Louis van Gaal calls Arnaut Danjuma’s substitute against Gibraltar (6-0 win) spectacular. The national coach of the Dutch had the left attacker of Villarreal come in in the second half and saw him impress with his dribbling. Danjuma also slipped in the fifth Dutch goal. “He made a spectacular comeback, I would say,” said Van Gaal to the NOS.
The national coach agrees that he thinks it is great that Danjuma has shown himself in the substitute, after a short period of one day at the the Dutch squad. From the ‘thrifty’ response from Van Gaal, a simple ‘yes, certainly’, journalist Jeroen Stekelenburg concludes that the national coach Danjuma does not want to praise it yet. “Well, he deserves to be praised. He had very nice, good dribbles. His teammates weren’t ready for those hard crosses from him yet.”
Van Gaal was satisfied with his team anyway. “The win of the evening is that we have scored six goals, so that you entertain the audience,” said the elector. “Besides those six goals, we created an incredible number of opportunities and apart from that we gave away almost nothing. The only thing we gave away is a free kick after an alleged violation by Davy Klaassen.”
Danjuma herself also appeared elated in front of the camera. “Bizarre you can call my week”, agrees the left striker, who was not called up against Latvia (0-1 win), but was brought in due to the injury of Cody Gakpo. “Fortunately, I received a nice call, if I have to I’m ready. Of course you’re disappointed. It’s been a while since I was called up. I think it’s even been exactly three years today. I’m glad I got myself today “I can show for my country, I’m certainly proud too. It went well at Villarreal, then you hope you get called up. If you don’t get called up then you have to deal with that.”
Danjuma is satisfied with his own game. “I think I made a good sub, I’m happy to be on the scoreboard. Maybe a little extravagant today, trying to show my good side. I think it’s typical of my playing style and I have Spoke to national coach. I waited three years for my chance, I couldn’t let that go here today. Whether the national coach was satisfied? I think so, yes.”
Pierre van Hooijdonk is also in the studio of the NOS ecstatic about Danjuma. “Spectacular, the way he came in,” said the analyst. “Reclaim balls right away, don’t be afraid, go ahead, continuously look for the one-on-one. It was from the first second that he was on the field of: I show myself. That is the difference with Noa Lang, who is still quite young. He already has some flying hours. It looks a bit more mature. For the next few years we have enough players on the left. That sucks.”