UEFA Nations League: 3 reasons why England lost to the Netherlands

After showing so much promise in defeating Spain and Croatia to qualify for the UEFA Nations League finals back in autumn, tonight was another tale of frustration for England, as the Three Lions crashed to a 3-1 defeat to the Netherlands following extra-time.

England took the lead in the first half through a Marcus Rashford penalty after Matthijs de Ligt fouled the Manchester United man, but the Ajax defender made amends in the second half by heading an equaliser. Gareth Southgate’s men thought they’d won the game late on through Jesse Lingard, but a VAR check chalked off the goal and sent the game into extra-time.

Despite England pushing for a winning goal, two major defensive mistakes allowed the Netherlands to steal two goals – one a Kyle Walker own goal and one through Quincy Promes – and England fans were once again left wondering what might have been.

Here are 3 reasons why England lost to the Netherlands.

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#1 England committed defensive suicide

A massive error from John Stones led to the Netherlands' second goal

One of the hallmarks of Gareth Southgate’s reign as England boss has been a move away from the old-school long ball game that the Three Lions were once known for and towards a style of play more linked to sides like Barcelona, relying heavily on playing out from the back. But while this style is excellent when it works, tonight we saw the ugly side of it as England made some horrendous defensive errors and essentially handed the Netherlands a victory on a silver platter.

Early on there were worrying signs, as Kyle Walker, Harry Maguire and John Stones were all guilty of dallying on the ball instead of simply clearing their lines, but nobody could’ve predicted the self-destruction that came in extra-time.

Stones was found on the edge of his own box by Maguire and had plenty of time to roll the ball back to Jordan Pickford, but instead he decided to attempt to dribble, and lost out to Memphis Depay. Pickford did well to save Depay’s shot, but Quincy Promes quickly pounced on the loose ball and his shot went in off Walker.

The third Dutch goal came from equally suicidal defending, as Stones played Ross Barkley into trouble and the Chelsea man’s pass to Pickford went horribly awry, allowing Depay to steal the ball and square it to Promes for the killer blow.

It’s all well and good encouraging defenders to play from the back – but Southgate must surely drill his players in the art of clearing their lines rather than playing themselves into danger as they did here.

#2 VAR strikes again

Jesse Lingard was unfortunate to see his winning goal chalked off by VAR for offside

In the first Nations League semi-final between Portugal and Switzerland, VAR played its role as the Swiss were awarded a penalty despite the referee initially pointing to the spot in favour of Portugal, but in the end, it didn’t matter as Cristiano Ronaldo settled the game. Tonight though, the VAR system fell in favour of the Netherlands and arguably cost England the game.

A beautiful counter move in the last ten minutes ended with Ross Barkley playing Jesse Lingard through on goal, and the Manchester United man slotted past keeper Jasper Cillessen and into the net. It looked like England had won the game – only for the referee to chalk off the goal as VAR decided Lingard was offside.

In all honesty, the replays seemed to be inconclusive, but evidently, Lingard must’ve been millimetres off for the system to disallow the goal. To be quite frank, without VAR the referee almost certainly would’ve given Lingard the benefit of the doubt – and England would be facing Portugal instead of Switzerland on Sunday.

VAR will take a lot of getting used to as it’s introduced at the top level throughout football, and no doubt this won’t be the only time the system will cost England – and of course, in the future, it might help them too. But tonight there can be no question that it had a part to play in the Netherlands’ victory.

#3 England lacked control in the midfield areas

England lacked the midfield options that Harry Winks would've provided

In terms of the game itself, despite being relatively even, once again it felt like England were lacking options in central midfield. The second half, in particular, was dominated by the Barcelona-bound Frenkie de Jong and too many times England’s defenders were left without options due to the positioning of deeper midfield duo Fabian Delph and Declan Rice.

Ross Barkley – terrible error aside – performed admirably as an attacking outlet, but just as they did in last summer’s World Cup against Croatia and Belgium, Southgate’s side simply lacked control from the middle. For me that comes down to a selection issue; perhaps Jordan Henderson could’ve done more than Delph, but the player who would’ve offered the most in that position was left at home.

Southgate’s explanation that Tottenham’s Harry Winks hadn’t played enough to warrant being kept in the squad did make sense to an extent, but there’s no denying that a player of his passing ability would’ve made a huge difference tonight – and more to the point, Winks didn’t look at all off the pace in Saturday’s Champions League final despite spending time on the shelf following groin surgery.

To be able to really dominate games like tonight’s, England need better outlets from the centre – particularly if they want to continue to play out from the back. They need someone to be able to collect the ball from the defence and move it forward at pace – and right now that man is Winks, who was key to England’s victory in Spain last October and was also a key part of Tottenham’s run to the Champions League final.

Simply put, England cannot afford to leave him out next time.