Frank de Boer explained on Sunday about the starting position for Donyell Malen in the eighth final against the Czech Republic. The attacker is preferred over Wout Weghorst in the match that starts at 6 p.m. in Budapest. Malen is rewarded for his strong performance against North Macedonia (0-3 win) in the last group match of the European Championship.
“Of course you have headaches”, De Boer agrees to the NOS. “It was between Wout and Donyell. They both did well. I think that with Donyell’s speed we can create a threat. Their central defenders are not the fastest. Let’s hope we can take advantage of that.” Before his injury, Luuk de Jong was seen as the ‘plan B’ of the the Dutch squad, but Weghorst will be that on Sunday. If the the Dutch is ‘0-1 behind ten minutes before the end’, as journalist Jeroen Stekelenburg puts it, Weghorst is looked at.
“Yes, we have indicated how we want to be. Then he will be the target man,” emphasizes the national coach, who indicates that the choice for Malen is a specific choice for this match and not for the rest of the tournament. “Wout just did really well, so that was quite a difficult choice. It is always difficult to say something like that to a player, but on the other hand it is also part of your job.”
De Boer does not yet reveal what his plan is when the match comes to penalties. “We have been working on penalties since the training camp in Portugal. We paid close attention to that. Everyone was only allowed to take one penalty. If it comes to that, and I hope not, then we are ready.” He does not want to say whether he wants to make a goalkeeper change for the penalty series. “We are prepared for anything. I’m not saying anything. We are prepared for anything in any case.”
Van der Vaart would not be surprised if De Boer brought in Tim Krul as a replacement for Maarten Stekelenburg for a possible penalty series. “I think Frank has a lot of contact with Louis, so I think he sees it as a serious option,” Van der Vaart said. NOS Van Gaal’s goalkeeper change during the 2014 World Cup against Costa Rica. “Has Stekelenburg ever won a penalty series? It is in any case Krul’s specialty, so it wouldn’t surprise me.” Stekelenburg won two of his four penalty series as a goalkeeper (with Ajax and AS Monaco); Krul won three of the four (with the the Dutch, AZ and Norwich City).
The national coach knows that very football-loving Netherlands has an opinion about the choices he makes. “I just go my own way. Everyone can have their opinion about it, but in the end I decide. I work with them day and night and I make choices from that,” said De Boer, who made a statement by holding a rainbow button for the camera to appear. “It is for what we as the Netherlands and the Dutch stand for: against all kinds of discrimination. Everyone who wants to be supported is supported by us.”
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