"Five defenders, yet no midfield presence. Just one scoring opportunity." That was the Dutch press's verdict on Ronald Koeman's Netherlands after Monday's penalty shootout exit to Morocco in Monterrey. Koeman is now expected to resign, and it's hard to argue he should stay.
The 63-year-old refused to confirm his departure in the immediate aftermath, buying himself until Tuesday morning to gather his thoughts. "Maybe I'll come to a conclusion by noon," he said. Given the volume of criticism coming from back home, that conclusion isn't hard to predict.
A second stint that never really convinced
Koeman returned to the national team job after his troubled spell at Barcelona, and the results have been mixed at best. The Dutch reached the Euro 2024 semifinals — which sounds decent until you notice they failed to beat a single team ranked in FIFA's top 25 throughout the tournament. That's not a quirk. That's a pattern.
This World Cup in Mexico confirmed it. The group stage saw the Netherlands veer between sluggish, aimless football against Japan, a brief burst of energy against Sweden, and an "80% mentality" against Tunisia. Against Morocco, they showed fight but abandoned any pretense of the attacking, possession-based game that defines Dutch football at its best. Playing five at the back in a knockout game drew accusations of fear from the Dutch press. Koeman pushed back, but the performance was the argument — and he lost it.
The comparison to Louis van Gaal's previous cycle stings. Four years ago in Qatar, the Netherlands made the quarterfinals playing with an identity. This time, they went out in the round of 16 looking like a team that had been coached to not lose rather than coached to win.
What comes next for the Oranje
Whoever takes over inherits a squad with genuine quality — but also a fanbase that will demand a return to something resembling Dutch football. The next coach's odds of success will depend entirely on whether they can rebuild an attacking system around the talent available rather than defending leads the team rarely managed to build in the first place.
Koeman's first stint ended abruptly in 2020 when he left for Barcelona. His second looks like ending with a quieter, more inevitable fade. The Algemeen Dagblad has already written the postmortem. The only question now is whether Koeman submits his resignation before noon on Tuesday — or makes everyone wait a little longer for the obvious.
