Rik Elfrink sees Ki-Jana Hoever as PSV’s biggest disappointment this season. That’s what the club watcher tells us Eindhovens Dagblad in the Peesjevee Podcast. The twenty-year-old right back made the switch from Wolverhampton Wanderers to PSV last summer on a rental basis, but has not made an indelible impression on Elfrink so far.
“We had actually already seen in the preparation of Ki-Jana Hoever that that would not be the case”, Elfrink begins. “He is much too weak defensively. I think that is really the biggest disappointment of PSV this season, it has turned out to be a real miscalculation so far.” So far, Hoever has played eight matches in the first team of the Eindhoven team, four of which he started in the starting line-up.
“He has good qualities on the ball, but defensively he is much too weak,” the journalist continues. “And Hoever is an expensive customer; rented from Wolverhampton Wanderers with high expectations and was actually the intended basic right back. If you now look at how many minutes he has made, it is very disappointing.”
Elfrink also speaks in the podcast about two of Hoever’s competitors for the right back position: Shurandy Sambo and Phillipp Mwene. Sambo is rented out to Sparta Rotterdam this season, something Elfrink does not fully understand. “I think Sambo is doing well at Sparta. I actually don’t understand how you have such a player from your own youth and then put Phillipp Mwene there (in the right back position, ed.). Mwene is a great selection player and a brave boy, but as a club I would choose to develop Sambo further in that place.”