Stefan de Vrij has so far impressed Kees Kwakman in this European championship. The central defender is one of the regular faces of the Dutch national team and managed to keep the zero with the the Dutch in two of the three group matches, against Austria (2-0) and North Macedonia (0-3). Mark van Rijswijk even dares to make a careful comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo, who, according to the commentator, has the same character traits.
“There can only be one central defender so far this European Championship?” Kwakman asks football talk out loud. “Stefan de Vrij. He plays a really great tournament. I think he is such a top defender. When you see him you think: he is not that strong, he is not that fast. But he can do everything. He does everything well.” Since the departure of Virgil van Dijk, De Vrij and Matthijs de Ligt have formed the heart of the defense of the Dutch national team, whether or not supported by a third central defender in a 5-3-2 system. During the first group match, De Boer called on Jurriën Timber due to an injury to De Ligt, but he moved back to the bench against Austria.
“I think he is now slightly more stable than De Ligt,” Kwakman continues his praise of De Vrij. “But De Ligt is of course coming back from an injury and De Ligt is a bit more robust. As a result, he is occasionally wrong more often. De Vrij is a bit more thoughtful. In terms of duo, it fits very well together. De Vrij is a bit calmer on the side.” ball and can also play well left central.” The time De Ligt played left-centre, in the extremely disappointing friendly match against Scotland (2-2), the Juventus defender fell hopelessly through the basket. Since then, the now fit Daley Blind has been the third central defender.
Mark van Rijswijk is something of Ronaldo back in De Vrij. “He is living proof that everything will work out if you invest in yourself,” says Van Rijswijk. “Whatever Ronaldo has. That is a different level than De Vrij, but he also has that of course. If you see how much he does for it. Let’s be honest, he was a great defender when he was at Feyenoord, but the The best defender in Serie A no one had seen in him. He forced that himself by constantly investing in himself. That is really very clever.”
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