Frank de Boer ponders back four as Netherlands seek defensive balance

To 3-5-2 or 4-3-3: this is the question that continues to swirl around the Netherlands team after Sunday’s helter-skelter 3-2 win against Ukraine. Frank de Boer switched from the latter configuration synonymous with the Ajax/Dutch school weeks before shaky defending in the Group C opener at the Johan Cruyff Arena showed how his players are grappling with the system.

Stefan de Vrij was in the middle of a rearguard that allowed a 2-0 second-half lead slip to 2-2 in four minutes and which appeared calm only when the ball was hogged in attack far from Maarten Stekelenburg’s goal.

The 29-year-old De Vrij said on Tuesday: “A lot of people speak about the system. Should it be 4-3-3 or whether 3-5-2 might be a defensive system or not. But in the end it’s all about an interpretation of it. We’ve shown that 3-5-2 can be very, very attacking as well. In 10 minutes [against Ukraine] we had seven shots. So it’s all about the interpretation. And, of course it’s important to attack a lot and that the organisation is in place so that you are there when you lose the ball so you can [try to get it back].”

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De Vrij is correct in saying the Oranje’s version of 3-5-2 teemed with forward thrust, particularly via the pacy Denzel Dumfries, whose swoops from right wing-back gave relief to the Internazionale man and his fellow defenders Daley Blind and Jurriën Timber, a 19-year-old winning his third cap.

The problem was when Andriy Shevchenko’s team came at De Boer’s. At 31, Blind, on the left of the trident, was a sluggish presence given a mini-nightmare by the spurts of Andriy Yarmolenko. With Mathias de Ligt again training on Tuesday De Boer’s first-choice centre-back is expected to return from a groin problem and line up against Austria on Thursday in a match where any victor would be guaranteed to progress.

It will be instructive to see which of Timber and Blind De Boer drops. It should be the veteran despite Timber’s inexperience but will De Boer have the courage to do so? The 51-year-old draws scepticism in his home country among those unconvinced by a CV that shows a chequered recent club career (lowlight: a disastrous 77-day Crystal Palace tenure) and despite the opening victory, the view remains.

De Boer hardly exudes natural authority. Instead, there is a sense of a man operating on the vagaries of hope, an impression underscored by a peculiar remark after the Ukraine game. Pressed about the goals conceded, he said: “Let’s say this will not happen again.”

Yarmolenko’s opener was a product of a defensive mistake; Roman Yaremchuk’s equaliser derived from lax marking. For De Boer to make a bold statement that a system causing his players difficulties will not again create panic casts him as a (callow) hostage to fortune. If there is another defensive horror show expect these words to haunt him.

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De Vrij has already been reminded of something he said after the 2-2 friendly draw with Scotland a fortnight ago. Then he admitted the constant “running” caused by the 3-5-2 would be impossible for the team to maintain. Asked to clarify this on Tuesday, his answer revealed the unease among the squad.

“It’s a question of quality: to defend [by constant pressing] and to play out the ball, for a lot of guys is a new system,” he said. “So we have to get used to certain situations: when you have to step in, when you have to stay back as a defender. It’s very important to keep communicating with everybody. It’s important that we keep training this a lot. And once you do this you can see the improvements – I think you can already see the improvements which we’ve made.”

Maybe so. Or, maybe like Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, the Netherlands should continue to rely on attack as a means of defence. As a cadre of forwards and playmakers Memphis Depay, Wout Weghorst, Georginio Wijnaldum and Frenkie de Jong may offer the best hope of doing what those at the back really should: shield Stekelenburg from the kind of forays that came close to stealing victory from them against Ukraine.