Build-up not plane sailing for De Boer

WHEN the first whistle goes and the Netherlands kick off their

Euro 2020 campaign against Ukraine tonight, Frank de Boer will be as relieved as anybody.

Finally he will have a meaningful match to distract him from the catalogue of self-inflicted issues that have blighted preparations for their first major tournament since the 2014 World Cup.

Another arrived yesterday when a plane was flown over their training base trailing a message urging De Boer to ditch his 3-5-2 set-up and revert to one more traditionally associated with Dutch football, the 4-3-3, against Ukraine.

Gini Wijnaldum, the Netherlands captain in the absence of the injured Virgil van Dijk, said: ‘This is not something you see every day. It is not something we make a big deal out of. It is one person or a group of people who would like to give their opinion on the way we should play.’

De Boer said: ‘I have seen the airplane, so thanks for the idea but we will still play 3-5-2. Dwight Lodeweges (his assistant) is always complaining that we forget the goalkeeper so it should be 1-3-5-2.’

De Boer’s defiance could be his undoing with the Netherlands, as it was during his ill-fated stays at both Inter and Crystal Palace. His unwavering faith in his methods proved misplaced and he lasted a combined total of just 161 days in the back-to-back jobs.

De Boer was appointed as Ronald Koeman’s successor last September partly because he was interested and available rather than his suitability and credentials. And the Dutch’s build-up has done little to inspire belief in De Boer.

When he named his 26-man squad he said he had called all the players omitted from his provisional party to inform them they were being left out but a video then surfaced of Aston Villa’s Anwar El-Ghazi receiving the news by text.

De Boer has had to defend his decision to include winger Quincy Promes while he remains under investigation after being arrested in December in connection with the stabbing of a family member.

In a press conference, De Boer then mistook Spartak Moscow’s Promes for FC Twente’s Queensy Menig, who is not even in his squad.

There was another awkward moment for him when he claimed Donny van de Beek had played about 4,000 minutes when it was, in fact Davy Klaassen.

His decision to axe expected No1 Jasper Cillessen after he tested positive for Covid and not call up a replacement for the injured Van de Beek, instead going into the tournament with 25 players, has also invited criticism.

It has all added to the sense that De Boer, who named Maarten Stekelenburg as his new No1 but will be without defender Matthijs de Ligt against Ukraine, is not in control. Who better to reference, in that case, than former Holland manager Bert van Marwijk.

When De Boer was No2 to Van Marwijk at the 2010 World Cup, in which the Dutch were runners-up, the latter used to say: ‘Just because things are not going well, it doesn’t mean everything will go wrong.

‘Yes I mention this to the group,’ De Boer said. ‘Now, the spirit, the belief is that we are only here for one thing — reaching the final.’