Roger Schmidt wanted to face the cameras of RTL 7 did not comment on the substitution of Noni Madueke for Benfica (0-0), but did so at the press conference. The PSV trainer defends his decision, among other things by saying that his team was ready for ‘new energy’.
PSV was eliminated in the play-offs of the Champions League on Tuesday evening, because the Eindhoven team failed to score against ten men from Benfica. Afterwards, Jan Boskamp and Wesley Sneijder strongly criticized Schmidt because of the substitution of Madueke. The right attacker, who had been in shape at PSV for weeks, had to make way for Yorbe Vertessen after seventy minutes. Still, Schmidt stands by his decision.
Boskamp and Sneijder clearly blame Schmidt after elimination
Jan Boskamp and Wesley Sneijder do not understand the change of Noni Madueke at all.
“At a certain point we needed new energy, fresh players,” said Schmidt, who also changed his captain Marco van Ginkel at the same time. “We have asked a lot of the players in recent weeks. We have played a lot of matches. The young players in particular are not used to that. Noni has played a great Champions League preliminary round. Today he was a bit tired. Then I also have to make my substitutions That’s part of football. I can’t stand Noni because he’s played so great the last few weeks.”
Madueke has indeed played nine official games this season, but only played ninety minutes once (the home game against FC Midtjylland). The nineteen-year-old Englishman was initially spared against SC Cambuur (4-1 win) on Sunday and came in immediately after the break. Furthermore, in the last matches against Benfica (70 minutes), Heracles Almelo (64 minutes), FC Midtjylland (63 minutes) and Ajax (72 minutes), he was always taken off early.
Schmidt further defended against RTL 7 the tactics that PSV used in the second half. “We are a team that has to create opportunities from field play,” said the coach. “We don’t have a physically strong striker who can head, that’s not how we can score. We can score in other ways, we showed that. Today was difficult, but we had three top chances. We need at least one of them. finish. That’s it.”