Willem Janssen is hard on FC Utrecht after the painful cup defeat against NAC Breda. The number nine of the Kitchen Champion Division was 3-2 too strong for the Domstedelingen on Tuesday evening. Janssen specifically points to a moment during the second half, when Adrián Dalmau apparently denied Sander van de Streek a goal.
Dalmau tapped the ball away from the feet of Van de Streek, who was in scoring position, after which the latter reacted furiously. You fucked up that goal, Van de Streek snapped Dalmau audibly. “If you look at the 2-1… We get through and if someone lets the ball go, the next one has him typing in no time. Then they break out and lead 2-1. That is unimaginable”, Janssen reacts after the game in the Rat Verlegh Stadium.
“There is nothing wrong in the first half. You are ahead 0-1, have nothing to fear from them. In the second half we got three balls on goal. Three goals”, sighs Janssen. In conversation with The Telegraph the FC Utrecht captain agrees that there is a ‘crisis’ after the cup elimination. “Irrespective of whether you are in a good phase, you just have to win at NAC. It’s unbelievable how we’re giving away the game here. There was only one thing that mattered and that is continuing in the cup and it is unimaginable that you do not play that together.”
Trainer René Hake was asked by the newspaper afterwards whether he feared for his position. “I don’t know if that is the case. I don’t think about that. I’m thinking more about how we can turn this around and how this could have happened,” said Hake. “Of course this is running. Only we will have to turn more knobs than we have done so far. That is something that must be done quickly. If the players find: ‘Trainer we don’t like it anymore.’ Then they should just say so. It’s that simple.”
“Maybe we need a long bad period to wake up. You don’t know what consequences it will have for the player group or myself. All I can do is do what I gotta do. If others think it should be different, then they should say so,” Hake continues. He blames himself for the defeat against NAC. “Whatever game we lose. You look for causes and things to change. But I don’t know what others think about that.”