The mood in the Oranje camp could actually be great. At the European Football Championship in Germany, the Elftal made it to the semi-finals, where they were unfortunately knocked out by England. And the start of the new round of the Nations League was also successful with a refreshing 5:2 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina. “That looked very good, very lively,” said national coach Ronald Koeman before the second group match against Germany in Amsterdam on Tuesday (8.45 p.m./RTL).
And yet in the Netherlands it is once again more about things off the pitch than about the good performances. Instead of being happy about the strong performance of former Bayern professional Joshua Zirkzee or being lucky to have a midfield strategist of international caliber in Tijjani Reijnders from AC Milan, the focus is on players who are not even there – or, like Wout Weghorst, are just substitutes.
Weghorst causes trouble in training
The long-time Bundesliga striker caused a brief stir in the training of the second-row players the day after the victory against Bosnia. After he was hit on the foot by Jurriën Timber, he argued for minutes with his teammate and also with Koeman. “That’s enough now,” the national coach admonished the always argumentative Weghorst.
After the training ended, Weghorst was the first to race back to the hotel on his bike, still visibly annoyed. Huge row at Oranje? Not really. “For me, it’s just a fuss,” said ex-pro Rafael van der Vaart as a TV expert.
Van der Vaart urges calm
“Wout is a great fighter who gets the most out of his career. But if a Memphis Depay had done that, we would be talking about it very differently,” said van der Vaart, referring to the Netherlands’ best active goalscorer. Weghorst will also only be a substitute against Germany. Brian Brobbey will play in the center of the attack for Zirkzee on Tuesday, as Koeman has already revealed.
Otherwise, the 61-year-old Oranje coach was reticent to comment after he caused controversy in the run-up to the international double-header with his clear opinion of Steven Bergwijn, whom he had dropped. Koeman had criticised the 26-year-old attacker’s move to Saudi Arabia and ruled out future nominations. Bergwijn publicly hit back and announced that he no longer wanted to play for Oranje as long as Koeman was national coach.
Koeman remains silent on Depay
When Koeman was asked about striker Depay’s impending move to Brazil, he refrained from commenting. “I’m not going to burn my fingers again before the whole country pounces on me again,” said Koeman.
Depay is currently without a club after leaving Atlético Madrid and is said to have agreed with Corinthians to move to São Paulo. Due to his lack of match practice, he only sat in the stands at the international match in Eindhoven against Bosnia-Herzegovina. He is also not in the squad against Germany.
Regarding the reports about the 30-year-old’s future, Koeman simply said: “I just bite my lip. When I see how everyone reacts when I say something about Bergwijn, I think that maybe I have to be a bit more careful from time to time.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240909-930-227200/1
This is a message directly from the dpa news channel.
