The Netherlands coach, Frank de Boer, confirmed this Saturday that his team will play tomorrow against Ukraine with a 5-3-2 despite the fact that a plane flew over the last training session of the team with a poster begging them to come out with a 4-3-3.
“Yes, you can ask. We'll start 5-3-2,” De Boer said. at the pre-premiere press conference against Ukraine shortly after a small plane passed over the training ground with a sign reading: “Frank, just 4-3-3.”
The Dutch coach has been criticized at home for playing with a system considered excessively defensive and alien to the traditional attacking football of the Dutch team, despite the fact that the Netherlands have not played in the finals of a major tournament for seven years.
At the same press conference, the captain of the Netherlands, Gini Wijnaldum, played down the unusual episode of the plane. “It is not something you see every day. It has been new for us. We have not given it much importance. It is a person or group that wants to give their opinion on the system we play with. Okay, thanks for the idea, but still so we'll play 5-3-2, “said the new Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) player.
Wijnaldum added that it is not actually correct to say that they play with a 5-3-2 because the goalkeeper also plays, so the formulation should be 1-5-3-2.