Kees Kwakman expressed his surprise on Tuesday evening about the fact that Devyne Rensch is part of the the Dutch selection. To replace the injured Jurriën Timber, national coach Louis van Gaal chooses Rensch, who is preferred over Joël Veltman and Rick Karsdorp, among others. During the press conference, Van Gaal stated the choice, but Kwakman believes that the words of the coach do not make sense.
In the past, Van Gaal stated the condition that a player had to play for his club in order to be eligible for a selection. Remarkably enough, he abandoned that philosophy at the press conference and said that Rensch, despite the fact that he hardly gets to play at Ajax, deserves the place in the Dutch. “The tendency is that there is much more rotation and that there are larger selections. Rensch sometimes plays in Jong Ajax and that is also the reason that he played in Jong Oranje last time. That’s because I think along with him. That’s how I explained it to him. But now Timber has gone, I think Devyne ended up there. Karsdorp and Veltman? No options”, concluded Van Gaal.
Fresia Cousiño Arias, Kees Kwakman, Tijmen van Wissing and Christian Willaert during Voetbal Talk.
“I thought it was a very crazy explanation, to be honest”, Kwakman responds during football talk by ESPN on Van Gaal’s statement. “I think he is just a huge fan of Rensch and would really like to have him there. But Veltman who would disrupt the dynamic? I don’t think so. I think he has already played forty international matches and he has been with us so many times. Surely it is not the case that when Joël Veltman is there, the dynamics are suddenly disrupted? I think he thinks Rensch simply has more quality. Otherwise you will take Veltman or Karsdorp, because they are both basic players in a good competition.”
Kwakman cites ‘dynamics in the group’ because reporter Christian Willaert, also a guest on the talk show, suggests that the possible disruption is a reason for Van Gaal not to include Veltman and Karsdorp, for example. “Veltman has played more international matches than Rensch. But I suspect that Van Gaal is thinking about the dynamics of the group. Our colleague Pascal (Kamperman, ed.) asked about it at the press conference, and Van Gaal then said: ‘You understand!’ So I think the dynamics is the most important consideration,” said Willaert.