Wednesday, September 21, 2022 at 8:13 PM• Wessel Antes • Last update: 20:20

Louis van Gaal reacted a lot more mildly at the press conference on Wednesday evening than he did last Monday. In Warsaw, the national coach of the Dutch left a much calmer impression. For a while it seemed that Van Gaal was once again being tempted by journalist Valentijn Driessen van The Telegraphbut in the end it was pretty quiet.

On Monday, Van Gaal already indicated that he will play in one of the upcoming two international matches with a formation that is as closely imitated as possible as during the World Cup in Qatar. Driessen therefore asked on Wednesday whether that was already the case against Poland (8:45 p.m. on Thursday evening). “I think you’re probably going to see the players that I think are going to play in the World Cup. There are also a number of players who still have to earn their place, but also players who have always delivered to the Dutch will have to deliver to their club.”

So Van Gaal says again that form is an important point to be selected for the World Cup. Driessen, however, did not think that his question was actually answered. “Now you’re just answering the question I asked on Monday?”, said the journalist. Van Gaal disagrees. “What are you saying again? You just want to create another situation where I get irritated. That’s what I’m going for this time.”

In the section on the form of his selection players, Van Gaal seems to be emphatically talking about Memphis Depay. The 28-year-old attacker from Barcelona has only played 131 minutes for his club this season. At the Catalan club, Depay has fierce competition in the front. In the striker position, he has to put up with Robert Lewandowski, while Barca, with Ferran Torres, Ansu Fati, Raphinha and Ousmane Dembélé, have many different flavors on the flanks.