The absence of Frenkie de Jong in the European Championship qualifiers where the Dutch national team played against France and Gibraltar is a big failure for national coach Ronald Koeman.
“There’s a key in the training, he’s an important player,” said Koeman, who followed El Clásico with the technicians Sunday night and soon learned that Barcelona’s De Jong was injured.
On Monday morning, after an MRI scan, the final message came that De Jong would not be able to field for the Orange team.
It takes some getting used to Koeman, who rarely had injury problems in his first days as the national coach. “For two years, everyone came to Zeist happy and fit. So this is a disappointment. But it cannot be said that we are suddenly clothed in sackcloth and ashes. You always have that risk.”
Who will replace De Jong?
At the Orange press conference ahead of the European Championship qualifiers, the question naturally arose: Who should replace De Jong?
“Frenkie has a number of qualities that not many players have. But his absence doesn’t mean we’re going to change the system abruptly, that would be weird,” he said. “It will be different. Because the person in Frenkie’s position now has a different style of play.”
Koeman has yet to name a replacement: “I’ve been thinking about it since last night, but I haven’t decided yet.”
Will Mats Wieffer make his debut? Koeman certainly doesn’t rule this out: “I saw him playing at the Classic yesterday and I wouldn’t be afraid. I chose him because I thought he could play at that level.”
Koeman on Tete’s criticism: Like it or not…
At the press conference, Koeman was sympathetic to Kenny Tete’s criticism. The Fulham right-back has expressed his displeasure that he was selected for the qualifiers last weekend and not selected for the final. Tete said he felt like he was “playing with his balls a bit.”
“If he’s not supposed to criticize anyone, it’s me,” Koeman said. “He was always in the picture with me, but in the end the choice now falls to someone else. We had a bigger shortlist because we had so many question marks.”
“But I’m not spiteful, anyone can say what they think,” said the national coach. “Maybe I’ll call him from now on to see how he’s doing, because it’s not for me one way or the other…”
Koeman added that Georginio Wijnaldum is returning as the reserve captain of the Dutch national team. Wijnaldum returns to Orange under Koeman after a long hiatus.
The AS Roma midfielder came back from a serious injury a few weeks ago. “He is fit and important to the band,” Koeman said.
Orange has a striker problem?
With Luuk de Jong and Vincent Janssen stopping at Orange, it looks like the national coach will face forward problem.
“We don’t have many options, so we might have trouble with that,” Koeman said. “But some guys can play well in this election”
“Brian Brobbey’s selection shows that we don’t have many opportunities,” the national manager continued. We choose a boy with him who is not a normal player in Ajax. But someone with a future.”
Malen, no Veerman
Orange began preparations with 24 players on Monday afternoon. Only PSV player Joey Veerman missed the first practice of the week. He will train with national coach Ronald Koeman’s team on Tuesday.
Donyell Malen entered the training ground at Zeist at around 5 pm on Monday. For players who played (almost) full matches last weekend, practice was over in a little over twenty minutes. Other players, their club’s benches and substitutes practiced for an hour in the rain.
The education given at Zeist was followed by hundreds of people, including children. They found that Koeman paid special attention to captain Virgil van Dijk, with whom he was practicing.
Shortly after 6pm, the popular Memphis Depay became the last player to leave the field.
Source: NOS
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
