Ruud van Nistelrooij is a happy man after the handsome 1-2 victory over Ajax. The 46-year-old coach saw a ‘fixed’ PSV on Sunday, which, according to him, looked better than in the previous matches. When Van Nistelrooij saw the public turn against the home club at a given moment, he knew it was right, he says at ESPN. There he also reveals his battle plan, based on the strengths of a trio of players.
“I am full of emotion that the team is winning here,” says Van Nistelrooij. When asked by reporter Hans Kraay junior how PSV did that, the selector is still mysterious at first. “You also saw the match. There were a number of phases in the first half in which we had the ball for a long time, which made the audience restless. Those are good signs of course. You make a good 1-0 because you play football. at a certain point we just couldn’t get to it anymore. then it becomes a fight match, especially in the last seven or ten minutes. then it has become a kind of rugby match in which we have to survive. that was the match for me, one with so many faces .”
Kraay Jr. does not give up, however. “Were you more compact, more patient, more firm than Ajax?”, he adds. “Not to compare us,” replies Van Nistelrooij, “but I thought we were. The play on position was better than it was before. We were able to hold the ball for a long time. And we knew that Ramalho and Obispo were dribbling the lines to Luuk ( De Jong, ed.) were able to open, and play on from there. That was good and then you enter the game.”
The importance of De Jong is therefore once again underlined by Van Nistelrooij. “He has scoring ability, he is a point of reference, but also a point of rest for this team, literally. He just takes the team in tow. But we have that more, with Marco van Ginkel and Boy Waterman. Those guys don’t play much, but their influence is very large in the group. These are experienced guys who do a huge job in the dressing room to keep things together and to take the youngsters along,” said the winning trainer.