‘I think Roger Schmidt didn’t know him that well’

Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 19:32• Chris Meijer

Aad de Mos thinks that Roger Schmidt made Marco van Ginkel captain of PSV because he ‘didn’t know the midfielder that well’. If it is up to the retired coach, Davy Pröpper will be preferred to Van Ginkel in the midfield of the Eindhoven team. Hans Kraay junior, Mario Been and Arnold Bruggink also note in the program The Grandstand by ESPN that Van Ginkel sometimes has a hard time at PSV.

Kraay brings Van Ginkel up in the talk show through his role in the winning goal during the match between PSV and AS Monaco (1-2). Van Ginkel failed to intervene, after which Sofiane Diop gave the Monegasken a victory on a pass from Caio Henrique. “I haven’t heard many people about that, but I think Van Ginkel is the main culprit. He pulls his leg back, Van Ginkel did not tackle.”

“You have to tackle all the way through that, but he jumps over it. This is a life-changing tackle. This determines whether you are in the standings above Monaco and you pull your leg back. I don’t think it’s possible,” Kraay says. Presenter Jan Joost van Gangelen states that ‘sometimes it seems as if Van Ginkel can no longer do it’. Kraay responds: “It runs well, it runs smoothly. It seems like he occasionally hurts his knee.”

“You know he can play football well and can bring something extra, you don’t see that very often anymore. Then you quickly come to the question whether he is still as fit as he was,” continues Been. He is supported by Bruggink: “You can see that he has problems in the games where the pace is increasing and he has to act faster.”

“I wouldn’t have made him captain,” De Mos adds. “I think Schmidt didn’t know him that well, but made that choice based on his reputation and his past. He didn’t show it in matches that mattered. I think Pröpper would be a better choice at this point. But I question more choices. For example, I would not have let Vinicíus start against Monaco.”