Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Pierre van Hooijdonk do not understand Frank de Boer’s choice to take Donyell Malen aside in the eighth final against the Czech Republic (0-2 loss) in favor of Quincy Promes after the red card of Matthew De Ligt. The former internationals agree that the the Dutch squad fell through the ice against the Czechs. Despite this, Malen’s substitution was the subject of discussion ten minutes after the break.
“That switch… I had never taken Malen off”, said Sneijder immediately afterwards at the NOS. Van der Vaart also cannot understand the change. “Then you are a coach and a player gets a red card, that’s just annoying. Then you bring Promes and take off your most dangerous man. Is there no one on the couch who says: won’t we do it? Shall we keep Memphis on the left and Malen in the center?”
Van Hooijdonk joins Van der Vaart. The former striker does not know what the thinking behind the switch was. “But you can call this one ‘an Advocaatje’”, referring to the substitution in 2004, when Dick Advocaat took Arjen Robben aside in the game against the Czech Republic in favor of Paul Bosvelt. “But your most dangerous attacker, with speed.. If you come to play with ten men, you have to be able to counter and then you need that speed.”
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The former striker of the Dutch speaks of ‘a status change’. “If you want to take off an attacker, you should have taken Memphis out. It was very bad,” said Van Hooijdonk. Van der Vaart: “You’re not going to take out an attacker for an attacker if you come up with ten men? But it was a really, really, really bad game,” said the former midfielder.
Kraay junior had opted for a 4-3-2 system with ten men, with Wijnaldum, De Roon and Frenkie de Jong in midfield, and with Depay and Malen in the forefront. “Then you can put pressure on that very bad Czech defense duo with the two of you,” said Kraay junior, who does not understand De Boer’s substitution. “The moment you take Malen out, you no longer have any depth, you have no more pressure, you invite a very weak opponent: come attack, we have no more depth with Depay.”
De Boer was asked about the substitution afterwards. “Donyell is a very explosive player. Sixty minutes is actually his tax in these kinds of matches at the moment,” said the national coach, who already planned to remove Malen from the field in advance. “My plan was to bring in Weghorst for Donyell. But we were going to play 4-4-1. Then you have a boy who can go up and down the line, also stands his ground defensively and hopefully offensively too. It’s always easy from the side, of course. We know Donyell is a fantastic player. We know that he is finished after sixty or seventy minutes. We have to take that into account. We know how the boys are put together. This was actually kind of predicted.”
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