The youth product that suddenly benefits from the trainer change at De Graafschap


Thursday, April 14, 2022 at 00:00• Chris Meijer • Last update: 17:44

The Kitchen Champion Division has been a nursery for national and international talents for decades and this season too, many football players with potential are walking around on the second level. Voetbalzone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week, this time focusing on Camiel Neghli, who suddenly gained a base place at De Graafschap after the coach change.

By Chris Meijer

The match between FC Eindhoven and De Graafschap was 33 minutes old when Camiel Neghli saw a long pass from Roland Baas coming his way. Instead of opting for the most logical option at first sight by taking the ball, the twenty-year-old midfielder annex winger chose to launch himself, thanks to a subtle tap with the left foot, in such a way that opponent Maarten Peijnenburg was put at an unbridgeable disadvantage. . “It’s tastier than a tap. This is my quality, to create such a thing. So it wasn’t unknown that it’s my first time doing this,” Neghli said of the move that resulted in his first goal of the season. Partly because of this, he earned a place in the Football Zone Team of the Week and the Kitchen Champion Division for the first time.

“I saw it pass by, De Graafschap had also shared it. It’s nice, but I don’t do it for that per se. It’s always nice to get recognition, we work hard for it,” Neghli agrees. But the most important thing: with his goal he gave interim coach Jan Vreman an important reason to maintain his starting position. Last month, Vreman took over from the dismissed Reinier Robbemond until the end of the season and immediately included Neghli in his first match against MVV Maastricht (1-3 defeat) in his base team, with which he kicked off for the first time in the main force of De Graafschap. Expected? No, Neghli admits in all honesty that Vreman surprised him with this on his first training session the day before the duel with MVV.

“With the previous trainer I was just less on it, so you don’t see something like that coming. You know that you can get more opportunities with a new trainer, but direct basis… No, I didn’t expect that”, nods Neghli. The youth product of De Graafschap – who took him away from FC Twente at the age of thirteen – already made his debut in the first team under Mike Snoei last season. With eight substitutes to his name, Neghli started preparing for this season with the necessary personal expectations. “My goal for this season was to help the team, you do that by playing. You want to prove yourself. Of course your age plays a role in the number of playing minutes. But if you’re good enough, you should basically play. You want to play as much as possible, to show yourself and help the team.”

“I had the feeling that it was possible, that’s what I went for. Then things go differently. Well, that’s always possible. You have more than eleven players in the selection, so you have to deal with the choices of the trainer,” Neghli states soberly. Robbemond made little use of him in the first half of the season. Only five times he got a handful of minutes to show himself, the rest of the games he stayed on the reserve bench for 90 minutes. After the winter break, he was not even part of De Graafschap’s match selection for a while. “I’ve always been able to deal with that. I’ve worked hard to stay fit, so maybe it’s paying off now. I also had to deal with it when I was a kid, so it wasn’t new to me. That also makes a difference, otherwise it might come as a harder blow. You always learn something from it, both in easy and difficult times. It’s important to move on and come out of it better. I like to show people how good I can play football. So if you can’t do that, it gives an annoying and irritating feeling. If you travel to the games every week and don’t get to play, you get the feeling that you don’t matter to the team. That was the most annoying, I think.”

Oussama El Azzouzi tries to tap the ball away from Neghli’s feet during the match between De Graafschap and FC Emmen (1-1).

Neghli’s situation changed slightly before Robbemond’s dismissal, because in his last match as a trainer against Roda JC Kerkrade, he came on as a substitute after not playing for six months. However, the departure of Robbemond and the arrival of Vreman have definitively changed the perspective for Neghli. “If the trainer puts you in the starting line-up, he never does anything wrong in your eyes. But we don’t have a special bond or anything, I think he gets along well with everyone. I knew him, but never had him as a trainer in youth. If you are in a bad period and a new trainer comes, he also knows that something has to change. So somehow I had the feeling that there could be more opportunities. But especially as a substitute, then it would have been up to me to force a starting place in the training sessions and in the games. Now I immediately got a basic place, but then you still have to show that you want to keep it. Of course, a goal helps to prove or show you extra.”

“I’m comfortable in my own skin, so it’s easier to play football as an attacking player. Everything works better, you feel more comfortable in it. That has to do with trust. Everything is a bit more fun than when you are substitution and have to hope for a substitute. You look more forward to training or coming to the club, everything is better and more fun for you,” Neghli continues. The fact that he calls himself an attacking player has to do with the fact that his position in the first of De Graafschap may not be completely clear yet. Neghli played in De Graafschap’s youth academy as an attacking midfielder, but was also used as a right or left winger this season and played against MVV on the left flank of the front line. In the three subsequent matches – against FC Eindhoven, FC Emmen and FC Volendam – he acted as eightin a midfield with the more defensive Jesse Schuurman and more attacking Philip Brittijn.

“I don’t really care. In youth I always played as ten and the last two years I was used more as a winger. I think I’m more dangerous in midfield, with my depth. But as a winger I can also play well, which I think is a nice position. To be able to create something with speed”, Neghli responds when asked about his favorite position. He describes himself as ‘someone with walking ability, who is reasonably quick and skilled at the ball, easily creates surplus situations by playing people out or passing a certain ball and is reasonably creative and can pass a man from there’. But at the same time, Neghli realizes that he still needs to hone his defensive qualities.

Neghli celebrates his goal against FC Eindhoven.

“I notice that the second ball has to be in front of me more often. I don’t necessarily have to feel it anymore, because often I can see where it falls. But I have to win it more often or fight harder. I can also keep a little more peace with the last choice. Those are the two points I pay extra attention to. Although I have to say that I have been working on the last point for some time, so I can already see an improvement in that.” What helps in that development are playing minutes. Also in a physical sense, because as a basic player he notices that the legs are still ‘filling up’ after about eighty minutes.

What does Neghli think he needs to keep his place at De Graafschap? “It’s important to play in the team’s process, so do your tasks well. And add your own qualities to that, so in my case depth and create as much as possible. Then I can certainly add something to the team and keep my starting place. But that is a matter of continuing to do well, you should not slacken”, is his answer. If that succeeds, Neghli will play a role in the decisive phase of the season in which De Graafschap will make the play-offs in his words. “That is easily achievable. We have to build up the best possible feeling towards the play-offs, then you can do something with the team.”

Name: Camiel Neghlic
Date of birth: Nov 6, 2001
Club: The County
Position: attacking midfielder annex winger
Strengths: speed, passing, technique

Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division

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