Johan Cruyff has set a debate raging in the Netherlands over whether Foppe de Haan, the grand old man of Dutch football, has betrayed a nation’s integrity. The Under-21 coach has switched from the 4-3-3 formation that underpinned the inception of the total football pioneered by Cruyff and Co a generation ago to – shock, horror – 4-4-2 during the European Under-21 Championship.

“You always have to listen to Johan Cruyff,” De Haan, who is also the Netherlands’ head of youth development, said. “But Johan Cruyff is not always right.”

Just as England, fine-tuning a 4-3-3 shape in preparation for the tournament out of which they stumbled on Wednesday in a remarkable semi-final shoot-out, finally thought they had caught up with the Continent, they find the Continent has moved on. They even beat the defending champions in Alkmaar last November during a 12-match unbeaten run, but just as England get the hang of holding midfield players, wide men playing off a lone striker and all that jazz, they find it has become old hat.

Do not be deceived, though. The 4-4-2 England have reverted to in these finals is different from the game that Holland use. De Haan made no secret of how he intended to pick off England. “Sometimes they play very wide so there’s a lot of space between the lines [defence, midfield and attack],” he said. “Our game from the back is quite crucial. If we can bring the ball out, play the ball short into the spaces, we can get a free man in midfield and then we play the ball wide.”

Underpinning such a game plan is the assumption that every player is sure of his first touch. England have done well in this tournament in spite, not because, of their variable skill levels. Chris Waddle, the former England winger, has been critical of a youth development system that, he argues, produces athletes rather than footballers. Ask Guus Hiddink, another former Holland coach, for his three priorities in developing players and his list is simple. “Technique, technique, technique,” he said.

“You have to be boss of the ball,” De Haan elaborated. “It’s very important, the technical skills. If you are not the boss of the ball, you cannot play football the way we want to play football. Coordination, then, is very important, with and without the ball; and, because society is changing and children are sitting more, you have to make a programme for power and flexibility, from the age of about 12.”

Spend a day at Vitesse Arnhem’s academy and a similar message is conveyed. It is the spatial awareness and technical expertise of young players that comes first in their football training, built around their academic needs. At Tvenster, one of 25 Loot schools in the Netherlands for children identified with a special talent for sport or dance, the 49 Vitesse schoolboys spend four afternoons a week at Papendal, the national sports centre, and are taxied between home, school and football. Roy Makaay, of Bayern Munich, and Stijn Schaars, who captained Holland’s triumphant Under21 team last summer, are recent graduates, as are 14 of the present 30-man first-team squad.

“The selection of the coaches is critical,” Pascal Jansen, the head of the academy, said. “If they are patient, have empathy with the age group and have the right personality, there is a better chance of producing more players.”

Vitesse have an annual budget of about €15 million (about £10 million), of which €750,000 goes into youth development. Clubs in the Barclays Premier League, the wealthiest league in the world, invest on average 2 per cent of their revenue. Does this represent a serious attempt to prioritise the development of young English talent? “Do we spend enough quality time with our young players?” a Premier League official said. “Could we have a better proportion of coaches to pupils? It would all cost money and does not buy jam today.”

Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of football development, recognises this need and is to announce the appointment of more than 70 full-time coaches for primary school-aged footballers. “We need much better quality coaches working in those age groups,” he said. “At the moment anyone who’s any good quickly goes through the system and is coaching 16-plus because that’s the only place he’s going to get any money, whereas in other countries they pay quality people to stay in the 5 to 11s and to stay in the 11 to 16s.”

Steve McClaren, the England head coach, spoke of the fortitude he witnessed among the Under-21 team, who were within a minute of gutsing out a victory over the Under-21 champions in their own back yard. They played like heroes, James Milner, David Nugent, Steven Taylor et al, yet 64 per cent of their passes found their mark, compared with a success rate of 84 per cent from Holland, who enjoyed 70 per cent of the possession.

No wonder England ended up with so many broken hearts and bursting lungs, so many suspensions and walking wounded. They had been chasing the ball all night.