Wesley Sneijder sees Philipp Mwene as the weakest link in the team that should bring PSV towards the group stage of the Champions League against Benfica tonight. ‘s analyst RTL 7 finds it somewhat surprising that the 27-year-old right-back is preferred over Jordan Teze. Sneijder also has his reservations about the defensive qualities of Olivier Boscagli.
“I would also like to mention that Mwene looks quite youthful on the right and did not make a very strong impression against Benfica,” said Sneijder, who points out that Mwene is already 27. “But he is new at the club. He often makes the wrong choices, you know. Then he seems very youthful, because then he goes deep while he should not go deep. That is dangerous.” Jan Boskamp adds that Mwene also faced one of Benfica’s best players with Pizzi last week. Pizzi now starts on the bench, because Adel Taarabt is preferred.
And Sneijder sees another point of concern. “Boscagli, he can play nicely with the ball, but you also saw in a previous game that that Roman Yaremchuk visited Boscagli every time. He always went into a duel with him. Then you might benefit from Armando Obispo tonight, who is a little more can offer strength there. You have to score, but also nothing against.”
Sneijder already criticized Ibrahim Sangaré last week, who was sloppy in the passing. “Roger Schmidt contradicted me,” Sneijder says. “I heard very nice words from the coach for his player. And I understand that too, because you always have to protect your player. He mentioned a few things, only one thing I did not agree with. That was that he has great passing He doesn’t have that, but we all see that. He wants to protect his player in that.”
Sneijder makes it clear once again which aspect of Sangaré he does not like. “I care if he has to come up with an idea. He can’t. Of course he can play a ball. It would be crazy if you play at PSV and you can’t play a ball over ten, fifteen meters. But it’s about me the balls he conquers, where he has to switch quickly in his head, quickly find a solution, he can’t do that.”
PSV line-up: drum; Mwene, Ramalho, Boscagli, Max; Sangare, Van Ginkel; Madueke, Gotze, Gakpo; Zahavic
Line-up Benfica: Vlachodimos; Gilberto, Otamendi, Lucas Verissimo, Morato; Joao Mario, Weigl, Grimaldo; Taarabt, Rafa Silva, Yaremchuk