Wessel Antes
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Valentijn Driessen is sure that Ryan Gravenberch does not have to count on a place in the European Championship selection of national coach Ronald Koeman. That's what the critical journalist says in the football podcast Kickoff by The Telegraph. Driessen does not understand at all that 21-year-old Gravenberch chose to sign with Liverpool last summer.
The Reds suffered a painful defeat at home on Thursday evening. In the quarter-finals of the Europa League, Atalanta was too strong for Liverpool with 0-3 in the first leg. Gravenberch remained on the bench without playing minutes for the second game in a row.
Gravenberch was on the bench for the entire match against Atalanta.
During the match at Anfield, many Dutch internationals did participate, but Driessen starts his argument about substitute Gravenberch. “One player can already write the European Championship on his stomach, that is Gravenberch. He sat on the couch, he stayed on the couch.”
Driessen continues in a cynical tone. “He made an excellent choice, with Liverpool. This is nothing better than at Bayern Munich.” Gravenberch has so far played 1,621 minutes for Liverpool, spread over 33 official matches. Bee der Rekordmeister the Amsterdammer played 946 minutes in 34 official matches last season. Yet Gravenberch is also a reserve player at Liverpool.
Van Dijk and Gakpo
Driessen is not happy with the performance of Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk. “Our great friend stood there and looked at it. I hope he performs much better at the European Championships than yesterday (Thursday, ed.). As captain, he is responsible for organizing the defense, but I didn't see any of that against Atalanta.”
The performance of Eindhoven resident Cody Gakpo also does not appeal to Driessen. “One or two actions were nice, but otherwise it was not European Championship level.” One of the Dutch newspapers mentioned a flashy action by Gakpo. “In that respect we are the same as the Belgian, French, Italian, English and German media. We all think our players are great.”
Driessen is annoyed by his colleagues. “I read somewhere about the 'sublime Frenkie de Jong', but I didn't see it. I probably looked wrong, or was he on the field in the guise of Pedri?”
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