Louis Van Gaal’s approach
Van Gaal gave Dirk Kuyt a start in the left wing-back position as Bruno Martins Indi was not fully fit to start. He continued with the 5-3-2 formation.
This defensive formation, with a deep defensive line, has served the Dutch well in this tournament because it brings balance to their defence and allows Arjen Robben and Robin Van Persie to have space in behind opposition defences.
They had Nigel De Jong in a holding midfield role, where he would receive the ball and play it to the wing-backs. Kuyt and Paul Verhaeg were the wing-backs in this system. They had to push into midfield when Netherlands had possession of the ball, but rarely beyond the middle-third to keep numbers at the back. When Netherlands were out of possession, these wing-backs had to track back with Mexico’s wing-backs.
Without the ball, Georginio Wijnaldum had to drop alongside De Jong to help in dealing with advancing Mexican central midfielders, leaving Sneijder forward in a withdrawn number 10 role. In possession Wijnaldum had to push forward alongside Sneijder leaving De Jong at the base of that central midfield triangle.
Miguel Herrera’s approach
Mexico thrive in their 3-5-2 formation with high wing-backs and they set out to play in the same system. They had to squeeze play by attacking as a unit and quickly dropping back to defend as a unit. That system would let the three central defenders push their defensive line high when play was in the Dutch half, while Oribe Peralta and Giovani Dos Santos would drop back to the halfway line and be the first line of Mexican pressing when out of possession.
In central defence, Rafael Marquez was at the centre of the three central defenders, where he had to receive the ball from the keeper and initiate play by moving into midfield then dropping back. Carlos Salcido took the defensive midfield role. He was responsible for containing Sneijder and stop him from picking out the two Netherlands strikers with passes.
Andres Guardado and Hector Herrera started in central midfield ahead of Salcido. These two most advanced central midfielders had the freedom push forward and support attacks near the two strikers.
Wing-backs Miguel Layun and Paul Aguilar had the primary role of providing width in attacks, so they had to cover the whole length of their flanks going forward while also dropping into defence to make a five-man backline against Netherlands’ sustained momentum.
The two central strikers completed the team with Dos Santos operating as a supporting striker by dropping into midfield and looking for spaces around the Dutch central defenders.
Key tactical changes
De Jong picked up an injury in the opening 10 minutes and Blind slotted into the defensive midfield role. Bruno Martins Indi came in to plug the left side of central defence, thereby maintaining their 5-3-2 formation. This game had the most adverse conditions of all games played at the tournament so far and the Dutch players were clearly affected more than the Mexicans.
Netherlands dropped deep and concentrated on just holding on, while the Mexico pushed for an opener. El Tri eventually got it and they dropped back as Miguel Herrera chose to settle for what he had.
He switched to a 5-4-1 formation with the wing-backs dropping back to defend as full-backs in a solid backline of five. Javier Aquino came on to play on the right of midfield to track back Netherlands’ Martins Indi, while Guardado assumed a similar defensive duty on the left against Kuyt.
Only Javier Hernandez led the line after he came on to provide pace for possible counter attacks.
Van Gaal quickly switched his side to a 4-3-3 formation. Kuyt switched to the right back position. Kuyt and Martins Indi had to leave their flanks open and push into Mexico’s half as wingbacks. Robben and Memphis Depay had to cut in from the right and left side of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar as inverted wingers.
A couple of mistakes from Mexico allowed Netherlands to snatch to late goals to decide the game.
