It doesn't matter. He occupied a space behind the strikers. It allowed them to pressure high up the pitch. And he also was in dangerous areas countless times even though he could barely get a shot off.
It's a clear difference between our system.
Sorry but that is totally wrong , they played counter - attack . The first 2 goals were long balls by blind over the top of the defenders . In 3-4-1-2 they played with 2 holding midfielders and 2 wing backs who rarely crossed their own half .
In our 3-5-2 formation vidal and pogba and get in the box a lot , how many times did guzman and de jong get that far ? .
We dont play counter-attack , we play possession , sit deep absorb and when we get the ball it's moved fwd by passing it around or long balls to llorente to hold for mids to come in .
The dutch played direct last night 2-3 passes ball moves fwd , thus they they seemed more attack minded than our team . They have van persie and robben who like to make the run's behind the defenders we dont (tevez/llorente) . Spain's defense was caught because they were playing a high line proving they were pressing .
When sneijder got in the attacking position , van persie and robben both drift wide making it a 3-4-3 , when we attack its 3-3-4 (asa-tevez-llorente-licht) .
Formations change in the match depending on attacking or defending . You need to see movement of players who they are in each phase of the game .
Have a look at the heat map of the dutch players ( blind , janmaat , guzman ,dejong sneijder ) from last nite to know more about the movements .
http://resources.fifa.com/mm/docume.../03/57/eng_03_0613_esp-ned_playersheatmap.pdf