Louis van Gaal will bring Justin Bijlow to Zeist on Tuesday. The Feyenoord goalkeeper was not in the final selection of the Dutch national team for upcoming Nations League matches, but Van Gaal wants to see him in action for a special penalty project. Kjell Scherpen, who is with the Young the Dutch, is also temporarily called to ‘the big the Dutch’. Van Gaal sees skill in penalties as ‘decisive for final tournaments’, he says at the press conference in the run-up to the international match against Poland.
To the surprise of many (including himself), Bijlow was not in the final selection of the Dutch for the coming international match. For the duels with Poland (September 22) and Belgium (September 25), Van Gaal chose a goalkeeper quartet of Jasper Cillessen (NEC), Remko Pasveer (Ajax), Mark Flek (SC Freiburg) and Andries Noppert (SC Heerenveen). According to Van Gaal, Bijlow is currently not part of ‘his first four’. “No, because then he would have been chosen now”, says the choice lord.
View the report with Andries Noppert here.
Van Gaal agrees, as he did on Sunday Humberto even though he did, ‘that Bijlow is not in his greatest form’. However, the six-time international does not have to despair yet, according to the national coach. “We also want to see the other goalkeepers, but it’s not that he is excluded from the World Cup, that is not the case at all. And in this case there is also something else going on: that I wanted to get to know players. I don’t want that I invite a player in November who I have not yet coached,” said Van Gaal, referring to the debuting Pasveer and Noppert.
Bijlow, like Scherpen, is even temporarily called into the selection for the special penalty project that is scheduled for this week. Van Gaal is convinced of the importance of the presence of a penalty killer in his World Cup selection. “It has been shown in all those tournaments that penalties are often decisive,” explains Van Gaal. “I pay extra attention to that. In 2014 (when Van Gaal experimented with Tim Krul as a penalty killer at the World Cup in Brazil, ed.) The master’s eye was only a blessing. Now we will also substantiate that scientifically. That is innovation. I do that very often.”
“Penalties are important,” continues Van Gaal. “Murphy will do all kinds of tests with the players, but he will also talk to those players about how to embarrass the opponent. Because there are also resources for that. Bijlow and Scherpen will come on Tuesday and have to stop those penalties. Scherpen is happy not so far away,” concludes Van Gaal with a joke about the Jong Oranje goalie.