Trent Alexander Arnold and Virgil Van Dijk
Ronald Koeman’s team suffered a defeat in Munich, succumbing to Jamie Leweling’s second-half goal. This loss highlighted defensive struggles for the Dutch side, which had to be reconfigured due to Van Dijk’s suspension following his red card against Hungary. In response, Van de Ven was moved to center-back to substitute for Van Dijk, while Jorrel Hato made his debut at left-back.
Speaking on Dutch TV station NOS, former Ajax and Real Madrid forward Rafael van der Vaart shared his disappointment with the team’s performance.
Van der Vaart said, “I don’t easily get ashamed of the Dutch team, but today I did. You can analyse it, but everything just goes wrong. Then we have doubts about the absence of Virgil van Dijk, of course you miss him. All well and good, Micky van de Ven, but this is no Van Dijk.”
Reflecting on the performance, Ronald Koeman expressed his dissatisfaction: “If you go back too far, you bring that on yourself. We came up short on all sides, perhaps in all facets of football. But they were much better today. I am not satisfied by our performance. The Germans were the better, faster and physically stronger. They created more chances. We lost too many balls in the midfield. We went too far back. That was not the plan. The plan was to put pressure forward on the right side. But it did not happen.”
