PSV hopes to lay the foundation for reaching the group stage of the Champions League in the first play-off match with Benfica on Wednesday evening. Roger Schmidt’s team has won each of the six matches played in all competitions so far, impressing Hans Kraay Jr. and Marciano Vink. In the program Football Talk by ESPN The question was asked on Tuesday evening what has changed at PSV compared to the previous football season, when the Eindhoven team finished on sixteen points from Ajax and the opinions about the team were completely different.
“It is very difficult to play against Portuguese clubs. PSV’s luck is that they are in a mega flow sitting”, emphasized Vink about the chances of PSV tonight in Lisbon. “They play with a dose of self-confidence and that is just necessary. You will be slaughtered there if you are a dead bird. PSV have things in order now. I now give them a lot of opportunities because they know what to do with, for example, pressure or the switch. You have a Noni Madueke who can create something out of nothing. PSV is a very dangerous team.” Kraay Jr. has got the impression that PSV is now more ‘a switchover team’ than ‘a high-pressure team’. Vink: “They can do both. That’s the beauty. Switching was already deadly last year with Donyell Malen. Now it seems even worse with Cody Gakpo and Madueke.”
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Aletha Leidelmeijer wondered what has changed at PSV compared to last season. Kraay Jr. knew the answer to that. “Everyone plays in their very best place. Even if it is only ten meters, but it is ten meters. We have now seen those half tens”, he referred to last season’s game concept. Vink also agreed, also because the half tens had to put pressure on the opponent’s backs. “That is a 20-metre run, you have to be able to do it very quickly if you want to put pressure on it. That pulled the entire team apart. And in the center they had Pablo Rosario and Ibrahim Sangaré, who don’t excel in good football either. Now it is conquering the ball with Marco van Ginkel and Mario Götze and openings are being sought. Then you create opportunities.”
Kraay Jr. suspects Schmidt that he is not a ‘high pressure setter’ at all. “He secretly enjoyed playing in the Johan Cruijff ArenA in the transition”, he referred to the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale against Ajax (0-4 win). “He was quite happy to have FC Midtjylland come to the away game.” Leidelmeijer wondered whether ‘that is bad’. “No, I have to be careful with it, but of course he has been brought in as a kind of ti-ta wizard with Vollgass-Fussball. And how many times have we seen it? Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I haven’t seen it more than three or four times. It’s easy to talk because things are going well now, but they’re playing with all the dolls in the right place now.”
Vink acknowledges that, in advance, he would have preferred the Davy Pröpper-Van Ginkel combination in midfield, in response to the question of whether it is right that Sangare is in the starting line-up. “I really think Pröpper is a violent man. When I see what Sangaré means for PSV in terms of ball loss… But it is also a quality that he loses those balls and immediately regains them. But it is what Hans says, the dolls look good and that apparently includes Sangare. It sounds weird, they all want to see a sophisticated footballer. I’m starting to appreciate Sangaré a bit now.”
Sangaré’s loss of the ball was also discussed last Saturday after the competition match between Heracles Almelo and PSV (0-2). Kenneth Perez thought it was ‘a point of concern’, pointing out that everyone said the midfielder had started the season well, but had suffered ’23 or 24 losses’ to Erve Asito. Sangare had, according to the figures of opta twenty ball loss against Heracles, slightly less than the number that Perez mentioned. Only Philipp Mwene had more loss of possession at PSV (21 times). In defense of Sangaré, it must be said that the Ivorian was also the PSV player who by far touched the ball the most (109 ball contacts). With a pass accuracy of 82 percent, Sangaré did not stand out statistically.