Lars Capiau
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It will be a tough job for Ronald Koeman to decide which central defenders to call up for the European Championship in Germany this summer. These will be 'very difficult choices', the union coach emphasizes.
“As a trainer you have a bit of a picture in your head of what your group is. And there is a lot of competition in a number of positions,” Koeman begins, immediately citing an example.
“If you look – and I was talking to Gareth Southgate yesterday (who, like Koeman, was a guest in the Johan Cruijff ArenA for the match between Ajax and PSV, ed.) – how many top central defenders have in the Netherlands… That is incredible. There are very difficult choices to be made.”
“These are bizarrely difficult choices, if you look at this list like this?”, presenter Fresia Cousiño Arias asks the national coach when the names of the central defenders are listed.
That list includes the names of Virgil van Dijk, Matthijs de Ligt, Stefan de Vrij, Sven Botman, Jurriën Timber, Nathan Aké, Lutsharel Geertruida, Micky van de Ven and Jorrel Hato.
“That's right,” the selector answers. “You would rather tell a young player that he is going to make his debut than have to disappoint one of these players and ultimately not be in the European Championship group.”
The many options that Koeman has at his disposal at the center back raise the question for Hans Kraay junior as to which system the national coach wants to play with. However, the national coach does not want to reveal that.
“5-3-2 and 4-3-3 are both possible. I'm not convinced that it has to be four or three or five. Today's football demands that you can play multiple systems. The system we play can change from one match to the next,” Koeman concludes.
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