Dwight Lodeweges believes that the Dutch national team has shown too little on Monday evening in the Nations League game with Italy (0-1 loss). The interim national coach therefore hopes that his team will learn from the deserved defeat.
“We lost to a top opponent. Italy wants to do in principle the same things as us, but performed it much better. That is not fun, but it is good to learn from this”, Lodeweges said after the game in Amsterdam to the WE.
The Orange was actually not involved in the entire game against Italy, which took the lead in injury time of the first half via Nicolò Barella. The Netherlands was slightly better after the break, but was lucky that the team of national coach Roberto Mancini did not go further.
“In the first half we played too far apart and didn’t help each other enough”, Lodeweges said. “We worked hard, but just running very fast and working very hard is not enough. We didn’t do well in possession either.”
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The players of Oranje drip off. (Photo: Pro Shots)
‘Can still take a few more steps’
The loss against Italy meant the first defeat for the Orange under Lodeweges, who will be doing the honors for the time being after the departure of Ronald Koeman to FC Barcelona. The Canadian-born decided to start with Donny van de Beek in midfield and Georginio Wijnaldum as a right winger, but that did not work out well.
“Against Poland, Van de Beek fell very well in the center and Wijnaldum turned out to be a good combination with Hans Hateboer on the side (right back, ed.)”, Lodeweges explained his tactics in the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
“We didn’t get around to that today. In the second half everyone played with heart and soul and we could have made the equalizer, but it was not really deserved. We also want to do what Italy is doing, but we can still do that. do take a few steps. “
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