Ronald Koeman planned to call up Jordy Clasie as a replacement for Frenkie de Jong in the squad of the Dutch national team for the European Championship qualifiers against France and Gibraltar. The national coach said this during a press conference at the KNVB Campus in Zeist. However, the AZ midfielder was not fit and so Koeman decided to opt for Joey Veerman.
Koeman was told on Sunday evening that De Jong had to rest for two weeks after sustaining an upper leg injury during the El Clásico. Veerman was called up as his replacement, but that was not actually the intention. Koeman first called Jordy Clasie. “I have certainly considered him and I spoke to him this afternoon,” said the choice lord of the Dutch at the press conference. “We always want to check first whether everyone is fit enough and Clasie turned out not to be one hundred percent fit. Then we were transferred.”
Veerman, like Mats Wieffer, for example, has a chance of a spot in midfield now that De Jong is not in the selection. Koeman does not yet know who he wants to play with. “I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but I’m not sure yet. There are several possibilities in that position, because there are several midfielders and we don’t have a lot of training sessions. We will use a number of training sessions to get a certain feeling .’
It is certainly not excluded that Wieffer, who has not been with the Dutch national team before, is immediately thrown to the lions by Koeman. “Whether a debutant could? Yes, that is always possible. You are probably referring to Wieffer and I saw him play again yesterday in the Classic. I wouldn’t be afraid to set him up. I selected him based on the fact that I think he can play well at this level. Now that Frenkie de Jong has dropped out, someone else will play and I’m not sure yet.”
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