2 days Ago By Tom Hamilton
Following their 3-2 defeat to in their final group-stage match, manager Ronald Koeman fielded questions about his side's defensive frailties, midfield dis-organisation and ineffective pressing, only to then be asked if he was reevaluating his future. Former Netherlands international Demy de Zeeuw was in the stands among the wall of orange in Berlin witnessing the defeat. "It was bad," .
"Very bad. You can't imagine that you can play so bad with such good players." Meanwhile in the Dutch television studios, former players were lining up to take their shots at the manager, some players and tactics.
The legendary Marco van Basten was disappointed with centre-back , while ex-midfielder Rafael van der Vaart labelled the defeat a "disgrace" and said he was ready to "cry" at how bad they played. And then there was poor who was taken off after 33 minutes following a dismal performance. Some pundits said that could be the end of his international career.
"The only positive thing is that we are still alive," was Koeman's take on the Dutch performance. But they still qualified for the knockouts. Then came the twist in the tale -- thanks to unpredictable results elsewhere, Netherlands went from potentially playing , to being drawn against .
"It is not impossible to beat Romania and grow in the tournament again," ex-forward . There do seem to be several questions around this group and their unpredictability: are they poor at pressing? Do they have striker issues? Is Koeman the right man t.
