Poland Netherlands 1-2 EURO 2024

Poland – Netherlands: Late Heroics Cover Up Systemic Issues (1-2)

In the most interesting match so far, both teams held hopes for a positive result. Both were far from flawless from a tactical point of view, but that may have only added to the excitement level for most viewers. Ultimately, substitute Wout Weghorst pulled a result over the line which roughly respected the flow of chances.

Tactical analysis and match report by Sander IJtsma.

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The Volksparkstadion belongs to Oranje” is an iconic phrase in Dutch football history. Uttered by commentator Evert ten Napel, it perfectly encapsulates the 1988 European Championship semifinal, where the Dutch team secured their place in the final. They went on to defeat the USSR decisively, claiming their first and only international trophy.

For their EURO 2024 opening game, Holland returned to that very stadium for the match against Poland. The experience was exhilarating off the pitch, with tens of thousands participating in the traditional stadium match, and other festivities in Hamburg throughout the day. On the pitch, it was equally interesting, though a less festive from a tactical point of view.



Both teams got struck by an injury wave in the weeks leading up to the tournament, leading to key players being absent. For the Dutch, this mainly affected the midfield with Frenkie de Jong and Teun Koopmeiers withdrawn from the initial squad and Marten de Roon and Mats Wieffer unfit at earlier stages. Poland was already confronted with the absence of Arkadiusz Milik, and had to make due with both of their regular striker pair of Robert Lewandowski, who suffered a thigh injury in the final pre-EURO friendly against Turkey, and Karol Swiderski, who injured his ankle while celebrating the opening goal in that same match.

As announced in our tournament preview, Koeman had the Dutch line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen was the preferred goalkeeper, with a four man defense of Denzel Dumfries, Stefan de Vrij, Virgil van Dijk and Nathan Aké. The double pivot consisted of Jerdy Schouten and Joey Veerman, regularly paired together at PSV. Cody Gakpo played as wide left winger, while Xavi Simons played with more positional freedom from the right. Milan’s Tijjani Reinders played behind nationwide fashion and football star Memphis.

Under manager Michal Probierz, Poland won all four of their matches this calendar year, consistently lining up in a 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 formation. Veteran Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny played behind a defense of Jakub Kiwior, Bartosz Salamon and Jan Bednarek. Przemysław Frankowski and Nicola Zalewski played as right and left wide midfielders slash wingbacks, with Taras Rokanczuk as a number six behind central midfielders Stefan Szymanski and Piotr Zieliński. Up front played Adam Buksa and Kacper Urbanski, the latter just nineteen years old and fresh off his international debut. 


The basic 4-2-3-1 setup of the Dutch, with split roles for the fullbacks and the wingers. Poland in their middle ground 5-3-2 / 5-2-3 setup.

The basic 4-2-3-1 setup of the Dutch, with split roles for the fullbacks and the wingers. Poland in their middle ground 5-3-2 / 5-2-3 setup.


Poland’s surprising setup

Right off the bat, it was clear that the Dutch – as expected – dominated possession. While Poland’s composition off the ball was indeed roughly to be categorized as a 5-3-2 formation, their interpretation held a middle ground between 5-3-2 and 5-2-3. Perhaps a 5-1-2-2 would’ve been the best description for those willing to go into such detailed splits.


Poland controls the center of the pitch, and will always have one of the fullbacks free to patrol the wide area and limit Dutch options.

Poland controls the center of the pitch, and will always have one of the fullbacks free to patrol the wide area and limit Dutch options.


All that nuance in their off-the-ball setup succeeded in congesting the central area of the pitch, and with a Dutch strike force centered around a mobile Memphis, conceding wide space was probably a safe strategy for Poland. 

The main reason it all seemingly worked, though, was the persistence of the Dutch attackers in missing reasonable to good chances. Poland, on the other hand, converted their second chances of the match, when Adam Buksa headed home from a direct corner kick. The third consecutive goal that the Dutch conceded from a corner kick.


Koeman-style buildup play

With their work cut out, more focus came to the Dutch approach to creating chances. In the early stages of the game, they may have had a dominant possession share, but all of the chance creation came off offensive transitions, with their buildup play limited to different variations of long ball play.

Most teams so far shared the same modus operandi, with one of the double pivot dropping besides the center backs – hello Toni Kroos – aiming to escape the cluttered center and dictate play from deep. The Dutch stuck to their extremely asymmetrical fullback setup and mostly had Nathan Aké join Virgil van Dijk and Stefan de Vrij in a situational back three. With neither of these offering superior passing on the round, it was difficult for double pivots Jerdy Schouten – who still played an excellent game – and Joey Veerman to reach the final third with their passes.

Everyone who has watched a bit of Southampton, Everton or Barcelona will know all too well that well-coached buildup schemes are not part of Ronald Koeman’s playbook, with nearly all progression being made through the air. Ironically, on occasions where the fullbacks switched roles to provide variations, we even saw Dumfries spraying out long right-to-left crossfield passes, rather than coming on the end of the reverse variant and providing a final third threat.

One variation that would have been interesting against this centrally congested 5-1-2-2 formation, would be advancing a wide central defender to connect with a dropping Memphis. This would immediately present an overload around holding midfielder Romanczuk and give the central defenders second thoughts on never stepping out with their men. 


One option to complicate things to the Polish defense would be to have one of the wide central defenders progress the ball and simultaneously create an overload around the holding midfielder.

One option to complicate things to the Polish defense would be to have one of the wide central defenders progress the ball and simultaneously create an overload around the holding midfielder.


Dutch defensive issues

In line with the steady flow of chances – fourteen shots to four in the first half – the Dutch got their equalizer when Cody Gakpo scored from a deflected shot, fittingly coming off an offensive transition rather than any form of rehearsed buildup play.

While a period of definitive Dutch dominance might be expected after finally earning their goal, the final fifteen minutes of the first half saw Poland establish more grip on the game, exploiting the loopholes on the Dutch off-the-ball setup. Mainly in defensive transitions, it was quite clear that a firm choice between pressure on the ball or positional compactness was never evident. As a result, whenever the first line of so-so pressing was bypassed, Poland had a lot of space to exploit in midfield and the limitations of playing with – especially – Joey Veerman were extremely exposed. Superior talent level kept the Dutch alive in this phase, with De Vrij and Van Dijk making several crucial defensive plays, which prevented this tactical mess from leading to complications.


Urgency

As expected, the Dutch came out of their dressing room with a lot more urgency in the second half, but apart from three long range efforts, they mostly ran into familiar issues. All four of Gakpo, Memphis, Xavi and Reijnders are players who like to receive the ball at feet, rather than make probing runs to receive in space. This led to predictable patterns of movement, and the Polish defenders seemed well prepared not to fall into the trap of moving with their men and leaving space behind.

All of this contributed to balls getting pinged around and technically gifted players mostly overplaying themselves in order to get through a stubborn and well-positioned defensive block. Based on territorial dominance, superior player quality and sheer variation some chances arose here and there, but it became clear over time that a draw became all the more likely.


It's not a bad passmap, until you notice the lack of interplay between Gakpo, Depay and Simons.

It’s not a bad passmap, until you notice the lack of interplay between Gakpo, Depay and Simons.


Impact subs

While the old cliché would say that ‘goals chance games’, here it was more a case of ‘subs chance games’. Particularly the introduction of Donyell Malen for a subdued Xavi Simons gave the Dutch more of a one-versus-one threat plus a better spacing of their front three. While it limited the space for Dumfries to run into, it opened up more room in the right halfspace to work with. It definitely made the Dutch less predictable.

The real impact sub turned out to be good old Wout Weghorst, who was introduced for Memphis, while Jérémie Frimpong came on for Cody Gakpo, which meant Malen shifted over to the left. 

Two minutes after coming on, Weghorst pounced on a deflected pass into the box from Aké, to finish at the first post. A real striker’s goal right after a real striker was brought into the game.

For the final ten minutes of the game, Bart Verbruggen was called upon to make a trio of crucial saves, particularly on a close range effort by substitute striker Karol Swiderski, with Jakub Piotrowski unable to convert the rebound from a very acute angle. 



Takeaways

From a tactical perspective, this was a very interesting game. Poland set up to congest the central areas, and succeeded. It severely limited their offensive contributions, but an early set piece goal and some dangerous plays of dramatic Dutch transitions covered up that aspect of play very well.

The Dutch have their three points, but showed all the issues expected of this team and this manager. Buildup play is virtually non-existent, although in fairness that may only be an issue in the final group game against Austria, which may also be less influential on their tournament with this result in the bag. Against superior opposition in the knockout stages, buildup issues won’t take center stage. Defensive transitions will, though, and unless Koeman does in the next few days what he hasn’t done in twenty-five years before, we will see this issue bite the team sooner rather than later.

Poland gave a fair account of themselves, and were very close to earning a point here. Their defensive setup was well thought out and reflected thorough preparation and coaching. They will probably play their most crucial game next, as a win against Austria seems crucial to earn at least a third place group finish, with a proper chance of proceeding to the knock-out stage. Hopefully, their will get the first choice pair of strikers back, as it’s very tempting to see what this team looks like with Swiderski and Lewandowski up top.



We decided to make all of our EURO 2024 articles free to read. If you want to support our work, consider taking a subscription.

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Sander IJtsma (43) is co-founder and data-specialist of Between the Posts. He is also the man behind 11tegen11, a company that provides player scouting advice and various other data services. Pioneer of the #autotweet to provide match plots on Twitter. Father of three. Now circling back to tactical writing, which was how it all started ten years ago. [ View all posts ]

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