It’s not easy playing for the Dutch national football team. Their proud history and a string of world-class players who donned the famous orange shirt dictate that only the best is good enough. Take last night’s 3-0 win over Gibraltar, for example. Oranje dominated and won the game, but their wastefulness in attack led to some of the biggest names expressing their annoyance with Ronald Koeman’s players.Reputable Dutch website VI gave scything player ratings in the wake of the win at the famous De Kuip stadium in Rotterdam on Monday night. Defender Nathan Ake, who scored two goals, got a rating of 7/10. Memphis Depay, who scored the opening goal, only got a 6/10. And the rest is just depressing to go through. Apart from a few “sixes”, Georginio Wijnaldum, Steven Berghuis, Wout Weghorst and Xavi Simmons all received a rating of 5/10. Looking at the match stats, it’s easy to see why.FT: Netherlands 3-0 GibraltarxG: 5.04-0.00Shots: 51-0Shots on target: 12-0Possession: 86%-14%Passes: 694-55Corners: 19-0FIFTY-ONE shots. 😳#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/Cg1tURhqd5— Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) March 27, 2023 The Dutch had the ball 72% of the time, and had 49(!?) shots, of which just 11 were on target. They won 19 corners, had about 600 more passes than the opponents, and didn’t allow the visitors any attempts on goal. It’s not very often that you see a team complete just 81 passes over 90+ minutes, but that’s how poor Gibraltar were on the night. And yet, the lack of creativity and the ability to turn chances into goals caused a lot of frustration.Van der Vaart: “If Memphis Depay would have looked like Dirk Kuyt, he wouldn’t have received the same critics. He is always the first one that gets the blame in this country.” pic.twitter.com/QZajwUyIFI— 𝐀𝐅𝐂 𝐀𝐉𝐀𝐗 💎 (@TheEuropeanLad) March 26, 2023 Former Netherlands ace Rafael Van Der Vaart called the performance against ten-men Gibraltar “bad”.”I thought it was a very mediocre performance, let’s just say ‘bad’. So few dangerous shots. How many good saves did their keeper really have to make? Very few, really. Yes, only towards the end, when Gibraltar had a player sent off. No one had an opening or a pass that made you think ‘wow, that was good’. I had a lethargic feeling about it. Our team doesn’t look as hungry as they were in the first reign of Koeman as the national coach.”##NAJAVA_MECA_7134750##Struggling to break down the team ranked 200th in the FIFA rankings was bad enough, but the biggest thorn in the Dutch side is the 4-0 loss to France earlier last week. That game and its result indicated that Oranje could not compete with top-class teams. It’s a bitter pill for the 2010 World Cup finalists to swallow. There are some mitigating circumstances for Koeman, though. The man who had already managed the national team between 2018 and 2020 couldn’t pick his best team because of injuries to Frenkie de Jong and Steven Bergwijn and Sven Botman and Joey Veerman all had to miss the game due to viral infections. Koeman admits his team was sloppy in possession.”It wasn’t easy because of the injuries and we only had three days to prepare the new players. But still, our football has to be much better. We have to raise the level and improve in all aspects. We had some shocking decisions. We haven’t scored enough goals and were sloppy on the ball. I expected more.”50 – @OnsOranje recorded 50 shots and 101 touches in the opposition box against Gibraltar tonight, more than in any other match since Opta collects this data in full (Augustus 2013). Ineffective. pic.twitter.com/dxPbpOlwDk— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) March 27, 2023 You’re not alone in your expectations, Ronald.
