‘He sees this as a stage’

Monday, September 6, 2021 at 5:03 PM• Yanick Vos • Last update: 17:11

Valentijn Driessen reacted on Monday afternoon to the press conference of Louis van Gaal. The national coach picked up the chief of football from The Telegraph hard at work in a discussion about the preferred playing style of the Dutch national team under his rule. Driessen stated that Van Gaal wants the Dutch to play like Chelsea, which in his eyes is a defensive style of play. The coach indicated that Chelsea do not play defensively under Thomas Tuchel and that Driessen has ‘no sense’ about it.

Van Gaal emphasized at the press conference that defensive football has made its appearance and that the public is applauding for it. “But the one applauding is you. You want to play like that, like Chelsea and Liverpool,” Driessen said. “Is that defensive football, in your eyes?” Van Gaal replied. “What Chelsea does,” said Driessen. “Not at all, Valentine! You have no idea at all. I’m sorry to say it, but you’re just a journalist. You want to implement your vision, but you have no vision in football. You have a vision for the newspaper, fantastic. You attract attention, and so on. But with 5-3-2 or 5-2-3 you can attack incredibly well. Chelsea shows it every time, with different formations. And I take my hat off to Mr Tuchel, because he got in halfway through.”

In a video on his employer’s website, Driessen explains why he thinks Chelsea has a defensive style of play. “I think Chelsea is starting from scratch. Of course they have great attackers, although I am not fond of Timo Werner. Only the full potential is not used. It’s molded into a certain shape and I think that’s a very defensive shape. Louis van Gaal does not think so, because he applauds Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel. It is a great performance, but in six months we will have forgotten how Chelsea played football,” said Driessen.

In the run-up to the game against Norway, Driessen and Van Gaal also got into a discussion during a press conference. “I don’t know what you want to call it. I don’t know either, because now I didn’t understand it and last Friday I got big compliments because I saw it so well. So it kind of goes from left to right and from top to bottom. Every once in a while you meet somewhere and sometimes you don’t, and that was the case in this case. That is part of it and we can both have our own opinion,” said Driessen about his discussions with the national coach. The journalist expects that the injured Cody Gakpo will be replaced by Steven Bergwijn against Turkey on Tuesday. “He also replaced him against Montenegro. The alternative is Donyell Malen, but I think he is more of a striker. But we should really ask Louis that, because maybe I’m seeing that completely wrong.”

Van Gaal revealed at the press conference on Monday that Daley Blind will return to the base. Driessen calls it a relief that the national coach speaks openly and honestly about this. “But then I find it strange that the media gets the bottom up because they publish the line-up for the game in Norway,” said Driessen, referring to Van Gaal’s words during the press moment. The national coach said he was disappointed that the line-up would be published in the media well before kick-off. “Of course that was also towards De Telegraaf, because we had that attitude and he doesn’t understand that. But before the match against Montenegro, he almost made it known himself. Now he gave a number of passes again. It’s all part of the game. I really have the feeling that he sees this as a kind of stage to go wild every now and then and shout some stuff. But it is more attractive than under Frank de Boer, that’s for sure.”