Mark Fleks has been in the picture with the Dutch national team for some time, says Patrick Lodewijks in the program Good morning Eredivisie by ESPN. Lodewijks was a goalkeeper coach at the Dutch between 2018 and last summer, but had to make way for Frans Hoek after the arrival of Louis van Gaal. Flek was called up to the Dutch national team for the first time in the previous international period in October and is now once again part of the selection for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Montenegro and Norway.
“We are very good at saying quickly that everything is not so good. Which country now has two talented young, good keepers who play at a high level? I do have faith in that. Flecks, yes. Also in him”, begins Lodewijks when the the Dutch keepers are mentioned, initially referring to Justin Bijlow (Feyenoord) and Joël Drommel (PSV). Lodewijks is asked whether he already knew Fleks. “Yes of course. Come on. He now suddenly looks like the eighth wonder of the world.”
Van Gaal called Flek a ‘real Van Gaal goalkeeper’ and labeled the SC Freiburg goalkeeper as ‘his discovery’. “He hasn’t played for a while. If you are a goalkeeper coach at the KNVB, you go and see what else you have”, says Lodewijks. “We also had a boy in Greece (Celtic goalkeeper Vasilios Barkas, ed.), who had both a Dutch and a Greek passport. He eventually chose Greece. We also had a boy in New Zealand. Fleks was in the picture, was on the scouting list. But he broke his elbow a year ago, so he hasn’t played for a long time. Then you look at what you have available. Every national coach makes his own assessment.”
Hans Kraay junior asks Lodewijks whether Van Gaal is not obliged to call up his best two keepers, in his eyes Bijlow and Jasper Cillessen. “I’m not going to discuss which goalkeepers the national coach selects,” Lodewijks replies. “Jasper had a bad summer, then got injured again in preparation and is now playing. I don’t know why the choice didn’t fall on him. But the lawsuit with Justin had been going on for some time. Choices have also been made in the past: do we bring him in? Or is there an important period at the Dutch Juniors where he can play? At that time, he had just gone through an injury period and had just played a few games. Then you make the choice what is best for him.”
“If Cillessen hadn’t been injured in the preparation, he might have been there now. No idea. I think there is no discussion about Jasper’s qualities”, continues Lodewijks. Kraay finds it strange that Cillessen was no longer included in the selection of the Dutch in recent months. The Valencia goalkeeper was still part of the European Championship selection, but then contracted the corona virus and was then removed from the selection corps by then national coach Frank de Boer.
“He now plays six league games in a row and has been chosen as the best goalkeeper of the month in Spain: then you can still keep goal, right? Then you can still get in if something happens to Bijlow?”, Kraay wonders. “There are rumors and stories that he might not cope well with his role as reserve goalkeeper. I don’t believe in that, because I don’t think he’s a nasty boy at all. He has played 61 international matches and has rarely if ever let the Dutch national team down. Isn’t he an excellent goalkeeper?”