Matthijs de Ligt looked back with a good feeling on the first international match of Orange in the new year. ,,We trained for four days on the new system and then we put this game on the mat. I think that offers some hope,” said the central defender after the 4-2 win over Denmark.
National coach Louis van Gaal introduced his new game system this week, which in some respects resembles the way the previous national coach Frank de Boer wanted to play football. ,,With De Boer we chose our moments to put pressure. Now there is a little more risk in our game. But that risk entails four goals.”
De Ligt played for the first time together with debuting goalkeeper Mark Fleks. ,,He is a keeper from the Dutch school and I thought he radiated peace. I experienced the cooperation tonight as very pleasant.”
Koopmeiners
Teun Koopmeiners thinks that Orange’s new game system can ensure great success. The controlling midfielder feels right at home in it.
,,Partly the system was known, partly it is new. For me it is an advantage that I already play at Atalanta in Italy. But something different is being asked here,” said Koopmeiners, who was given a basic place by national coach Louis van Gaal.
The former AZ player also saw in the Johan Cruijff ArenA that there are still plenty of points for improvement for the Orange. ,,It’s great that we scored four goals, but we also gave away a lot of spaces after the break. And we concede two goals, you can’t be happy about that either. But there were a lot of good things in there. The team is happy with the system, it feels good. It is now time to continue working on automatisms.”
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