Wim Kieft tears into national coach Xavi: 'I don't understand this at all...'

Wim Kieft cannot understand how head coach Xavi Hernández has set the Netherlands up against Greece. The former striker sees major problems on the right in particular because of Denzel Dumfries's positioning, which he believes is also taking Crysencio Summerville out of the game.

The Netherlands endured a miserable first half in Thessaloniki and went into the dressing room 2-0 down. Fotis Ioannidis opened the scoring after 23 minutes and, just before half-time, Giorgios Masouras doubled the lead after Ruben van Bommel sloppily gave the ball away.

Speaking in the half-time analysis on NOS , Kieft aimed his criticism firmly at Xavi's tactical choices. "I do not understand Dumfries's position at all. When we have possession, he is already standing incredibly deep", observed the former international.

For Kieft, the right-back's role stops several Netherlands players from showing their qualities properly. "He is playing himself out of the game because of that, but he is also playing Summerville out of the game because of that. I also do not understand how coach Xavi does not see at a certain point: this is not working."

Rafael van der Vaart also had no good word to say about the Netherlands' display. The former midfielder sees a side with no clear organisation. "I have to say honestly: I think this is such a terribly hopeless first half."

He then went a step further in his criticism. "Everyone is walking around confused. If you walked around like that in Amsterdam, they would call the police because confused people were walking the streets. It really is not normal, everyone is just doing whatever they want."

Virgil van Dijk also came in for criticism over Ioannidis's goal. Van der Vaart believes Dumfries should have recognised earlier that things were about to go wrong, but he also pointed to the captain: "Van Dijk has to judge that much earlier and then Van de Ven goes with him automatically. Actually, everyone is making an error of judgement here."

Kieft agreed and believes more should be expected from players with so much experience: "They are still fairly big players in terms of name and experience. Then you have to sense and judge what is going to happen."