The fact that Ibrahim Sangaré is also on the bench at PSV against Excelsior on Saturday evening comes as a bit of a surprise to Kenneth Perez. The analyst thinks that the midfielder can be sold for good money this summer and in that context he questions the choice of trainer Ruud van Nistelrooij. Joey Veerman and Érick Gutiérrez are preferred in midfield to Sangaré, who also acted as reserve against NEC (2-4) last week.
“Economically, I don’t think it’s very smart to take Sangaré out,” said Perez on the field of the Philips Stadium in his capacity as an analyst of ESPN. “There are plenty of stupid English clubs willing to pay an astronomical sum for him this summer if they are interested. So to have doubts about that now at the end of the season…. Because that’s probably how the club sees it as he doesn’t play. Yes, I don’t know if that’s so handy,” Perez tells Van Nistelrooij.
Perez normally sees Sangaré. like to play. “If he does what he can, and doesn’t want to do too much, then he is a very useful player. And you can hardly buy that physically”, the PSV bench seat is complimented. Reporter Toine van Peperstraten points out that Sangaré was very sloppy in his passing against Spakenburg (1-2) on Tuesday. “Yes, then you are on the ball and he is just not very good on the ball,” Perez counters. “And that’s okay, but then let others have the ball. And play it simply. I can imagine that you will get irritated as a trainer.”
Response from Nistelrooy
Immediately afterwards, Van Nistelrooij explains why Sangaré is sitting on the bench and Gutiérrez moves to midfield. “It’s a tactical choice for today. I look at it per game and you have a lot of options. If everyone is fit you can just make your choices. And for today’s game I made that choice.” In any case, the PSV coach is happy with Gutiérrez. “If he falls outside, he just keeps training, focused and doing his thing. Then he always comes up again and when he gets his chance, Guti is there. You can’t ignore that.”