The duel between AZ and PSV in the Eredivisie was finally closed by two substitutes on Saturday. With the 0-2 and 0-3, Yorbe Vertessen and Ritsu Doan ensured that Roger Schmidt’s team eventually left the AFAS Stadium with a 0-3 victory. No fewer than thirteen goals from PSV in the Eredivisie in 2021 were made by a substitute, at least five more than any club in the competition. Kenneth Perez nevertheless questions Schmidt’s substitution policy and is not euphoric about it.
Perez pointed out that PSV’s most important game so far this season has been the reunion with Benfica, after a 2-1 defeat in Lisbon. “Then Schmidt also switched and it was quite strange how he switched”, the Dane referred to the triple substitution Yorbe Vertessen-Bruma-Armando Obispo instead of Noni Madueke-Marco van Ginkel-Olivier Boscagli. “If you score then he would have supposedly been a genius. However, that didn’t work and it was right that he had made a very bad substitution.”
“Has this changed very well then? Because his two substitutes score?” Perez asked himself openly in the TV studio of ESPN. He didn’t like Arnold Bruggink’s comment that Schmidt ensures that all players remain involved. “Isn’t it bloody irritating if you’re substituted every time around the sixtieth minute? Give such a boy 75 to 80 minutes to make a difference. Otherwise, such a boy will go on the field next time with the urge that he must already achieve something in the first half, because otherwise I will be changed”, emphasized the analyst.
Perez mainly referred to the substitution of Madueke, who was only on the field for 55 minutes. “He’s a very young guy, he’s been in great shape. A week or three ago. Give him a little more time,” said the former footballer. “He now thinks he has to score twice within 45 minutes. I think this is really disastrous for an attacker.” Schmidt himself was asked afterwards about bringing Madueke, Marco van Ginkel and Cody Gakpo to the side. “After such an international period you never know how fit players are. They have traveled and played and are not in the normal rhythm. Madueke wants to play ninety minutes, of course. But that’s what everyone wants, and that’s simply impossible.”
Schmidt repeated once again that the many bills are simply a necessity. “If we want to achieve something special this season, we need all the players. At the end of the season they will all have played 30 or 35 matches. Many substitutes have also earned it in training. Just like Mauro Júnior, who didn’t come in today. I can only have five substitutes come in,” the PSV trainer winked in conversation with ESPN.