The UEFA Nations League got back underway this week, with Portugal sealing a place in the final with a convincing win over Switzerland. All attention is now on The Netherlands and their opponents England, who are both looking to continue their rapid rises in improvement and recent good form. England, out to prove that the World Cup was not simply a fluke, will have their work cut out against a youthful, ever improving Dutch side, who have been boosted massively with the breakthrough of talents such as Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs de Ligt. In this tactical preview, Ill look at how both teams will look to combat one another, and how England will look to stop the conductor of this Dutch side De Jong, using tactical analysis.
Team news
Many players from both sides, will have just joined up from the UEFA Champions League Final, but Ronald Koeman has stated that Virgil Van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum will both feature. Harry Kane did not look match fit in the final, and with Southgate remaining silent about whether or not he plays it is anyones guess. Kanes abilities would be a perfect tool for England, as I will explain later in this preview.
Hollands offensive style of play
Id expect The Netherlands to line up in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, as they have done against other sides who play a 4-3-3 like England. When playing with this system, Hollands full-backs are very aggressive, overlapping whenever possible and moving far up the pitch. We can see in the example below, with both full-backs in picture highlighted, how far Hollands full-backs push on.
This allows them to create overloads on fullbacks and get crosses into the box. This is done as seen below, with the winger pinning the opposition full-back or centre-back, while the full-back makes a quick overlapping run. If the opposition full-back chooses to match the run of the full-back, then the winger will be allowed to turn at run at the defence. It is therefore vital that both Raheem Sterling and Jadon Sancho are aware of this and work hard to track back with these players.
The counter-press
Of course, with full-backs so high, there is always a threat of being hit on the counter-attack, so how do Holland stop this from happening often against them? The answer is their counter-press, in that as soon as the ball is lost, Holland press the ball to win it back or cut passing options for the ball carrier. Hollands system suits this well, as counter-pressing works best with a greater number of players, so these high full-backs also contribute to the counter-press.
We can see an example of their counter-press
