A large number of the Dutch internationals are assured of a basic place at the approaching European Championship without injuries, but there is also a group that has to put itself in the spotlight during the exhibition matches with national coach Frank de Boer. Voetbalzone will zoom in on the latter category in the coming weeks. Today the attention goes to Tim Krul, Maarten Stekelenburg and Marco Bizot, who can suddenly hope for a star role during the European Championship due to the forced departure of Jasper Cillessen.
By Thijs Verhaar
As a man who makes it his mission to bring more attention to goalkeepers with podcasts, blogs and television appearances, analyst and former professional goalkeeper Harm Zeinstra cannot suppress a faint smile. “With the Dutch national team, this year it is quite often about the goalkeeper, but now completely natural.” The position under the bar is suddenly number 1 in the Netherlands due to the loss of first choice Jasper Cillessen, who has to miss a large part of the preparation due to a corona infection and has therefore been sacrificed by national coach Frank de Boer. The elector indicated at the press conference that he did not want to take any risks with players that are not fully deployable and has therefore decided to give the place of Cillessen to Marco Bizot who had dropped out of the pre-selection.
However, the choice to sacrifice the first keeper so quickly leads to incomprehension among critics. After all, a rule has been added for this European Championship that seriously injured or ill players may be replaced before the first match and keepers even during the entire tournament, even when other closing posts are available. UEFA wants to ease the pressure on the players and national coaches after a ‘troublesome season affected by COVID-19’. The word ‘seriously’ injured or ill provides a somewhat gray area, but a corona infection seems to be a valid reason in all cases to be allowed to switch during the tournament. “That’s why the whole rule was devised,” says Zeinstra.
Frank de Boer about Cillessen: ‘Let me start by saying that I find this incredibly sour for Jasper. But I had to take the plunge. (…) We are on the eve of a European Championship and I want certainty, however I think it is for Jasper.’
He therefore does not fully understand that De Boer has already decided to remove Cillessen from the selection, although, because this was done just before the deadline, there is still a chance that Cillessen – if tested negative – can be called up again as a another goalkeeper is injured or ill. However, this chance is negligible, De Boer also knows. He also indicated that he found it ‘incredibly sour’. However, the national coach only wants keepers who can participate in the full preparation. Somehow Zeinstra understands that explanation, but at the same time he believes that someone with Cillessen’s experience does not necessarily need it. “He already knows the boys through and through. And if tactical changes need to be made, there are plenty of ways to discuss it with him. So you could have taken him with you anyway”, says Zeinstra. “With two experienced goalkeepers on hand, you could definitely have postponed the choice.”
In his view, it would have been fine to start with Krul or Stekelenburg as first goalkeeper and then see whether Cillessen could gradually take over that place or had to settle ‘as a top professional’ in a reserve role if the first choice was good. kept standing. The analyst counters the issue of missing preparation with an example from 2010. “At the time, Arjen Robben was also not fit at the start of the World Cup, but with an adapted trajectory he was prepared during the tournament and see where that has taken us. He almost made us world champions.” Not that Zeinstra Cillessen now wants to ascribe the same status as Robben, but he is the first goalkeeper of recent years, he reasons. “I understand he was up for debate when he wasn’t playing at Valencia, but he’s been in excellent form at his club in recent weeks. He showed really nice things and I was hopeful that he could take that with him to the Dutch, but it is no different. Very sad for him and for us. I think his absence is a loss.”
Opta’s statistics are based on all official matches with their clubs in the 2020/21 season.
Now, however, it is between Krul, Stekelenburg and Bizot, with the first two allowed to fight out who will be the first goalkeeper. De Boer has already indicated that they will both get a chance in the two friendly matches against Scotland and Georgia. Krul was promoted to the Premier League with Norwich City and Stekelenburg replaced André Onana in a very solid way at Ajax. The veteran of the team from Amsterdam eventually made 21 appearances this season, where Krul was 36 under the bar with the champion from the Championship. Krul can provide a rescue percentage of 80 percent, while Stekelenburg ends slightly lower with 76 percent. It should be noted that Krul also conceded many more shots to distinguish himself, while it is often more difficult for a keeper who has less to do to stay sharp. “However, Stekelenburg stood his ground”, concludes data specialist Hidde Spaan van opta.
Stekelenburg and Krul have also both shown that they can stop a penalty (33% success at 40%). However, the biggest difference between the two lies in the thwarting of great opportunities. If you can reasonably expect that an opposing team’s chance will result in a goal, this will be opta classified as an ‘expected goal’. According to the statistics, Krul was expected to concede 32.9 goals at Norwich City, but only 23 (-9.9). Stekelenburg had to fish 12 times, where the statistics counted on 14.4 goals (-2.4). However, Spaan emphasizes that Krul’s figures for the Dutch national team have not been taken into account and they show a completely different picture to national coach Frank de Boer. “Remarkably enough, in his six games under Frank de Boer at the Dutch, he had a rescue percentage of only 42 percent. He had to concede seven goals against, with 6.0 expected goals against.”
Third keeper Bizot lags far behind his competitors in most areas. Although he played more matches at AZ, he also conceded a lot more goals in proportion, had a lower rescue percentage, didn’t stop a single penalty and barely managed to reduce the number of expected goals against (-0.9). According to Spaan, this has mainly to do with his performances in the Eredivisie, because in the Europa League he regularly kept his team in the race with a rescue percentage of 78% and only 5 goals against (with 8.6 expected). Analyst Zeinstra agrees that Bizot was less good throughout the season than in the previous year, but still calls it a ‘completely logical choice’ to choose the closing post of AZ as a replacement for Cillessen. “He is always in the pre-selection and is therefore familiar with the the Dutch squad. Then it would have been very strange if you had suddenly come up with a completely different name just before the start.”
KNVB announces back numbers: Stekelenburg gets number one
On Wednesday morning, June 2, it was announced that Stekelenburg will receive number 1, while Krul will have to make do with number 13 and Bizot with 23.
When asked whether he would let Krul or Stekelenburg take place under the bar, he indicates that he wants to look further than just the statistics. He would make his choice depend on the game system. “I understand that it will probably be 5-3-2 and then it may be that the aspect of playing football becomes less important. Then you have an extra central defender in front of you who can take the pressure off and help with the build-up,” he explains. Zeinstra is of the opinion that Stekelenburg saves himself ‘much better’ in positional play, while Krul is a bit stronger in one-on-one situations and can call himself the better line keeper. “If playing football is less important because of the tactics, you can choose to give him the confidence. Otherwise I would go for Stekelenburg. Of course he also has the most experience of the two and is just very reliable.”
He calls all three goalkeepers ‘players with whom you can easily arrive at the European Championship’, but at the same time indicates that the Netherlands has to lose out with the goalkeepers guild against many other countries. “At the moment we don’t have anyone under the bar at the real top clubs, where Germany can effortlessly compensate for the absence of Marc-André Ter Stegen with Manuel Neuer, Bernd Leno and Kevin Trapp. In Spain, someone like Kepa is not considered necessary and David De Gea is not even sure of a starting place.” This can of course partly be explained because both national teams can draw on a much larger population, but Switzerland with its population of just 8.5 million has things in order, according to Zeinstra. “They have three goalkeepers at Borussia Dortmund alone (Roman Bürki, Marwin Hitz and the newly recruited Gregor Kobel, ed.), but they are all not even in the European Championship selection.”
They lose out to Yann Sommer, Jonas Omlin and PSV mercenary Yvon Mvogo. “Their first choice Sommer has a really nice style”, praises Zeinstra, who especially expects a lot from the German goalkeepers guild and is also looking forward to the performances of the Spanish closing post Unai Simón, although the English and Spanish press are now speculating that national coach Luis Enrique plans a surprise move with Brighton’s Robert Sanchez called up for the first time. “That’s the beauty of a European Championship. There are always new players and I’m sure there will be new goalkeepers who will take the spotlight”, assures Zeinstra. “In the future, new Dutch talent will also present itself, but for the time being we have to make do with experienced people over thirty. Fortunately, you can also get very far with that.”
Football zone keeps you informed about everything about EURO 2020
Curious about the current standings, the match program and much more European Championship news? Click here!