Dirk Kuyt believes that Matthijs de Ligt can be blamed for a lot in the 1-1 in Juventus’ game with Villarreal on Tuesday evening. The 22-year-old defender ‘saw the goal’ according to Kuyt, but nevertheless failed to close the space that goalscorer Dani Parejo was given. Kuyt refers to a lesson he learned as an international at the 2014 World Cup under Louis van Gaal.
After Dusan Vlahovic had already opened the score after 32 seconds, Juventus was the dominant party in Spain for a long time. In the 67th minute, however, Villarreal came alongside. Etienne Capoue hurled the ball to the completely detached Parejo, who finished with the left low behind goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. “Beautifully rounded”, Kuyt judges at RTL† “But the mistake that precedes it is almost incomprehensible.”
Does Matthijs de Ligt make a mistake with Villarreal’s goal? #UCL #VILJUV pic.twitter.com/6A7FCYMPkx
— VTBL ? (@vtbl) February 22, 2022
“First you have Adrien Rabiot, who lets his man walk”, explains Kuyt. “Then you have De Ligt, who actually sees it happening. He has to reduce the space between him and his back (Mattia De Sciglio, ed.). Then you see three central defenders standing on a few square meters. We still have in 2014 I learned from Van Gaal, when I was a defender, that the distance between them can be a maximum of five meters. That is completely wrong here. That is a shame, because De Ligt played a really good game. But this is a crucial mistake that he also made is responsible for.”
College analyst Ron Vlaar, who, like Kuyt, belonged to the World Cup selection of the Dutch national team in 2014, mainly blames De Sciglio. “Everything goes wrong, Rabiot, De Ligt, but I especially think that the back should just squeeze. I don’t know what he was looking at, but if you see a gap there, you just fill it up.” The all-deciding return in Turin will take place on March 17.