Barcelona-bound Frenkie de Jong exposes England’s flaws with Luka Modric act

Just like at World Cup when Croatia’s general pulled the strings, Southgate’s men are put to the sword by the type of playmaker they lack
Star talent | De Jong will join Barcelona this summer for £75m
EPA/Hugo Delgado
James Olley7 June 2019

For Luka Modric last summer, see Frenkie de Jong now. The Netherlands midfielder has a long way to go to emulate everything Modric has achieved but they already have one thing in common: putting England to the sword in a semi-final.

Gareth Southgate’s side were complicit in their own downfall here — just as against Croatia at the World Cup in Russia — although the individual mistakes which ended their Nations League bid were more calamitous.

Both sides initially appeared locked in a perverse competition to make the most defensive errors but, by the end, England could claim a resounding unwanted victory, as John Stones and Ross Barkley gifted the Netherlands two goals in extra-time which decided this eventful clash.

The search for composure under pressure goes on. This is a young team, one much changed as a result of the Champions League Final and with distance left to travel on a journey to making Southgate’s 4-3-3 system fully effective in all circumstances.

But how they long for a player to set the tone like De Jong; a midfield metronome always available to help defenders play out from the back but also with the vision to orchestrate incisive attacks.

In Pictures | Netherlands vs England | 06/06/2019

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England struggled with the Netherlands’ high press throughout the 120 minutes. Had the Dutch possessed a centre-forward with greater potency than Memphis Depay, they would have punished England’s profligacy in possession long before extra time.

Southgate is adamant his team should not play it long and Declan Rice grew into his midfield anchor role impressively, returning a 96.3 per cent pass completion rate from his 54 passes. He kept it simple and safe — only 16 of those were in the opponent’s half — but it was an encouraging performance from a 20-year-old earning only his third England cap.

Southgate also has Jordan Henderson, fit enough only for a substitute’s appearance last night, and Harry Winks as possible options — with Phil Foden also highly thought of — but no midfielder has proved able to inject sustained poise in England’s play like De Jong, who will leave Ajax for Barcelona this summer in a £75million deal.

De Jong had not even made his senior international debut when Modric was administering death by a thousand cuts in Russia last July.

It was not until September that the 22-year-old would earn the first of his now eight caps, yet he is already a mainstay in this Dutch side and a pivotal part of their resurgence under Ronald Koeman.

De Jong was always available to help his defenders and had the vision to orchestrate attacks

He beamed from ear to ear as he was awarded Uefa’s man of the match with their Technical Study Group — represented by David Moyes — declaring De Jong produced “an all-around complete performance controlling speed and tempo of the game”.

“There were some balls I didn’t treat accurately,” De Jong said in response. Not many. Four, in fact. Of 105 passes, 96.2 per cent found their intended target with 63 of them in England’s half.

Many of those will have come during the period when this game most closely resembled England’s defeat by Croatia: a second-half spell in which the Dutch probed for an equaliser to cancel out Marcus Rashford’s 32nd-minute penalty.

Matthijs de Ligt made an uncharacteristic error to lose track of the ball and then hack Rashford down in attempting to recover the situation.

England were pushed back after the restart and by the time De Ligt had atoned with a powerful 73rd-minute header, comparisons with Croatia were clear to see: mistakes were growing in number, fuzzy thinking and errant passes permeating their play.

What should encourage Southgate is England rallied to some extent thereafter. They were denied a goal seven minutes from time after their best move of the match. Playing out from the back can be fraught with risk but when it works, even sides with the Dutch’s quality have no answer.

Jordan Pickford, Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling combined to give Barkley the chance to slide a fine pass through for Jesse Lingard, on as a substitute. Lingard converted but as England celebrated, VAR deliberated and the goal was ruled out for offside by the finest margin. Such fluency was, however, all too fleeting.

Sterling clipped the bar in stoppage time but it was Stones who would make the inadvertent yet telling contribution, losing the ball to Depay, who forced Pickford into a brilliant save, before Kyle Walker unfortunately turned the rebound into his own net.

“Don’t force it…it’s only one goal,” Southgate said in half-time of extra-time but that deficit was doubled when Barkley gave it to Depay and this time Quincy Promes was unmarked for a tap-in. And so, England are left to end another tournament playing a game they did not want, another third/fourth place play-off back here on Sunday.

Photo: AP Photo/Luis Vieira
AP Photo/Luis Vieira

Talents such as De Jong are rare but England are still searching for a player who did what he, Modric and Andre Pirlo have done to them in previous tournaments.

It was perhaps telling that Southgate, usually so forthright and direct in answering any question, sidestepped the suggestion that De Jong had exposed the failing Modric had found 11 months earlier, focusing instead on “getting the best performances from the players we do have”.

This group have come a long way but there is plenty of work still to do.

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