National coach Ronald Koeman currently sees Steven Berghuis more as a right winger than as a midfielder. He said this on Thursday at the press conference prior to Friday’s European Championship qualifying match between the Netherlands and France. Berghuis has played a large part of his career so far as a right winger, but in recent years he has mainly been placed in midfield at Ajax.
In his years at Feyenoord, among other things, Berghuis was always right winger. In 2021 he made the switch to Ajax, and since then he has often been lined up in midfield. Of the 35 official matches that Berghuis played on behalf of the team from Amsterdam this season, he only started four times as right winger. For a year now, the 31-year-old left leg has also been mainly used in midfield with the Dutch national team.
Whether that will also be the case with Koeman remains to be seen. “I see Berghuis more as a right winger than as a midfielder,” he said when asked at the press conference. The national coach prefers to play with three real midfielders in a match visiting France. “But it is not the case that Berghuis cannot play as a midfielder in another match. Maybe it’s better to put it this way, not that you hit back if I put Berghuis on 10 in another game.”
Wout Weghorst
Partly because Luuk de Jong and Vincent Janssen recently announced that they would end their international careers immediately, it is quite possible that Wout Weghorst can count on more playing minutes in the rush hour with the the Dutch. Whether he is also in the starting line-up against France, Koeman did not want to say. “That will become apparent tomorrow. We have an idea of playing, that’s how we trained. I can’t say if he’s going to play. No, it does not cross my mind to play with two strikers. We have a double garrison on every offensive position. I have six attackers on paper and that is enough for me.”
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