Holland 2-0 Denmark: Dutch struggle to break down a disciplined Danish defence
A quiet game won by two scrappy goals – not really the performance we were hoping for from Holland. Some credit should go to Morten Olsen – his tactics stifled Holland’s creative players and Denmark did have chances to score.
Holland lined up as expected considering the injury to Arjen Robben – Rafael Van der Vaart played on the left, Dirk Kuyt was on the right, and Welsey Sneijder played behind Robin van Persie.
Denmark’s shape was broadly a defensive 4-1-4-1 which matched Holland in the centre of midfield – Christian Poulsen picked up Wesley Sneijder, whilst the two players ahead of him looked to track any forward runs from Mark van Bommel or Nigel de Jong.
Denmark defensive-minded
Denmark essentially set out looking for a draw, attempting to negate Holland’s strengths rather than maximise their own. They managed to do this rather well – Holland created few chances throughout the first half and there was no player on the pitch that really had any time on the ball – everyone was immediately confronted with an opponent and this resulted in a tight, cagey game of few goalscoring opportunities.
Denmark’s defending started from the front. They were keen to make sure Maarten Stekelenburg was unable to play out from goal-kicks to his two centre-backs, with Nicklas Bendtner and one of the wingers closing down and forcing the Dutch goalkeeper to hit his goal-kicks long. This seemed to trouble Holland who wanted to keep possession and dictate the tempo of the game.
Aside from goal-kicks, however, the Danish midfield sat inside their own half and didn’t look to pressure the Dutch player in possession until they got within 40-50 metres of the goal. Their defence, too, sat very deep and meant Holland were unable to play balls in behind Daniel Agger and Simon Kjaer.
Upfront Nicklas Bendtner was doing a decent job in holding up the ball and waiting for the midfield runners. He dropped relatively deep when the Dutch brought the ball into the Danish half, meaning that if the ball was won and played up to Bendtner, he generally had 5-10 yards of pace and could hold onto the ball much more easily than if he had pushed high up against the Dutch centre-backs.
Dutch congestion
A more detailed representation of the Dutch movement
Whilst Denmark were defending well, Holland were not helping themselves when in possession. There was surprisingly little width from the Dutch, with Rafael van der Vaart drifting in too much from the left, and Dirk Kuyt running into Simon Poulsen, who was the best player on the pitch until his mistake in the second half. Holland also found it difficult to get their full-backs into the game because they were tracked well by the Danish wingers. The only players who found space to operate in were Nigel de Jong and the two centre-backs – whenever they played the ball forward or wide, they generally received the ball back straight away as the flair players were closed down, and had no other options on.
A main part of the problem was that van der Vaart and Sneijder were operating in the same space. Sneijder likes to move to the left to find space, whilst van der Vaart looks to move inside. They needed to stretch the play to create spaces in the Danish defence, but the back four sat deep and narrow and dealt with crosses and through-balls well.
On the other hand, the Dutch narrowness and the Danes’ strict instructions to track individual players meant that Denmark ended up playing rather narrow too – it was not unusual to see three of the band of four midfield runners ending up within ten yards of each other when defending, and therefore it was difficult for them to find an out-ball, aside from the long pass up to Bendtner. The Danish four were happy to switch around both in and out of possession, and their best move came when the excellent Martin Jorgensen moved to the left and hit a huge diagonal ball to Dennis Rommedahl on the right, although he wasted the opportunity.
In all, it was a quiet first half – Holland and Denmark both touched the ball in the opposition box just three times in the first half, according to OPTA.
Goal settles the game
No obvious changes at the start of the second half, but an immediate goal. And with the Dutch problems with width on the left, it was ironic that the goal came when van Persie chased a hopeful ball into a deep left-wing possession and crossed the ball in. Poulsen’s header was awful, deflecting off Daniel Agger on its way in, and Holland were ahead despite Denmark’s excellent defensive display.
After that, little happened to actually change the scoreline. The half-fit Bendtner could only last until the hour mark and he was replaced by Mikkel Beckmann, not a natural striker by any means. The Danes didn’t appear to be able to shift from their defensive state to a more positive approach, and offered little goal threat for the rest of the game.
Natural width proves successful for Holland
The main interest came from the Dutch bench, where Elijero Elia replaced van der Vaart and played the left-wing role much, much better – keeping wide and skinning the Lars Jacobsen on two occasions shortly after his introduction, stretching the Dutch play and allowing Sneijder to move into the areas he wanted to play in. It was no surprise that the second goal came from his run in behind the defence – his shot was partially saved by Thomas Sorensen, but it hit the post and rebounded to Kuyt, to tap in and seal the game in the 84th minute.
Conclusion
Holland need natural width. Preferably from Robben, but if he is not available, the pacey Elia should be used to stretch the opposition defence and vary the threat. They had struggled all first half for any flair from the left side of attack, and their two goals came when first van Persie and then the substitute Elia caused the Danes problems from that very position, showing what they needed on a more permanent basis.
The Danes’ near-successful approach suggested that a deep and narrow defensive line could cause Holland problems, and the way the midfield was set out, to deliberately confront the Dutch midfielders and full-backs when they got the ball, could well be used even more successfully by a more talented side. It was basically the complete opposite of the failed Australian tactics against Germany yesterday.
The Danish objective was (a) to try for a 0-0 and if not, (b) to avoid an embarrassment. Their midfield was disciplined and defensive, yet contained four players with ability on the ball – against Japan and Cameroon they will look to break forward more, and having avoided the mauling many predicted, still have a good chance of qualification.
Holland 2-0 Denmark: Dutch struggle to break down a disciplined Danish defence
Good overview, although I’d disagree that the second goal was scrappy. A fine defence-shredding ball through from Sneijder, a neat chip by Elia after running onto it, followed by Kuyt’s tap-in to make sure after it hit the post. (That ball neither flies nor rolls straight, it really doesn’t.) If the pass had been from Xavi, the flick by Messi and the tap-in by Pedro, we’d be admiringly calling it a typical made-in-Barcelona goal, wouldn’t we? (or, perhaps more appropriately, replace Messi with Villa for a typical made-in-Spain one).
Holland’s play in general was scrappy, but that goal – and in fact everything that Elia was involved in once he came on – actually looked like more than one player was having an idea at the same time.
I also don’t see why Elia should be limited to being Robben’s stand-in. The two of them, one on either wing, could be spectacularly effective, if the 20 minutes Elia played are any indication.
I totally agree. Firstly the pass by Sneijder was lovely as well as the chip by Elia. Secondly Holland should really consider to play with Elia and Robben. Nevertheless I believe that Elia is a good joker and one real winger who really operates wide could be enough considering the quality of Van der Vaart.
I think you’re being a little unfair on Holland: Thomas Sorensen had to work his socks off to keep the score down to 2-0. He made some fine saves, which came from what I thought was a pretty interesting Dutch attack.
Probably. Guess I expected a bit more. The Danish players are no match for Holland’s, aside from the centre-backs, but I thought Holland struggled to impose themselves.
S. Poulsen actually saved a certain goal with an amazing kick, which I think makes up for his horrid own goal.
It’s impossible to quantify ‘making up’ for an own goal, but Poulsen (S) did a sterling job in the first half. He corked Kuyt, and forced van der Wiel (or van der Wheel, as ITV referred to him!) either sideways or backwards.
Agree with your assessment regarding S. Poulsen – was having a great game (save for the own goal).
For the Dutch, I guess we’ve seen again what had been questioned about the team before – van der Vaart on left, with Sneijder in mid seems sub-optimal, given their respective skill set. They took space away from each other, instead of creating it. Though to be fair, Kujt didn’t use the space as well as Robben has in recent games. Big shoes to fill though, can’t wait to see Robben start soon.
Either way, very much liked Elija’s presence at the end of the game, would be nice to see him get a start on the left wing instead, much more dangerous (though Denmark had to open up a bit at that point).
Kujt’s tap-in, what’s the defender doing? Just watching as Kujt moves into position? Weak…
OT: Wow, Eto’o just went through three Japanese players to follow up with a beautiful pass – and Choupo-Moting wastes it…
read “Elia”, the ‘j’ is only in his first name ;=)
My thought exactly, great analysis. The second goal was because Agger got too high up in the pitch to follow Snejider because the space between the defence and midfield opened up as the Danish midfield got tired. Lars Jakobsen defended poorly as he didnt close in on Kjaer and finally Kjaer should have got the rebound first but I think he was tired at the end as he hasnt been training properly the last month because of injury. He seemed short of air in the second half and made some poor decisions.
The Dutch will be happy with the three points – as mentioned many times previously, the Danes qualified from a very tough group etc. etc. they were not expected to get battered imo. Hopefully this will lower expectations of the Dutch slightly and they can look to build on what is a great result, even if the performance was not fantastic.
The second goal said everything about the lack of width when using VDV, Sneijder immediately getting more involved in the game and putting Elia through. If/when Robben gets back into the team it could be very interesting, but there was a couple of times that Elia did not get back to cover, which would probably rule out any chance of both Robben and Elia playing together on each wing.
How long have Sneijder and VDV been playing for the Dutch team? Haven’t we seen the same outcome everytime they are in the starting XI together and one of them is forced to play wide? Their skill sets are just too similar and the Dutch system too rigid to accomodate them.
“Haven’t we seen the same outcome everytime they are in the starting XI together and one of them is forced to play wide?”
Yes, we have. It is a trap that v/d Vaart in particular falls into every time; coupled with the fact that if he does get to play centrally, he usually plays too close to the striker, leaving a gaping hole in midfield behind him that Mark van Bommel can’t cover all by himself, you have to wonder what the hell is wrong with the lad’s positional sense.
Van der Vaart’s failure to provide width was our greatest undoing, but I also felt that Van Persie dropped deep too often, so that not 2 but 3 players were occupying much the same space. Because all of them tried to boss attacking midfield, Kuijt didn’t get any balls so the width that was there on the right wasn’t utilised.
As a Dutchman, I think our performance today was worrysome, and we were damn lucky to get that fluke of a 1-0 on a golden platter. Great performance by Elia, though, and I would hope to see Elia and Robben on the wings, and Kuijt on top against Japan, though I doubt van Marwijk will drop van Persie. The latter was seriously off the peg today, and showed all the petulance that he displayed at Feyenoord (also under van Marwijk, incidentally).
One bad game & you want him out..give me a break..sneijder & vdv weren’t upto much either, drop them too!
Van persie is proven quality..so you have patience & know players like him will come good..infact it’s quite promising that holland won against decent opposition without the attackers firing..now they have two easier games to finetune..all looks rather well I’d say..
After some of hollands blistering starts in recent comps were promptly followed by premature exits I think this makes a welcome change!
Keep up the good work ZM
Frankly, I never much liked the idea of van Persie up top in the first place. With wingers like Robben and Elia, I much prefer a ‘pure’ striker like Huntelaar or Kuijt.
Moreover, with a player that’s been out so long with an injury, you have two possibilities; either he has energy to spare and comes out with flying colours, or he struggles to find match fitness. A tournament is too short and too important to wait for form that might not come. Which, for instance, is also why van Basten was right to drop van Nistelrooij after 3 matches in 2006.
I do agree with you that a more difficult start than usual might in fact be a good thing, by the way.
100% agreed. The analysis couldn’t get better than this. Sums up the game: a congestioned first half, with players taking space out of each other instead of creating it – Sneijder and VDV for Holland, the 5 danish midfielders when marking – and then a shitty goal early on the second half that changed everything.
And now, a question mark for Van Marwijk: can VDV play alongside Sneijder? In my view, no. They just can’t work in the same space. If Holland had a natural right winger, who hugs the line like Lennon, it would be different, but that’s not the case: is either Kuyt, a natural striker that instinctively helps RVP inside the box, or Robben, a lefty who likes cutting inside to shoot. That’s why Elia’s excellent 20 minutes make a statement for him to have a chance on the starting team.
Great site!
Agree with the anaylsis. Also thought the Dutch moved the ball about far too slowy
When teams stifle you like that you have to pick up the tempo in your passing.
This may work better for the Dutch who went off like a rocket at Euro 2008 and were everyones darlings before blowing up against Russia.
Building game by game may give them a longer run.
Yeah, as much as I like watching van der Vaart play, he’s redundant for Holland and should really only be in as Sneijder’s backup.
If I were Dutch, though, I’d be worried about what I saw from van Persie today. He looked way off the pace and lost at times. The problem is, there isn’t really a natural replacement for him in the Dutch squad. Putting Kuyt or Huntelaar up top drastically changes the way that attacking four plays. Hopefully he’s just rusty and will work his way into form in time for the knockout stages.
Basically Holland only have one true number 9 (Huntelaar) and he’s out of form/out of his league. Van Persie needs space more than he needs balls pinged at him, and that is why without wingers like Robben or Elia who are dangerous away from the box and help spread the defence he’ll find it very hard to net goals.
Disagree. Van Persie played this position for Arsenal (when healthy) and in all the friendlies to great success. One poor game doesn’t mean you drop a player of his quality
Kuyt can be an almost textbook #9 if you ask him to, he gets his head on everything, runs the chanels for 90 minutes straight, is strong as an ox, and knows where the goal is even when he is asleep.
The decision is do you want a false 9 like RVP, or a CF like Kuyt or Huntelaar. I think Kuyt should be given a game as a true #9 when Robben is healthy.
You could play RVP on the wing so that if Kuyt up top isn’t working you can change the system without a substitue; Kuyt moves right, RVP moves up to, and Robben moves to the left, although he likes the right better.
Van der Vaart was great for Marco van Basten’s side in 2008, but then he occupied the position now occupied by Van Bommel. Van der Vaart can only fit this side if one of the two defensive midfielders is dropped in favour of a more classic 4-3-3 with Elia and Robben/Afellay/Kuyt as out-and-out wingers. But as that would leave the Dutch vulnerable at the back, he should be relegated to the bench and Elia should take his place.
A 4-3-3 (4-1-2-3) could work well for the Dutch if they are against a weak team. Sneijder and Van der Vaart aren’t exactly Roy Keane and Viera, but they aren’t passengers; a bit like Nedved.
So if they can put in enough work and link up rather than run into each other, the dutch have plenty of “wide strikers” type wingers.
Couple of troubling points for the Dutch: One is the point made about van der Vaart and Sneijder not working well together and the effect that has on the balance of the team. Two is that it wouldn’t have been too arguable if they ended the game with nine men. de John committed two very poor tackles and was lucky to get booked once while van der Wiel was even more fortunate not to be booked at all for his reckless tackle. van Persie also showed some disciplinary immaturity.
Other than that, they struggled to break Denmark down and will have to work similarly hard against Japan. So this is turning into a good test for them after all. I expect significant improvement when the balance of the team changes. Most impressed by van Bommel today, out of everyone, for his solid defensive work and mindfulness in getting forward.
Ugh. Every time I see the De Jong tackles I wince. I’m Dutch and I would not have had any problems with a sending off. Never mind the threat these challenges pose to Oranje’s success, those anklebreakers could end a guy’s tournament or worse.
The first one wasn’t even called a foul! It could have been straight red, easily.
I was really impressed by the Danish defence, I thoughtt they played a high-line and Agger and Kjaer were not afraid in following van Persie and Sneijder deep and not allowing them time and space to turn in the first half. They chased them back into the congested central midfield where Poulsen was really impressive.
However in the second half, they got deeper and deeper and for the second goal, Agger did not get tight to Sneijder quick enough and allowed him to turn and place the ball in the space Agger was occupying, allowing the pacy Elia to run on and get a shot at goal.
I’ve got a post on their defence because I was really impressed by them coming up tomorrow, you may find it interesting.
I liked what they did whenever Maarten tried to take a short goal kick, pushing right up and not allowing the Dutch the space..
Having said all this, they still lost 2-0 and Holland still looked largely comfortable against a decent Danish side. Hopefully Bert will learn from this and put Eljero on the left, we shall see.
In any case, a win against Japan and a booking for De Jong would be very nice indeed. De Jong/van Bommel are the two key individuals in this side for me, De Jong’s discipline will be a problem, the tackles he puts in at City will not be tolerated here..
With Italy losing they could end up meeting in the next round, not something I would be massively keen on seeing, having a Dutch mother Euro 2000 still gives me nightmares!
Please don’t mention Euro 2000… the most painful match in my memory.
You’re right, the narrow Van der Vaart & Sneijder combinations may have worked in the warm up games but against Denmark who packed the midfield and pushed quite high, they needed some width just to stretch the defence. Elia was very impressive with runs from wide inside and Jacobsen, who was very slow, struggled with his direct runs, compared to van der Vaart’s movement inside.
I worry about the Danish going forward, they really offered little and I can’t see Bendtner being relied on to take them through the group stages.
Does anybody know if Kuyt can play on the left? Just wondering, because Robben clearly prefers the right.
Kuyt is one of those underrated (although at this point, he is getting his proper due finally) that has the brain, motor, and lack of ego to play anywhere.
So does losing his crossing ability (pretty good), for a more direct goal threat from him (although he scores from the right too), and keeping Robben happy work?
Or Kuyt up top, RVP wide to one side, with the two switching.
Solid game from the Dutch, victory is deserved.
If I were Dutch I’d be a bit worried though. The next opponents will not always show such a poor right back as Jacobsen, so poor he made Kjaer and C. Poulsen compensate for him until they got totally exhausted. I still don’t understand what was Jacobsen’s logic behind following Van Der Vaart so deep inside the Dutchside.
In this sense, I would disagree with the previous comments giving Van Der Vaart so little credit in this victory. The guy just fooled Jacobsen around, leaving so much space and time for Sneijder. Piece of cake for the Real Madrid guy.
I regret that Van Persie did not use more Van Der Vaart’s moves off the ball to his advantage. The Arsenal striker seemed to be only looking at his shoes throughout the whole game. Big disappointment for me.
I must say that S. Poulsen-Agger-Kjaer impressed me, specially the latter. What a wonderful defense for the years to come. Would have loved to see Eriksen a bit longer.
I was expecting a lot more from the Dutch. Even given the fact that Robben was injured, they should have done better with the fantastic array of talent they have.
While the Dutch were superior, they were lucky to win as the own goal opened up the play and led to the 2nd goal.
I was also surprised by the fact that the Dutch keep pumping long balls to the middle, leading these easily cut off by the Danish defenders. There was a lack of width and variety of attack.
Sneijder was a disappointment despite his industry. He supposed to be the creative spark to provide a killer opening. But his pass for the 2nd goal was incisive and superbly threaded through.
However, the Dutch looked like an-one trick pony team and there was little creativity on display.
Sneijder’s way of quick link play that he had perfected in Inter work in a massed defence. He has to vary his game to include one-twos that could open up tight defences.
I never had very high opinion of Van Persie and this game only proved that.
Elia was impressive and added much needed pace and penetration to the Dutch game. Not sure why he didn’t start.
I also thought the Dutch didn’t pace themselves well, starting at a break-neck pace (probably caused on by Denmark’s play)and later fading out.
What surprised me was the lack of tactical preparation by the Dutch. We all know Denmark’s defensive game and it didn’t appear to me if the Dutch had prepared themselves tactically to counter it. They just seemed to play their usual game. This is a big contrast to the way Jogi Loew prepared his team.
This really makes me wonder if their coach is the right person to bring the best out of this outstanding group of individuals.
How can you say the Dutch didn’t pace themselves well? The first half was pretty slow, aside from Van der Wiel who made a few speculative runs. Sure, the goal was a gift, but the second half showed the superiority of the Dutch and the how toothless the Danish were. They ran circles around the Danish in the last 15 minutes, who should have been chasing a goal.
Although not Dutch I support the Netherlands in all big competitions and frankly I am not that worried about the team. For starters when Robben comes in play things will be immensely different and of course better. Kuyt is a very good player imho but so different than Robben. He looked helplessly isolated at times during the match and was up against a very effective S.Poulsen. He actually showed his true quality when played up front.
The fact that the dutch team packs the left side means more space for Robben to dribble through the LB-LDMF and create danger. More caution will be needed over to that side when he plays which will take off some defensive force from the other side the one where Sneijder-VDV and (as so many times he did in the last game) RVP move. As for RVP it was more of an individual poor performance rather than a problem of the system in itself.
What the Dutch coach should be scratching his head for is how to effectively get his full backs forward when up against teams that play them like Denmark did. As for the attack it is obvious that with bench alternatives as good as Elia,Afelaay and Kuyt scoring (one way or another) will be regular even against top teams.
The real worry to me apart from the questionable (until proved otherwise against a good attacking side) defensive solidity is Nigel De Jong. An immensely helpful player who can also turn into a ticking bomb. He can easily leave the team with 10 players in a game as improtant as the semis and then it ll be real drama for a team as good as this years Netherlands
I’m not too worried. They still exhibited far more creativity and movement than any other team so far save the Germans. The score would have been higher, if not for Van Persie wanting to cut back every ball before he takes a shot (the one where he was all alone in the box against the keeper and cutback for no reason back *into* the oncoming defender was truly inexplicable).
And it’s not *all* zonal tactics: a very interesting report of some of the non-tactical factors that affected the Dutch in this game in this blog:
http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2010/holland-denmark-or-what-really-went-down.html
Of particular interest is the fact that the field conditions the Dutch need for their one-touch game (i.e. a slick surface) were absent. As the home team this game, they had the right to have the field prepared to their preference; it wasn’t wetted down, as they had requested, which meant the Dutch players needed more time to control the ball off the bumpy surface.