Frank de Boer knew he was taking a risk by starting the game against Italy with a completely new system. The national coach of the Dutch national team saw how his team achieved a creditable 1-1 draw in Atalanta in a 5-3-2 formation. De Boer was satisfied with the game afterwards, but was slightly disappointed with the result.

In advance, the expectation that Steven Berghuis would start in the base was quite broad. Still, the Feyenoord was on the bench, just like against Bosnia-Herzegovina. “If you think about it logically, why I don’t set up Berghuis, well: Georginio Wijnaldum didn’t want to run behind left back Leonardo Spinazzola in the first leg against Italy”, De Boer explains to the NOS. “If you had played with Berghuis there, he should have done that too. Hence the choice that I wanted to play with five in the back. To prevent you from having guys who are actually not suitable for that continuously run after them.”

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De Boer knew he was taking a risk by changing from a 4-3-3 system to a formation with five defenders. “I am one hundred percent sure that the reactions would not be tender, but my feeling indicated that I had to do it like this, also given the training, although that was only very short once. But in the match discussion I have images of that training. and said that they chased their prey like young hyenas. If we could do this, there would be no problems. I think we saw that too. “

Despite the loss of points, De Boer is quite delighted afterwards. “Color on the cheeks, that is well said. I am not satisfied with the result, because we ultimately want to be first in the group. I think we had the better part of the game, maybe 60 to 40 percent ahead of us. also had opportunities, but we mainly give away those two chances ourselves. If you can afford this, in whatever system, then there will be no problems and it will be difficult for any opponent to beat us. But the next two games ( against Bosnia-Herzegovina and Poland, ed.) we have to win. ”

Also Pierre van Hooijdonk, who analyzed the game for the NOS, acknowledges that De Boer has taken risks. “A good story from De Boer”, says the former striker about the interview of the national coach. “I think he has put his head in the noose with his choices. Independent thinking is rewarded in the end. Everyone expected Berghuis, he will not do that anyway.” Rafael van der Vaart sees that De Boer made a fresher impression in front of the camera than after the match against Bosnia (0-0). “Frank came across fine, with more energy. It was a nice evening, actually”, Van der Vaart concludes.