The Netherlands in-possession (IP) were exactly as it was suggested in their starting-11 structure, in a 4-1-2-3 with De Jong as the sole holding midfielder, Reijnders and Gravenberch as the two box-to-box 8s.
- Summerville hugged the touchline as Gravenberch or sometimes even Dumfries tried to get into those half-spaces.
- Van de Ven, on the other flank, was a bit more conservative in his movement, precisely due to the quick counters that Japan engaged in but on occasions, he did overlap as Gakpo cut-inside on his usual right-foot.
- The passing game depicted by the Dutch seemed a bit slow and lacked creativity. A good fix would be to instruct Malen to drop in-between the lines to make a diamond of De Jong, Reijnders, Gravenberch, and Malen.
- The adjustment would also help Summerville and Gakpo as they could exploit any spaces left in-behind by Japan (can't say that about Gakpo to be honest).
Overall, the Dutch may have been slow and predictable in their possession-play but we have to give Japan credit for maintaining a solid 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 mid-block to:
1. Not allow the Dutch any open spaces.
2. Put the Dutch wingers into 2v1 situations, and hence, forcing them back.
While Japan were chaotic in their counter-attacks, the OOP structure they maintained was commendable.
Onto the next half.