4 - 3 - 3 has wings

[Philippe]

The Holland-Germany game illustrates perfectly how Dutch football in general (and Ajax inparticular) are linked to the 4 - 3 - 3 system. As soon as the coach brought one more striker in the game, it turned completely in favour of the Holland side. With van der Meyde and Overmars, it would be crazy not to use them on the flanks with another striker in the center.
I would like to quote Louis van Gaal who said in a interview on the official Ajax site a few weeks ago :"playing offensive football means you disorganise the opponent's game, it means you use a big part of the pitch, with wingers"

[joey]

I wouldn't say Holland played with wingers. In fact, it was more like a 4-5-1 system. Overmars and Zenden an Van der Meijde were in midfield all the time. Apart from that, I'm afraid they cannot be considered quality players, hopefully Robben will be back soon!

[bryan]

They played 4-3-3 in the first half and they were crushed by the five man German midfield. Playing 4-3-3 against Germany in a major tournament is a stupid thing to do... escpecially if you are counting on the likes of Van der Meijde and, worse still, Zenden to provide the flair. As soon as Holland brought on a second striker they improved greatly.

If I was manager I'd go with the following formation:

Van der Sar

Heitinga - Stam(c) - Bouma - Van Bronckhorst

Robben - Sneijder - Davids - Van der Vaart

Van Nistelrooy - Makaay

No diamonds or christmas trees, just a plain 4-4-2 with Van der Vaart and Robben pushing forward on the wings.

I really don't understand why Makaay is not in the starting eleven. It's ridiculous that he's now the fourth choice striker behind Van Nistelrooy, Kluivert and Van Hooijdonk when he's easily the most on-form and most scoring striker Holland has.

[Feest]

It was nowhere near a 4-3-3. It was a 4-2-4, where Zenden, Van Der Meyde and van der Vaart were expected to retreat to the midfield whenever the Germans had possesion.

[LucaS]

It was nowhere near a 4-2-4, it was a 4-2-3-1 where Zenden, van der Meijde en VdV were supposed to support van Nistelrooy but never managed to support the striker. In the second half Holland played 4-3-3 until van Hooydonk was brougt on to the pitch for Heitinga. Dutch teams most of the time are better when they do not try to defend and play on counterattack. So I expect the only chance to beat Tjechie is to play with Robben and van der Meijde as wingers. If Holland again is going to play with just one striker they're going to be beaten!

[Philippe]

the most important is to notice that things went much better for Holland when they played with wingers, and with Overmars in particular

[LucaS]

You're absolutly right about that. Even when Overmars and van der Meijde weren't individually very strong, the game became different because the Germans had to play more carefull in defense!