Euro 2024: Can Koeman’s Revamped Squad Bring Home Glory?
The European Championships are right around the corner, and it is looking more stacked than ever. Several nations have a good chance of winning the tournament, and why wouldn’t we be one? We haven’t been the best over the last few years. Still, now I’m hoping that with Ronald Koeman, the ex-Barcelona manager, back behind the wheel and a squad filled with some of the best players in their respective positions, we can push for a good positive finish or even with the whole thing.
The Team
The squad is in a much better position than a lot of people were probably expecting. We have an excellent team and a perfect team to play a 5-2-3 that we expect Koeman to play. With a defence with players like Frimpong, Van Dijk, and Ake, there will be a solid back five that is also competent going forward. In the middle of the pitch, we will have significant control, with De Jong, De Roon and Reijnders being the three main options, in my opinion. Luckily, the quality doesn’t stop there, as our attack is arguably our most vital asset. Depay leads the line for us, and with the young wonderkid Xavi Simons and the more experienced Cody Gakpo on the left, there are very strong front three. The main issue we have is probably the style of play Koeman plays, sometimes it feels like he doesn’t know the football he wants to play himself so it is hard for the players to buy into a tactic. If Koeman plays some good football, our Euro 2024 odds will be significantly better as we have the squad to push for a good tournament.
Our Group Run To The Final
As much as I am talking about us winning the Euros, we need to take every game one by one. We have a very tough group and face the team many people think will win the whole thing in France. Let’s say, purely for this hypothetical, we play France, Austria, and Poland, beat Poland and Austria, and draw against France to finish the group second. If this happens, we could potentially face one of four teams.
Round Of 16 and Quarter Finals
The four potential teams we could face in the Round of 16 are Portugal, Turkey, Greece, and Georgia. These are all strong teams, and between all of them, we mostly want Georgia as they are easiest here. After hopefully a very strong and confident showing in the Round of 16, we will most likely play Belgium after that. This is a significant test for us, but I’m hoping our strong defence can neutralise their substantial attacking threats, and we can progress to face a much harder team afterwards.
Semi-Finals and The Final
This is where it starts to get nerve-wracking for us. We have a good enough squad to push forward and get to the later stages of the group, but the grit and desire might be missing from us and our manager. If we look at the route, England is the most likely option to get to the semifinals and face us. I don’t want to be too confident and get egg on my face but, I think over 90 minutes we beat England comfortably, if this comes back to haunt me then that’s okay. But, England is known for having a weak mentality, as seen in the 2020 Euros final, they are still a young squad and I think with our defence, we swallow their attack and hit them on the counter to get to the Euros final, where we will most likely play France again.
France is so strong in all positions, so if we do well in the group against them, this could be the thing that wins us the tournament. The hit on their confidence and the worry that they can’t hold on when they play us could be the thing that wins us the tournament and makes our nation proud.
