Four Dutch defensive weaknesses that England can exploit in their semi-final (2024)

The Netherlands are slight favourites for Wednesday’s European Championship semi-final against England.

Despite having their own travails during this tournament, they have been far more productive in attack — and, alongside France, boast arguably the best collection of defensive talent in the tournament.

On Monday, The Athletic analysed the style and strengths which Ronald Koeman has sought to implement — build-up play which focuses on creating one-vs-ones and back-post crosses, a midfield system which aims to replace Frenkie de Jong, and a Pep Guardiola-esque use of Nathan Ake in midfield.

But despite England’s lack of attacking sharpness, there are weaknesses in this Dutch team that Gareth Southgate’s side can exploit. Here are four of them.

Set-piece issues

This is not the England side of 2018 who were a danger from any and all dead-ball opportunities — but the Netherlands have struggled throughout the tournament.

In Virgil van Dijk, Stefan de Vrij, and Ake, the Dutch have three dominant aerial ball-winners. The issue is when any of these three are not the primary defender.

Neither of the central midfielders, Jerdy Schouten and Tijjani Reijnders, are particularly strong in these duels, while with Memphis Depay as the starting forward, the Netherlands do not have the luxury of being able to drop back a physical striker for defensive corners.

This cost them against Turkey. They had already been fortunate that Abdulkerim Bardakci had volleyed over Hakan Calhanoglu’s free-kick from 10 yards out, but another set piece 10 minutes later put them 1-0 down.

For this corner, the Netherlands placed some of their weaker defenders on the near post, with De Vrij, Van Dijk, and Ake defending the centre of the goal. This is relatively standard practice.

However, with the initial corner defended by Van Dijk, and knocked towards the far edge of the pitch, what was the near post became the far post.

Arda Guler has had a breakout international tournament, showing his ball-striking from the opening match against Georgia — and with this much time, could effectively pick his spot. He identifies a mismatch between his own centre-back, Samet Akaydin, and Dutch defenders Reijnders and Steven Bergwijn. Akaydin easily headed home from less than six yards.

England, with strong aerial attackers — including Harry Kane, John Stones, Marc Guehi and Jude Bellingham — as well as a proven ability to innovate at corners, could take advantage.

This was not the first corner that the Netherlands have conceded this tournament — with Adam Buksa scoring Poland’s opener this way. Here, Joey Veerman fails to nudge him off his run, giving the striker a clear run at Van Dijk and Denzel Dumfries. While technically Dumfries’ man, who cannot match Buksa’s leap, Van Dijk is also caught flat-footed, and Poland went ahead against the run of play.

One thing to note here is that the Netherlands tend to improve as the game goes on — they usually put 6ft 5in (196cm) striker Wout Weghorst on midway through the second half, which adds a fourth aerially dominant ball-winner to the side.

Poor pressing

The organisation of their press is one area where England have a clear advantage over the Netherlands. While England are much more proactive defensively, the Netherlands will settle into a mid-block more quickly, after an initial, cursory attempt at pressure.

However, that initial desire to win the ball is often poorly executed, putting undue pressure on the defence. Take this example against Turkey, where the Netherlands are in their 4-2-3-1 defensive shape.

Right-winger Cody Gakpo presses Kaan Ayhan, who cuts inside to avoid him. Depay is not cutting that off. The issue is that Schouten and Reijnders have slightly switched off, and jogged upfield — putting four Dutch defenders into a tiny area of the pitch.

With one turn, Ayhan has time and space — and can play an incredibly simple ball into Ferdi Kadioglu, who drives upfield. The Netherlands were fortunate that the left wing-back keeps the ball himself and was dispossessed, rather than finding another one of the multiple options on offer to him.

Here is another example from the same game. The Netherlands are protecting their 2-1 lead, but are disorganised. Weghorst presses — but is totally alone, and is easily evaded by Bardakci. While Weghorst is pressing, Schouten is dropping deep to maintain his connection with Reijnders, while Xavi Simons is pushing to his right to cover the left wing-back.

This creates a large pocket in space — which, in the final five minutes of a tight match, the Turkey centre-back can simply wander into. He puts Kerem Akturkoglu in behind — with only a last-gasp block from Micky van de Ven preventing Zeki Celik from converting the cross.

In Stones, England have one of the best centre-backs in the world at exploiting a sloppy press, moving into midfield, and playing a dangerous ball.

Lack of midfield athleticism

To an extent, this leads on from the problem above. The 3-2 loss to Austria in the group stage is a good place to start — with all three goals linked to this issue.

The Eredivisie has a slower pace of play than international football, meaning that the starters in this game, PSV Eindhoven midfield pairing Schouten and Veerman, could be put under pressure.

Both lack top-end pace, and while Schouten’s game intelligence means he excels at intercepting the ball in patterned play, both midfielders struggle to help out their defence in transitional moments.

Take the opening goal, where, again, the midfield pairing has pushed too high amidst a disorganised one-man press led by Depay. This is a position they can only adopt if they have the pace to recover. They don’t.

One ball through the lines to Marko Arnautovic leaves Schouten and Veerman unable to recover. Right-winger Donyell Malen busts a gut to get back — and in sliding in, is unfortunate to score an own goal.

Austria’s winner is the clearest example. Marcel Sabitzer gallops into a huge space between the lines, and despite appearing to have the angle on him, Schouten cannot influence play for 40 yards.

Sabitzer eventually lays the ball off to Stefan Posch, but when the ball goes to Christoph Baumgartner, Schouten has switched off again. He is caught ball-watching, and cannot cover Sabitzer’s run — who smashes in Austria’s winner.

The Austria defeat was probably the Netherlands’ worst performance under Koeman, and changes were made — with Veerman dropped and Reijnders pulled back from No 10 into the double-pivot.

This has helped somewhat with the athleticism issues — but the more offensively-minded Reijnders has his own positional issues when out of possession, and can struggle to pick up runners.

Bellingham’s ability to box-crash means that he is the ideal player to exploit this weakness — while this advantage can be further drawn out if Gareth Southgate selects wingers who run in behind, and are dangerous in transition. More on this below.

Space in behind Dumfries

One of the Netherlands’ biggest strengths in attack is their use of Dumfries. The right wing-back is outstanding at maintaining his width and providing an overlapping option, with the notional right winger (usually either Bergwijn or Simons) dropping inside to create an overload in midfield.

But with this being their main attacking weapon, it is natural that Dumfries can be overexuberant — and this can be exploited.

The Romania game is a good example of this, where Romania’s relative lack of width meant that Dumfries was rampant. Yet here, when a ricochet in midfield led to a surprise change of possession, look at the awkward shape that the Netherlands find themselves in.

They are fortunate that the bounce of the ball means that Denis Dragus cannot hit Ianis Hagi in stride — and Dumfries’ recovery pace limits the attack to a shot from distance. This was a let-off.

Here is an even better example, where Dumfries justifiably sprints up the right wing — look at the space if Depay can find him. However, when Tottenham’s Radu Dragusin clears the ball onto the Dutch defence’s left side, Dumfries is far too committed to get back into play. Dennis Man squares the ball, which quickly finds its way to Nicolae Stanciu.

One potential soft spot of the Dutch system is that the right-sided centre-back is De Vrij, the slowest of their defensive options, yet the player who is asked to cover for Dumfries’ bursts. Stanciu was easily able to get on his outside and take a shot on goal.

This is the key area which England need to consider. Bukayo Saka has been England’s most dangerous attacker in Germany — yet will be marked by Ake, who has been the Netherlands’ most consistent player.

England need to move away from their right-side dominant attack — and with the ability to counterpunch on the left, choosing players who are defensively sound while being able to burst into that space is pivotal.

If fully fit, this could mean restoring Luke Shaw to the left-back role — whose natural left-footedness would allow England to break quickly, or selecting a player like Anthony Gordon, whose willingness to run in behind is the best way to exploit the space outside De Vrij. For this specific role, Phil Foden is not the best option.

The Netherlands’ right-hand side is both their strength and a potential Achilles’ heel — will England simply attempt to shut it down, or make changes in order to exploit it?

(Header photo: Maja Hitij – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

Jacob Whitehead is a reporter for The Athletic, who covers a range of topics including investigations and Newcastle United. He previously worked on the news desk. Prior to joining, he wrote for Rugby World Magazine and was named David Welch Student Sportswriter of the Year at the SJA Awards. Follow Jacob on Twitter @jwhitey98