Roger Schmidt cannot rely on Cody Gakpo, Noni Madueke, Ryan Thomas and Ritsu Doan at PSV for the time being, it reports Eindhovens Dagblad. The foursome will miss the competition match with FC Twente on Saturday afternoon and will also have to miss the Europa League match against AS Monaco and the Eredivisie match with Fortuna Sittard next week. During the press conference in the run-up to the home game with FC Twente (Saturday afternoon 4.30 pm), Schmidt also returns to his statement about PSV’s title chances.
Gakpo dropped out after the break in the lost Europa League match against AS Monaco (1-2) with an ankle injury. Madueke also had to stop the fight against the Monegasques prematurely. The attacker is hindered by a muscle injury and as a result, just like Gakpo, missed the competition match against Ajax (5-0 loss). Doan dropped out in early October due to a knee injury, while Thomas will undergo surgery on the same joint. The 26-year-old midfielder struggled with knee problems in the first months of the season and it was decided to undergo minor surgery.
After a 0-4 win over Ajax in the battle for the Johan Cruijff Scale, PSV lost 5-0 in the Eredivisie against the team from Amsterdam on Sunday. Afterwards, Schmidt was not satisfied with the resistance his team offered in this game. The couple in the vanguard Eran Zahavi and Carlos Vinícius proved unsuccessful. “Because they didn’t score, but also in the game against the ball. But I can actually say the latter of all players,” Schmidt says to the Eindhovens Dagblad. “We weren’t brave enough. There are also reasons for that and I also understand that it is sometimes difficult after a match on Thursday evening.”
After the duel with Ajax, Schmidt said that PSV still has a twenty percent chance of winning the national title and will come back to that statement on Friday. “More or less twenty percent, yes”, so signs Football International up from the mouth of Schmidt. “But my message was mainly that we are just not at the same level as Ajax. You can already see that in the teams and the budgets. The gap is only four points, so we are still fighting for the title, but we do have a perfect season.”
The PSV coach expects a difficult duel with FC Twente. “FC Twente also has its ups and downs, but always performs well against strong opponents. They have won against AZ and Vitesse and played a draw against Ajax. That says it all. For attacking teams it is difficult to play against FC Twente, which for the “The goal is very efficient. We have to show that we have learned from the past few weeks by being more efficient ourselves and conceding fewer goals.”
Ron Jans sees opportunities against PSV
“We are curious how we measure ourselves against PSV, we have already shown ourselves excellently this season against the teams at the top”, Ron Jans looks ahead to the meeting with PSV on the FC Twente website. “It is important that we defend compactly and dare to play football. We will also get our chances and then it is important to be effective. PSV played really well in the preparation, such as in the match for the Johan Cruijff Scale. Gakpo and Madueke will be missing from PSV, but then there is still a really good team. PSV will want to put things right and we are going to make that as difficult as possible for them.”