PSV left absolutely no convincing impression on Thursday evening. Roger Schmidt’s team struggled to make it to the last sixteen in the Conference League on a visit to Maccabi Tel Aviv (1-1), but can count on few compliments in the studio of ESPN† Mario Götze, who according to Kenneth Perez and Pierre van Hooijdonk adds little more, is highlighted.
As number ten, Götze should provide his team with creative impulses, but the German failed to do so, according to the analysts. “Götze is nice on the ball, but really hurting an opponent doesn’t happen often”, signals Pierre van Hooijdonk, who receives support from Perez: “Do you have the feeling that there is something like a good cross pass when Götze comes to the ball? ? I haven’t had that in a long time.” Van Hooijdonk responds in agreement: “He doesn’t often shoot the wrong color, but he doesn’t hurt his opponent often either.” With the colleagues of Veronica Aad de Mos is also hard on Götze, whom he calls ‘vacation man’. “He’s not worthless, but he didn’t live up to his reputation. He didn’t make it.”
Schmidt put Joey Veerman on the bench in Israel and opted for a block in midfield consisting of Ibrahim Sangaré and Érick Gutiérrez. According to Marciano Vink, that did not go well. “PSV does not often have control in its matches and that breaks them up,” said the former midfielder. “I think Sangaré is in the block with Guti in midfield, but I saw him play the whole game forward, like a glorified number 10. Guti had to defend in the back and then also offer himself in midfield.”
“I really wonder what Sangaré did in this match,” says Vink, who is looking for an explanation. “Maybe this is the stage where he wants to show how good he is and how much he has learned at PSV, but your team needs you in midfield, as a point of contact and as a breaker.” As an entire team, PSV also appeared extremely weak in Israel, according to Van Hooijdonk. “How they played today, that was actually … nothing at all. Again there was no line to be discovered.” Perez adds: “Maybe it is good that they play the Conference League, because we also watched the Europa League matches at the same time, and that is something of a different quality. I am talking about clubs Lazio, Porto, Real Sociedad and RB Leipzig.”