Frank de Boer’s primal cry echoed through the stadium when Donny van de Beek shot the equalizer against Italy on Wednesday (1-1). After the lost exhibition game with Mexico (0-1) and a disappointing draw at Bosnia and Herzegovina (0-0), De Boer surprised the unbeaten Italy for nineteen games in a row with a system with five defenders. The tactical move of the national coach and the performance of Orange received a lot of praise in the Dutch media. “Rehabilitation in Bergamo”, says the front page of the sports section of The Telegraph.

“De Boer’s guts are rewarded”, is the title of the match report. “It sounds paradoxical when a trainer sets up five instead of four defenders. But De Boer has been rewarded in Italy for his courage ”, writes Mike Verweij. “De Boer stuck out his neck. After the disappointing matches against Mexico and Bosnia, he knew that a storm of criticism would erupt if the game in Italy were again below par and the result were disappointing. Especially because he put the man in shape Steven Berghuis back on the bench. ”

“But doing the same as on September 7 under interim coach Dwight Lodeweges in the Johan Cruijff ArenA was not an option for De Boer. He stuck to the old football wisdom that a 5-3-2 system can best be fought with 5-3-2, because couples are formed all over the field. ” Verweij believes it is most important for De Boer that the meeting in Bergamo provides sufficient starting points for a (sunny) future. “Although he will also realize that eventually the switch to 4-3-3 will have to be made again. However, the fact that his team is able to implement a different battle plan if the situation calls for it is a nice science. ”

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On the front page of the sports section of the Algemeen Dagblad is ‘Strong signal’ and above the match report of Sjoerd Mossou is the headline ‘Some color on the cheeks’. The journalist describes it 5-3-2 as ‘an old-fashioned system’. “A way of play that the Orange squad last used under Ronald Koeman in Turin in 2018, also against Italy, but which at the time, despite a late Dutch equalizer (1-1), ultimately failed. It didn’t stop De Boer from reverting to the concept again, again without the man in shape, Feyenoord player Steven Berghuis. ”

“This time it was tactical to explain: the Orange team got a better grip on the mobile midfielders of Italy with this game system, while the offensive left back Leonardo Spinazzola had a more or less direct opponent in Hans Hateboer. Against an Italian team that likes to dominate, spaces were automatically created for the Netherlands in the transition. ” After a rough start, the Frank de Boer era has begun, Mossou concludes. “Satisfied, De Boer walked in immediately afterwards, finally with some color on his cheeks.”

“Orange radiates warmth again”, it says above the match report de Volkskrant. Willem Vissers saw Orange ‘from time to time playing football again like a charm, as a team that radiates cheerfulness, warmth and joy in the game’. “Italy – The Netherlands was De Boer’s best match, although that didn’t mean much after the substandard displays against Mexico and Bosnia. De Boer surprisingly returned to the system with which his predecessor Ronald Koeman briefly played, although he swore it off again quite quickly: 5-3-2. ”

Hans Hateboer indicates that the selection was informed two days ago about the change in the formation.

“You can see that it has worked out better than last time against Italy” pic.twitter.com/IihgLDRRpV

– FOX Sports (@FOXSportsnl) October 14, 2020

“He wanted couples on the field, clarity in the heads, duels. As a former defender, he knows how it works: the team in charge can best take care of defensive organization first, and from there embrace the attack. (…) Where Italy dominated in Amsterdam, with Spinazzola as the throbbing engine of the offensive, it was the other way around on Wednesday ”, Vissers continued his account. At least, the Netherlands cherished the better part of the game in large parts of the game, although Italy could have won just like that. Frenkie de Jong turned, dribbled and made sure it had a nature. Great when he plays football freely, when the opponent doesn’t stick a stick on his heels. ”

Faithful finds it ironic that ‘the key lay in a game system that Koeman had put in the trash two years ago: a concept with five defenders and two strikers’. “In June 2018, Koeman saw that the Netherlands had defected against Italy (1-1) and took a different approach. However, De Boer made it 5-3-2 again ”, can be read in the match report. The depot in Bergamo will mainly give De Boer air. “He had already come under heavy fire in the first week of his national team coaching. His image as a coach of the knitting football of teams that do not score much worked against him again, as did his failed coaching adventures in recent years. ”

“And yes, he made mistakes in his line-up against Bosnia on Sunday and with his substitutions. After Wednesday evening, the criticism will subside for a while ”, says journalist John Graat. “He had dared to turn his team upside down, which led to a cautious resurrection in Bergamo. The Netherlands looked like a militant collective that seemed to want to prove the critics wrong. A draw against this Italy is meritorious. The Netherlands has never won on Italian soil. ”