Valentijn Driessen finds it ‘sad to see’ how Myron Boadu at AS Monaco, in his view, walks around with his soul under his arm. Two weeks after his first goal for the Ligue 1 club, in the 1-2 win over PSV in the Europa League, the attacker was allowed to appear at the starting signal again on Thursday evening in the reunion with the Eindhoven team (0-0). After 66 minutes Boadu was replaced by competitor Wissam Ben Yedder. Driessen thinks that the marriage of convenience between Boadu and AS Monaco will not be a success.
“Young players who choose to go abroad deserve an adjustment period. But his technical shortcomings have nothing to do with a different culture or a different team. Technically, Boadu falls short for a striker at the top and even sub-top level,” emphasizes the football chief of The Telegraph Friday in his column in the newspaper. “Financially, the Amsterdammer is undoubtedly doing well in the tax haven, but Boadu is making his first steps towards oblivion.”
Boadu played his fifteenth game for AS Monaco on Thursday and, so to speak, only scored in the Philips Stadium. In the remaining fourteen games, in which he was only five times basic, he did not get further than an assist: in the 1-3 win over Clermont Foot. Driessen wonders whether clubs such as AS Monaco and OGC Nice will continue to spend their millions at AZ from now on. “Because Calvin Stengs also has a difficult start in the south of France.” He points to the crucial presence of Mino Raiola. “With his excellent contacts with the policy makers at AS Monaco and OGC Nice, it was fairly easy for him to get millions.”
Driessen is impressed by the way Teun Koopmeiners manifests himself in his first months at Atalanta. “Whoever sees him playing in Italian service in recent weeks thinks that he has been taking this team by the hand for weeks. (…) Despite his young age, 23, Koopmeiners makes a particularly mature impression, even at the level of the Champions League. The intensity and speed on the highest podium are also no problem for him,” the journalist saw when he watched the duels of trainer Gian Piero Gasperini’s team.
“What makes this quick adjustment extra special was that Atalanta already had a very good and attuned team and the Dutchman stepped in when Gasperini had already put most of the puzzle pieces together. Unlike Boadu and Stengs, nobody has to worry about Koopmeiners. He grows his own beans. His AZ buddies in the distance have yet to prove that,” Driessen concludes. Koopmeiners played his twelfth game in Atalanta’s kit last week against Manchester United (2-2) in the Champions League. In each of the Serie A club’s last three games, he has started and played 90 minutes.