If Louis van Gaal Andries Noppert makes his debut for the Dutch on Monday afternoon, then that is a daring and surprising move, according to analyst Pierre van Hooijdonk. He even calls it a “huge risk,” he said in Studio WK 22 at the NOS. On Sunday morning it became clear that the national coach could probably choose Noppert in the opening match against Senegal.
Noppert has played only 32 Eredivisie matches so far, divided between Go Ahead Eagles and sc Heerenveen. Van Hooijdonk acknowledges that things are going well for the 28-year-old keeper. “Since he joined Go Ahead a year ago, things have gone crescendo. Now he might end up as the first goalkeeper in Qatar.” Noppert, who enjoyed his education at Heerenveen, was selected by Van Gaal for the first time for the Nations League match against Belgium (1-0 win), but did not play. He was therefore selected for the World Cup without ever having played for the the Dutch squad.
“You are taking a huge risk. If you have two throwaways behind this, then I can understand you saying that Noppert’s lack of experience doesn’t matter. But in Bijlow you have an excellent keeper who was also the first keeper under Van Gaal. Noppert would be a very surprising choice,” says Van Hooijdonk. “It now seems a bit, and it has been that way for two months, as if Van Gaal and Frans Hoek are PhD keepers.”
Van Gaal also announced on Sunday that the goalkeeper who keeps against Senegal will not necessarily be the regular first keeper. This evoked some skepticism from Van Hooijdonk. “It looks very intelligent to see who should keep goalkeeper per game, but you ignore the fact that you have a rear guard for which it is very important to know who is behind them. Is that a keeper who coaches, and in what way? You get used to that. I think it’s daring.”
Fellow analyst Leonne Stentler is also not convinced. “Normally you would say: ‘you shouldn’t do this’. But this is also typical Louis van Gaal. One way or another, he will ensure that this boy will experience a kind of childhood dream and will probably rise above himself to such an extent that he will also do fantastic. You don’t normally do this, you don’t field someone without experience at a World Cup.”