Stefan de Vrij is well on his way to the first championship since the 2009/10 season with Internazionale. With the center-back as one of the mainstays, the long-standing hegemony of Juventus is likely to come to an end within a few weeks. De Vrij may not end with one, but two prizes; the 29-year-old was named best defender of Serie A last season and is on track to extend that title.
Internazionale took full advantage of De Vrij’s expiring contract in the summer of 2018. The ex-Feyenoord player had proven his worth for Lazio for four years when Inter brought him in. Italy’s leader has never regretted that decision. Lazio was left empty-handed with the transfer-free departure of De Vrij, while he then according to Transfer market represented a market value of forty million euros. Three years later, the 43-time Dutch international is still at the absolute top and is seen as perhaps the best defender in the Italian league. Its market value has now been adjusted by Transfermarkt to 55 million euros. There is only one player with a higher market value in Serie A: Matthijs de Ligt (75 million). Through La Gazzetta dello Sport De Vrij was already called ‘one of Inter’s best acquisitions in years’.
Despite his status in Italy, the role of De Vrij at Inter in the Netherlands remains underexposed, according to many. Willem van Hanegem noticed that the former Feyenoord defender in his native country does not get the credits he deserves. “De Vrij is simply the best defender in Serie A, I have found him clearly better than Matthijs de Ligt for a long time,” he wrote in his column for the Algemeen Dagblad. “De Vrij is going to take the national title, but this is about Virgil van Dijk. While De Vrij has really become one of the best defenders in the world. Only it seems that many people do not want to see it. ” The Free is less in the picture than many of his colleagues, Van Hanegem also sees. “On the field he is very modest, he plays completely in the interest of the team. Outside of that, he should be able to pat himself a bit more on the chest. ”
Il miglior difensore della Serie A
De Vrij feels like a fish in water in Antonio Conte’s 3-5-2 system. He almost always plays in the center of the rearguard, which changes composition regularly. Milan Skriniar, Aleksandar Kolarov and Alessandro Bastoni are the players from whom Conte usually chooses to take place next to De Vrij in the three-man defense. In this role, De Vrij was named the best defender of the Italian league by the Lega Serie A last year based on his game and statistics. He therefore plays all league matches with an emblem on his shirt that reminds of this prize. The badge is also worn in the competition by Wojciech Szczesny (best goalkeeper), Alejandro Gómez (best midfielder), Paulo Dybala (best player) and Ciro Immobile (top scorer). De Vrij was also included in the Team of the Year, chosen by trainers and players from the Serie A. “I am very happy with this prize”, De Vrij responded to the election. “It is a great honor to receive the appreciation of colleagues and trainers.”
Stefan de Vrij with the prize for best defender of the Serie A 2019/20.
The basket leader is the leader of the best rearguard of the Serie A this season. With only 29 goals against and no less than 12 clean sheets in 32 games, Internazionale has the best defensive performance of all the clubs in the league. Also their Expected Goals (xG) against is the lowest of all teams in the league, calculated Opta. Conte’s team has been able to build on the previous defensively this season, as Inter were also the team with the fewest goals against (36), xG against (41.1) and most often kept the clear (14 times) in Serie A These are impressive statistics to which De Vrij has made a major contribution. He played 29 of the 32 league matches and only picked up two yellow cards. De Vrij is not a card packer anyway; in the league he never got above five yellow cards per season, while he was only sent off the field twice in a competition context.
Impressive statistics
In an interview with Football International De Vrij recently explained that he has been Italian in all his years in Italy. He is a lover of Italian life, culture, history and people. He has also fully adapted in terms of playing style. Where in the Netherlands a center-back attaches great value to his footballing ability, in Italy it is especially important that his opponent does not score. De Vrij has both qualities, according to his statistics. Especially his footballing ability is of added value to the game of Internazionale. With a passing accuracy of 93.5 percent, it makes a deep impression. There are only four players with higher passing accuracy this season in Serie A, according to Opta. Juventus defender Merih Demiral scores slightly better, but he also sent 1149 fewer passes than De Vrij.
The fact that De Vrij is comfortable on the ball is also evident from the fact that he already dribbled 5278 meters in Serie A this season. With Rodrigo de Paul (Udinese, 8251 meters), Theo Hernández (AC Milan, 7127 meters), Leonardo Spinazzola (AS Roma, 6629 meters), Junior Messias (Crotone, 6597 meters), Gian Marco Ferrari (Sassuolo, 6025 meters) and Lorenzo Insigne (Napoli, 5882 meters), only six players in the Italian top league covered a longer distance with the ball at the foot. However, it is not these statistics with which De Vrij makes such an unparalleled impression this season. He is especially appreciated at Inter for his duel power. Of all the players from Conte’s selection, De Vrij is the one with the most header duels won this season: 56. Alessandro Bastoni follows as number two at an appropriate distance with 44 header duels won, number three Romelu Lukaku won 40. The player is also the first player. from Internazionale with the most interceptions: 38.
Former Inter defender Lúcio is impressed by De Vrij’s game. “In our time, the defense was the basis for our success,” said the Brazilian, winner of the Champions League in the 2009/10 season with the Internazionale of former coach José Mourinho, at the end of last month in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport. “But it wasn’t just the defenders. The entire team provided a unique piece of solidarity. Inter’s current defense also provides a lot of certainty. Skriniar and Bastoni are modern defenders, but De Vrij is the one who most resembles me in terms of game. I see myself in him when he covers his opponent, but also because of his way of playing on the ball. ”
De Vrij or De Ligt?
Van Hanegem admitted in his column for it Algemeen Dagblad indicates that he thinks De Vrij is ‘clearly a better defender’ than De Ligt. It is difficult to say whether this is actually the case. In part, it will have to do with taste. One person attaches more importance to a defender performing his defensive tasks well, the other would like to see a center-back contribute while playing football. In the graph below, the statistics of Opta show that De Ligt has a higher score on eleven of the fifteen points this season in the Serie A than De Vrij.
For example, the Inter defender needs fewer fouls than De Ligt (0.7 per match at 1.6), is less often dribbled by an opponent per match (0.3 at 0.4) and has more interceptions (1.4 at 1.3 per 90 minutes). The two Dutch defenders in Italian service have a different playing style, as is also evident from the statistics. The latter was used to taking care of the build-up at Ajax and he also takes on that task at Juventus. Compared to De Vrij, De Ligt comes to the ball much more often, he also sends more passes and takes on almost three more duels every ninety minutes. Looking at the statistics for header duels and successful tackles, the two are not very different from each other.
The statistics of De Vrij and De Ligt per ninety minutes along the yardstick. The right column shows the statistics of De Vrij last season.
Dutch soccerteam
Despite the fact that De Vrij has been one of the best defenders in the world for years, he is used to a place on the bench in the Dutch national team. Due to the injury of Virgil van Dijk, this will change at the European Championship next summer. The chance that Van Dijk will recover in time from his serious knee injury is very small. It is therefore expected that national coach Frank de Boer will choose De Vrij and De Ligt as the central duo at the European Championship. In the last international period, De Boer already intended to set up the pair, but due to a positive corona test, De Vrij had to complete the World Cup qualifying matches with Turkey (4-2 loss), Latvia (2-0 win) and Gibraltar (0-7 win). ).
Where De Vrij and De Ligt will probably form the center of the Dutch next summer, they were competitors before Van Dijk’s injury. However, the pair themselves did not see it that way. “It’s a great fight,” De Ligt said to the at the end of 2019 NOS. “But with the Dutch national team I see him more as a friend. When Stefan plays, I grant it to him. And when I play, he allows it to me.” The two get along well, even off the field. “I am with him regularly. Recently we had something to eat after the mutual match. It is only an hour’s drive from Turin to Milan. I really enjoy having someone nearby to speak Dutch,” said De Ligt a few months after his transfer from Ajax to Juventus.
Future
At 29, De Vrij still has a lot of years ahead of him. His contract with Internazionale will run until the summer of 2023, so he is still good in Milan for the time being. In recent months, he has been associated with various clubs in the corridors. Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, among others, would have targeted him. According to Italian media, Inter will not cooperate with De Vrij’s departure. Corriere dello Sport wrote earlier this month that the Dutchman is seen as a ‘fundamental’ part of the Italian leader. His agent Mino Raiola has reportedly even sat around the table with the club management about a new contract. Where he would now earn 3.8 million euros annually, he can go to an annual salary of 4.8 million euros. Negotiations are now a side issue for De Vrij. First he will want to grab the league title, then to the European Championship.