Monday, June 7, 2021 at 2:40 PM• Dominic Mostert

Owen Wijndal was lined up as left back in the last two exhibition games of the the Dutch, but Mike Verweij and Valentijn Driessen from The Telegraph were more impressed by Patrick van Aanholt. Both against Scotland (2-2) and against Georgia (3-0 win), Van Aanholt made his entrance in the course of the second half as a replacement for Wijndal, who is described by the journalists as ‘grey mouse’ of the Dutch.

Wijndal had trouble creating danger on the left in both games. Against Scotland he got no further than one pass, which did not arrive; against Georgia came one of his three crosses. “Owen Wijndal just makes little or no contribution to the whole. Patrick van Aanholt came in quite well,” Driessen said in the podcast Kick-off the Dutch. Wijndal walks around like a gray mouse.

“I had Ruud Gullit on the phone yesterday and he also indicated that Wijndal does what he often does at AZ: go inside. There is actually too little space there. He has to go outside, but he doesn’t. He plays so perfunctorily.” , continues the newspaper’s football chief. Verweij agrees. “The crazy thing is: Wijndal came in with the bravado that Timber now has. Timber will therefore also have to be careful that he does not lose that open-mindedness, because that is just a weapon. Wijndal started very strong in the Dutch, but it has already been two games pretty gray.”

In April Johan Derksen said at Veronica Inside that both PSV and Ajax are angling for the arrival of Van Aanholt. With the arrival of Phillipp Mwene, PSV no longer seems to need a left back, but Ajax is still taking into account a departure from Nicolás Tagliafico and could then end up with Van Aanholt, who is leaving Crystal Palace. “If you see him come in like this, knowing that he is transfer-free, then I think: pick him up. You can’t go wrong with that. But I don’t think that is the case yet,” says Verweij as an Ajax watcher.