Dutch see room for improvement

Netherlands Under-21 coach Foppe de Haan felt his side had been too nonchalant in their approach after leaving Skopje with a 1-0 win against F.Y.R. Macedonia in their first qualifier for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

Drenthe winner
The Jong Oranje are bidding for a hat-trick of titles following back-to-back successes in Portugal in 2006 and on home soil in June, and Royston Drenthe's first-half strike got the defending champions' Group 5 campaign off to a winning start. F.Y.R. Macedonia, however, created a number of chances, leaving De Haan with plenty to ponder as he plots his side's path to Sweden in 2009. "

'Too nonchalant'
We were far too nonchalant which allowed F.Y.R. Macedonia to keep believing they could get the equaliser," said De Haan, whose side beat Serbia 4-1 in the final in Groningen on 23 June. "That's why it got scary in the end. Of course, it's all about winning and if we win all our away matches 1-0 that would be excellent, but we're still lacking the quality level we had a few months ago. The players held on to the ball far too long, making the tempo of the game too slow." There were, however, mitigating circumstances. He added: "It was a very long trip with a lot of delays and during the game the temperature was almost 40 degrees."

Old faces
De Haan started with nine of the squad who won the title this summer, with Kenneth Vermeer, Gianni Zuiverloon, Ryan Donk, Erik Pieters, Ismaïl Aissati, Luigi Bruins, Roy Beerens, Tim Janssen and Royston Drenthe all in the side. AFC Ajax defender Gregory van der Wiel made his debut in central defence alongside captain Donk while Evander Sno started in midfield. De Haan reverted to 4-3-3 which came as surprise given the success he achieved with 4-4-2 during the summer. He said: "I just looked at who was available and with midfielders Evander Sno, Ismaïl Aissati and Luigi Bruins there is a lot of quality so this system best suits this squad. The next game could be different again."

Tactics
One of the talking points of the summer was De Haan's use of 4-4-2 rather than the traditional Dutch 4-3-3 formation, and he revealed he had talked tactics again with national team coach Marco van Basten when the pair met up last week. "We were of the same opinion," De Haan said. "I think the outside world is too focussed on it. It is a bit of an old fashioned discussion. For instance, at what point do you take a picture of the pitch positions? The team is always lined up differently. In the European Championship final against Serbia we played 4-5-1 at one moment and 4-3-3 another." The Netherlands next play Norway on 7 September.