the Dutch defense into basically a deep 6-2-2 block. For the second goal, it also perfectly exploited the big downside of wide attackers playing fullback roles, when Gakpo completely lost track of Kimmich’s second post run.

The Dutch still had their transition offense going, though. A particular highlight was their twentieth minute counter off a German corner, with Gravenberch’s 50-yard half-volley through ball to release Simons, probably the best piece of individual skill in the game. Simons’ shot, under some pressure, was parried by Ter Stegen, to deny the Liverpool midfielder a classic assist.

Germany turn the game

In the 38th minute, all of the Dutch transition work and optimism got undone with a De Ligt vertical pass that was intercepted by Musiala. The high turnover ended with a deflected Wirtz shot that Undav converted from the rebound. Germany finally rewarded themselves for their brave approach, both on and off the ball. And for a brief moment the scoreboard reflected the balance between German high pressure and territorial dominance against well-executed Dutch transitions. It was pretty equal on the pitch, and equal on the scoreboard now as well.

It wasn’t for long, though. With Nathan Aké stretchered off close to the end of the first half, a strong Andrich crosspass was crossed first time by left back Raum, to end up with right back Kimmich, completely lost by situational fullback Gakpo, with Jurriën Timber to far ahead to recover. From one back to the other, with either defender confused by Germany’s buzzing central offensive band. A testimony to Nagelsmann’s setup.

An open restart

Koeman made the harsh but understandable decision to sub out De Ligt, at fault for the first German goal, to give a debut to Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke. Quinten Timber replaced Jerdy Schouten, while Waldemar Anton came in for Jonathan Tah, probably at least in part to alleviate the pressure by having two central defenders on early yellow cards, as well as to try and provide better counterplay to Brobbey, who won nearly all of his personal duels with Tah in the first half.

The Dutch increased the urgency of play to open the second half as was evidenced by a much higher stance in general. Rather than allowing themselves to ply back in a deep block, they chose to apply more counter pressure and play duels rather than give up territory.

This approach was instantly rewarded with a right back tap in of their own. Intense counter pressure saw a collective of Gakpo, Gravenberch and Simons win the ball back on the edge of the German box. Simons played in Brobbey deep in the German box, who turned his marker Schlotterbeck and crossed it low for Dumfries to convert from point blank range. 

As it happened, in a very open phase early in the second half, Germany almost replied instantly with a Havertz flick off a Raum cross that was built through a delicious low goalkeeper pass / third man combination. It went just over. 

The lack of structured possession play – basically all Dutch possession was transition offense – was very evident in this messy passmap.

Transitions versus structure

As the second half unfolded, more Dutch pressure and spells of well-executed skill were both nice on the eye and productive. Though not rewarded with the biggest of chances, by not dropping back anymore and facing their opponents in duels much more, Holland created more territorial balance and turned the game into basically a sequence of transition moments from one side to the other. That balance suited them much better than suffering the smothering approach seen at the end of the fist half.

Overall, this match was basically a demonstration of the classic battle of territorial dominance and ball control on one end, versus limiting the damage with a defensive approach while playing for transition moments on the other end.

In an ideal situation. Nagelsmann would see his team play out from the back, establish possession in their 3-1-5-1 setup far in the Dutch half, and then profit from individual skill and linkup play. Their collection of talent, with Wirtz, Musiala and Havertz all flowing freely behind the striker fits this approach like a glove, and the Hungary game served as a nice illustration of how this can work.

Finding the balance

However, playing higher quality opposition presents a bigger threat of transition plays that are challenging to contain with six outfield players playing ahead of the ball, primarily tasked with offensive play. This presents a precarious balance. Overdo it, and you’ll be slaughtered on transitions, underdo it and you’ll end up dominating territory while not creating enough. 

For the Dutch, in this game, it was also a case of finding the right balance. In the first half, they dropped back all too deep in order to limit the space available for their elite level opponents to play in. However, with the opponent basically camping in your own defensive third, the outball becomes nearly impossible to play, as we saw in the final fifteen minutes of the first half, when Holland created nothing, while suffering two goals.

The better approach, restoring territorial balance, proved to be the second half style, confronting Germany with more counter pressure and duels, accepting the risk of defending larger spaces, and trading that risk for the benefit of playing further away from your own goal. The transition offense came back, and chances conceded were generally of a much lower quality.

As such, the final thirty minutes of the match saw a much more balanced – and tactically less interesting – situation. With Germany less advanced in general, their chance creation was limited in terms of quality, though still present in terms of volume – six shots in the final half hour. Their slightly lower stance also restored the defensive balance and robbed of the space for transitions, Holland failed to create even one single shot from open play in that period.

Takeaways

This game was all about balance. Nagelsmann deserves a lot of credit for trying to pull off his idealistic idea to play with basically three numbers ten. This puts at least four players ahead of the ball in central zones – three plus the striker – while both wingbacks will be playing with vast amounts of spaces behind them as well.

To take the optimal advantage from those three tens, you’ll also need territorial dominance for them to work. And this will always mean that the remaining three-plus-one rest-defense will need to kill the opposition transitions. Today, this didn’t really work, as Germany only put this to practice in the final fifteen minutes of the first half. In the second half, they were confronted much earlier, lost the crucial territorial dominance and were much less effective.

For Holland, this was potentially an immensely useful experience. We saw the Dutch team do well initially, playing just deep enough to maintain the threat of transition offense, their bread and butter chance creation for some years now. We also saw what happens when they drop deep around their own box and lose the outball. And we saw the challenges posed when Germany adapted to take a less extreme approach in the second half. It killed the Dutch offensive output, as there’s little else apart from transition play.

The video of this match will be played over and over by both coaching staffs, looking for the optimal balance in their respective approaches. We’re in for a very very interesting rematch come October. 

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