Category: Dutch Player

by Jan

Ajax in your wildest dreams!

Imagine watching a game with Tahamata, Seedorf, Litmanen, Arnold Muhren, Van der Sar, Blind, Frank de Boer and more Ajax legends… And then imagine them playing a team like Real Madrid. Wouldn’t that be … oh hang on!

The Ajax legends played Madrid last week, a day after Holland – Hungary and it was a more exciting affair than said Oranje match.

Yes, sentiments and football go hand in hand. Ajax is about to celebrate their 125 year existence and did so in style.

One has turned grey, another is carrying some additional poinds, but Jari Litmanen still looks like he’s 30 years old. The Finnish fan favorite is as fit as can be: the dark hair, the spying eyes and the six pack under his shirt. “Hey, I’m an athlete,” he quips. But Jari is happy to be part of this as he seemingly struggled with the effects of the Covid vaccinations, which kept him off the pitch for 4 years. “Even making a coffee at home resulted in me having to sit for a spell, exhausted.”

Another icon to be glad to be on the pitch is Edwin van der Sar. The much maligned ex Ajax CEO was struck by a stroke a year or so ago and has a tough rehab behind him. “I played a legend game in Seoul last month and that was amazing, considering where I came from. Just great to be in the dressing room with the lads again,” said the legendary goalie.

Jari versus MacManaman

Opponent Real Madrid stayed in the infamous Amsterdam Hilton (of Lennon and Herman Brood fame) and Ajax started their day there for a celebratory breakfast. Next up, a canal boat trip and off to the Johan Cruyff Arena where the moribund group witnessed the unveiling of busts of Frank Rijkaard, Patrick Kluivert, Simon Tahamata and Daley Blind. Next, another meal and off to the dressing room to prep for the match.

Mr Ajax

The Ajax icon with the deepest memories must be right winger and Mr Ajax Sjaak Swart, currently 86 years old and still playing football every week (!!). Mind you, it’s walking football. Swart acted as Van Gaal’s assistent coach for the night, alongside Danny Blind. When asked about his first match versus Real Madrid, the passionate Ajax man bursted out: “We should have won that match at home. It was 1-1 and it was 1-1 in Madrid as well, so we had to play an additional 30 minutes. We had injuries in Madrid and Michels instructed me to play right back! I was up against Paco Gento. Remember him? Easily one of the best attackers in Europe, back then. But check my pocket in my pants!! You can still see Gento sitting there, right! I didn’t care. But Madrid scored and Michels immediately yelled at me: go forward! And I swung in one of my best crosses and Henk Groot headed the ball in. Piet Keizer played Cruyff in front of the goalie, Cruyff!! He should have scored but shot the ball right in the hands of the goalie And the next attack, Veloso hit a rocket in the top corner. End of story. Devastated!”

The Madrid confrontation in the 90s under Van Gaal did go a bit better. But Van Gaal had to improvise, as Frank de Boer wasn’t able to play. Van Gaal came up with a typical VanGalian move: Edgar Davids as centre back and 18 year old Kiki Musampa in midfield. The youngster had only played seven sub turn for Ajax 1. Van Gaal told him he’d play and also said: “By the way, you’re up against their best player: Luis Enrique. Good luck!”

Assistant coach Danny Blind was the captain of the Dream Team as the attacking minded libero. “It was a decent week for us. We won away versus Madrid, and it should have been 0-6, what with the disallowed goals. Then on a plane to Tokyo where we won the World Cup for club teams.” Blind scored the winning penalty of course.

Showtime

Fitness

The Ajax legend couldn’t play in this Legend game. “I done my calves. I had a whiplash there and when it healed, Sjaak Swart got me in the Lucky Ajax veteran team and within minutes, again! My calves went. Even playing golf is an issue these days.” Blind sounds like Marco van Basten. The Ajax/AC Milan hero didn’t show up. “My body hurts. I can’t play at all so there is no fun for me to go.”

Sjaak Swart still plays a slow pace game, twice a week. With Guus Hiddink, amongst others. But he decided not to play. “I’m difficult. If they don’t pass the ball to me within the first 5 minutes, I’m bored already and want to go home.”

The oldest active players were Dick Schoenaker (71) and Simon Tahamata (69). Clarence Seedorf, Wesley Sneijder and Rafa van der Vaart played for both clubs of course and would play for both teams. All players are cheered on by the JC Arena which was at full capacity.

But none were cheered as much and as passionately as Jari Litmanen, still one of the cult heroes. Jordi Cruyff got his ovation sitting in the stands, while the Nouri family ( of Abdelhak Nouri of course) were greeted with a long round of applause. For Real Madrid we saw cracks like Morientes, Karembeu, Steve MacManaman, Cannavaro and Iker Casillas.

Honouring the legends

It seems that the Dutch fans start to enjoy these party evenings. Blind: “We had something like this in 2000 and we had to blackmail people to come and watch. This match was easily sold out.” Sjaak Swart: “I can imagine more amazing match ups. What about a legend game versus Liverpool, Bayern Munich or Man United?” Danny Blind: “Us Dutchies have not been good in honouring our sports heroes, compared to England or the US or Italy. We are starting to warm up for this and it’s fun.”

 

by Jan

Johan Neeskens, El Toro, never dies…

It was impossible not to love and admire Johan Neeskens. Yes, he was an Ajax player and as a Feyenoord fan you’re not supposed to adore Ajax players, but Neeskens was Neeskens. And I know for a fact many non-Ajax fans loved to see “Nees” do his thing. He transcended club loyalty.

Feyenoord midfielder Willem van Hanegem played many a game against Neeskens (at Ajax and also when at Barcelona) and the two would have literal fights on the pitch: elbows, studs up, black eyes, bloody noses and at one point a broken jaw. Neeskens did get his revenge, though. When Van Hanegem was hospitalised for tonsils removal, Neeskens had a plan: “I would visit Willem in hospital to apologise, and I would bring him nuts and toffees just to screw with him, as he wasn’t able to swallow those,” Nees would explain. The two became the biggest mates.

Witch arch enemy and arch friend Van Hanegem

Ajax found the young Neeskens, or Johan II as he would become, in the shadow of the other Johan (at Ajax, Oranje and Barca) at Heemstede, a small village to the west of Amsterdam. Arie van Eijden, Ajax player and later board member and director, was leaving Ajax to slowly retire at a lower level. Van Eijden trained with Heemstede and immediately tipped Ajax: there is a 18 year old guy as right back here…. you need to sign him pronto.

He made his debut at 19 and everyone could see what Van Eijden had seen: speed, guts, balls, courage, skills and the iron will to win. Nees was a right back and Heemstede, and he played on that spot in the 1971 European final with Ajax, but Michels quickly turned him into a marauding midfielder.

A young Nees

He looked like an angel, when he was young, but played like a demon. The quintessential box to box midfielder: breaking up the opponents attacks in midfield with a flying block tackle and than racing like a madman into the opponent’s box to score with a diving header (his signature move).

If Total Football can be seen as one part creativity and another part high press, than Johan I was the epitome of creavity, while Johan II was the symbol of the harrassing, the pressing, the tackling.

Oh how Johan Cruyff (and Van Hanegem) loved to play with the youngster behind them, as he played for two players.

The holy trinity

But Nees was more than an enforcer. He could play football alright.

According to the stories of the time, Johan Neeskens wasn’t very educated. Came from a poor background (Arie van Eijden bought him his first boots) and when he first came to Ajax he was a bit out of sorts. Young lad in a big city, amongst the best players of Europe.

He would stay with right winger and Mr Ajax Sjaak Swart on the weekends and was basically adopted as a new family member. They would share typical Dutch meals together ( hutspot, zuurkool) and play board games. The life Neeskens loved and would dramatically miss in his future years.

The shy and soft spoken Neeskens became a monster once on the pitch and he would ease into the role of fan favorite, not just at Ajax, but for the whole nation.

Red and orange looked good on Nees

Imagine a midfield with Wim Jansen ( the Scholes-like tactician), Willem van Hanegem ( the Zidane like playmaker) and Neeskens ( a bit like Roy Keane maybe) and Johan Cruyff in front of them.

He shone so bright at the 1974 World Cup, and he is etched into the Dutch pop culture as a result of his white jersey turning red in the semi finals versus Brazil. His epic battles with the Brazilians can be viewed on youtube and despite the knocks, kicks and blows he was still able to score an amazing goal in that match, offered to him by his “older brother” JC.

Scoring the penalty in the first minute of the 1974 finals

Funny anecdote about Neeskens and penalties. He was a true specialist and he would always pick a corner. But he knew Sepp Maier studied the penalty takers and during the run up for this pen, Neeskens decided to switch corners. Maier went for the right corner, but as Johan decided to go for the other corner, Maier would fail to stop the ball. But…. the ball never made it into the other corner, it went straight to the middle. And ever since, whenever a penalty is taken hard through the middle, commentators will call it “A penalty a la Neeskens” or “a Neeskens penalty” (like the Panenka). But Nees would chuckle and say that this was in fact the only time he ever hit the ball straight through the middle.

Michels went to Barcelona and Johan I and Johan II followed not much later. Neeskens would become hugely popular in the Camp Nou as well and was nicknamed El Toro. Not sure why ;-).

He spent 6 seasons at Barca, winning one title and one European Cup ( the Cupwinners Cup) before signing for star studded New York Cosmos where he’s stay for 5 seasons. There he became the team of peers like Franz Beckenbauer, Pele, Francisco Marinho and compatriate Wim Rijsbergen.

Arsenal was keen to sign the midfielder too, but didn’t want to offer more than a 3 year deal. Cosmos offered a 5 year deal and a nice sponsoring package, as the US was the marketing wonderland of football at the time.

Tackling hard for the New York Cosmos

Sadly, Neeskens lost his way in New York (or did he find it). The high life of the jet set was a bit too much for El Toro, who got hooked on cocaine, alcohol and gambling.

Despite being shy and introverted, Neeskens didn’t suffer fools gladly and would have strong clashes with his coaches. Weisweiller was the Cosmos coach and after yet another clash, the German task master penalised El Torro and told him to come to the Cosmos stadium at 6 am in the morning to run circles around the Cosmos stadium. These types of insults contributed to Neeksens’ depressions and fall into addiction.

He was close to becoming a total wash up and when the Dutch football elite heard about his issues, a rescue mission was started by Dutch National Team manager Kees Rijvers, who’d fly to New York to check in Nees. Rijvers told him the national team needed him, as we were desperately trying to qualify for major tournaments again, but were lacking in midfield class players. Rijvers took Neeskens home and installed him at his family home where Neeskens became a member of the family and worked tirelessly to quit the addictions and become fit again. He would indeed make the key match for Oranje, against Belgium. Oranje played in De Kuip and won 3-0. I was there and saw Neeskens almost score from a sensational volley. The Belgium players had respect for Neeskens and allowed him to shine. But it was to no avail as Oranje did lose the key game away versus France, due to a Platini free kick and an on-pitch confrontation between Ruud Krol and Hans van Breukelen.

Working on his come back with legendary coach Kees Rijvers

Nees would play 7 games for FC Groningen before returning to the US to play indoor football. His private life brought him to Switzerland where he lived and played at lower levels until he really quit and went into coaching.

He was relatively successful with FC Zug, the team from his home town in Der Schweiz before Hiddink lured him to the KNVB to become assistant coach with the Dutch NT. After that stint, he became the head coach at NEC Nijmegen, where he would finish the highest in the league for the ambitious club (5th) and reach European football. After NEC he would assist Hiddink with the Australian national team. When Hiddink resigned, the Australian federation wanted Nees to take the head coach role, but the former Ajax midfielder preferred the assistant role and would go to support Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, replacing Henk ten Cate.

Enjoying life in Barcelona again

Neeskens will go down in history as one of the best Dutch players of all time. Greats like Cruyff, Swart and Van Hanegem would laude him as one of the best allround players of all time and all the lads who had him as a coach praised his down to Earth, warm and simple but effective coaching.

The best compliment a player can get, however, is when parents name their kid after famous players. Yohan Cabaye was named after Cruyff, of course. There are numerous Jari’s in Holland and there are definitely a lot of Zinedines, Zico’s, Diegos and Marcos out there. Not sure which Johan’s will be named after the Nees, but it’s definitely so that Neeskens Kebano (Al-Jazira) from Congo was named after one of Holland’s most loyal and impressive football sons.

Neeskens Kebano at Fulham

Here he is in full flight. Enjoy.

Johan Neeskens died
by Johan

Johan Neeskens died aged 73

Johan Neeskens died unexpectedly.

Neeskens was unwell on Sunday during an event in Algeria, where he was present on behalf of the Football Association. The former Ajax and Barcelona player turned 73.

This means that the Dutch football world once again loses an icon of the generation that reached the World Cup final in 1974. Neeskens was a starter at the Orange that conquered the hearts of the football world fifty years ago and scored five times at that tournament, including his penalty in the lost World Cup final against West Germany.

Neeskens, then only 22, had already become a starter at Ajax and moved to Barcelona that summer in the wake of Johan Cruijff, where he was soon nicknamed Johan Segundo. After his spell in Spain, the midfielder ended his career in the USA and Switzerland, in 1984 he returned to FC Groningen.

One of the biggest team ever

Neeskens was extremely successful as a player with three European Cup I wins at Ajax and two league titles, plus one World Cup and two KNVB Cups. In Barcelona, there was also a Spanish Cup and a national championship. On behalf of Oranje, the 49-time international also came out at the European Championships in 1976 and the World Championships in 1978, where the Netherlands also reached the final.

After his playing career, Neeskens spent many years in professional football as a manager. In the late 1990s he was assistant coach of Guus Hiddink and Frank Rijkaard, then he became manager of NEC. After his time in Nijmegen he assisted Hiddink again with Australia and was still the right hand of Rijkaard with Barcelona and Galatasaray.

by Jan

Cruyff: no striker in the box!

H all, a personal note before I start this JC article… I will be traveling in the coming month as one of my dear family members in Europe will need support :-(. I will be posting less regularly, but will do my best to keep the good stuff coming.

May I ask you to have a look at the donation options on the site? Traveling to Europe is pretty expensive these days ;-).

JC: “You can only rotate when one position is not taken. That position needs to be the central striker.”

It was the time of Denis Law, the agile Scot who scored 237 goals for Man United. The times of the golden left of Gigi Riva, scoring one goal per match for the Italians or Der Bomber, Gerd Muller, scoring 500 goals for Bayern Munich! It was the early 70s, a great time for goal scorers. Strikers who only needed one or two touches to tap a ball in. The Dutch had a number of them: Dick van Dijk, Ruud Geels, Willy van der Kuylen, Dick Nanninga…

There were three types of strikers: the mercurial fast ones (Rene van de Kerkhof), the player with the thunder in the thighs (Willy van der Kuylen) and the tall lighthouse target man (Dick Nanninga). Ideally, you had one striker who had this all (Haaland).

And, a striker was always your most advanced man and he was judged on goals.

Cruyff came onto the field as a strange #9. He was never in the point. And he still scored goal after goal after goal. Between 1966 and 1972 he would never score less than 33 goals per season. But the real impact of JC was not as a goal getter of course. His biggest impact was the fact that as a #9, he was hardly ever to be found in that most advanced position.

Johan Cruyff led the line in a way that other players could flourish in the areas vacated by him. The two-footed dribble king was to be found everywhere else. As the playmaker, or as libero, or coming from the left. He called himself, the “playing central striker”. Cruyff’s ability to be that wandering striker made him crucial for the execution of Oranje’s Total Football. Oranje would play people off the pitch with any player able to play on any position. Right wingers became strikers, right full backs ended up as left winger and the central striker became the deep lying playmaker. It was all being done.

Finding the space was sacred. No one was playing on the position as laid out on the line up board in the dressing room! Cruyff would start in the #9 role but would immediately drift away. He went wherever he felt like it. “A little wander here, a little movement there, playing along a bit and then explode into action.”

Watching Feyenoord, Ajax and Oranje play in the early 70s is really fun. Opponents have no idea how to deal with it. Man markers would follow JC across the pitch and ended up leaving huge holes in their defence. Or they simply allowed JC the freedom of the pitch, which is never a good idea against someone with his dribbling skills.

Cruyff’s teams always dominated the ball. There were always ample players around the ball. Ajax and Oranje dominated in that middle zone, which is still sacred in football tactics. The maestro’s partnership with Rep, Rensenbrink and Neeskens in 1974 was phenomenal. These three could score at will helped by the open spaces left by Cruyff.

The legendary #14 explains it in 1977: “There are people who believe I should play in midfield. They don’t get it. The remarkable thing about our football is: everyone is on the move, always. And it starts with me. I start as a striker but leave that space, which starts the big rondo. The defenders of the opponent are now in trouble. Because we come at them from various angles. If they mark me, others will get more space. If they don’t mark me, well… bring it on. They end up always having one defender too few.”

The traditional #9 got replaced by the False 9. The traditional 9 was told: stay high up the pitch, hold on to the ball, go deep and mainly: score. The False 9 is a high playing playmaker, who is focused on the team rotation and performance.

When Cruyff quit his active career, it seemed the false 9 disappeared too. Strikers like Nanninga, of Kees Kist or Peter Houtman and later Wim Kieft brought Oranje back to the traditional 9. Only when Cruyff returned to Barcelona in 1988 was the False 9 back. The Dream Team.

In 1989, Michael Laudrup was seen as one of the most elegant players in football but it wouldn’t happen for him in Italy. He used to play left winger or #10. Stoichkov was Barca’s #9 but Cruyff put the explosive Romanian on the wing and placed Laudrup in the striker role.

Cruyff was obsessed with creating triangles, and we’re not talking about the musical version of it. With Ronald Koeman as libero, Guardiola as defensive mid, attacking midfielder Bakero and striker Laudrup he had a spine in his team which could pass themselves out of danger. Barca’s dream team resembles the Tiqui-Taca team of Guardiola decennia later.

It was Guardiola who used the best player ever ™ as the false striker in his team. The birth day of the Star of Superstar was May 9, 2009. In Pep’s first season, Barca was four points adrift from Real Madrid. On day 34, El Classico was on the program and the pressure on Guardiola was immense. Barca missed the title two seasons in a row now and the 2-2 at Valencia on the 33rd playing day added to the pressure. And so, Guardiola called Messi, the night before the game. Could Leo maybe drop in for a bit?

At 10.30 pm, the 21 year old Lionel Messi enters Pep’s office. Marti Perarnau, the author of “Pep Confidential” explains the situation as such: “The 21 year old enters and Pep shows him a video. He freezes the video and shows Messi the space on the pitch. He wants Messi to work in these spaces. He calls it “the Messi Zone”. And he tells Messi: “I want you to start from the wing, as per normal. But when I signal you, I want you to dart through the middle. And when Xavi or Iniesta have the ball, you go. Straight ahead, and you’ll be face to face with Casillas.”

Pep didn’t tell anyone about this. He only told his assistant Vilanova the day before the match. Xavi and Iniesta were told during the warming up. What followed was a master class of football, with a 2-6 win at the Bernabeu for Barca. Samuel Eto’o suddenly played on the right wing and Messi would drift in and out of the zone where the older and massive Madrid defence would be. Xavi would later comment: “Pep changed the whole plan. With Messi as false 9, with Henry and Eto’o in the half spaces, forcing the defenders to decide. Leo, Andres and I could dominate in this way. It was one of the best games in my career.”

Barca would win the the triple that year. In the CL finals v Man United, he used the same trick. Eto’o started centrally but after 10 minutes he switched with Messi, who would win the finals for Barca with a header!

For quite some time, the false 9 was ignored or even forgotten by the rest of the football world. Through the decennia we have seen amazing #9s, from Papin to Zlatan, from Van Nistelrooy to Benzema, from Lewandowski to Peter Crouch, from Raul to Shearer and from Berbatov to Henke Larsson… But in 2022, we do see shifts. The “playing central striker” would be a good moniker maybe? At Liverpool, their #9 ( Firmino) usually plays in service of the danger men on the wings (Salah and Mane). At Cheslea, Lukaku warms the bench often while wandering Havartz is often preferred. At City we see different false 9s all the time, from Phil Foden to Sterling to De Bruyne.

Cruyff was ahead of his time, as we all know. Every modern team these days, is looking for a type of Cruyff striker. A player who can let the team play better by being absent.

by Jan

Joey Veerman: The Good and the Bad

Not the ugly I guess. Joey doesn’t do ugly. He was a name in youth football already. Playing in Volendam, the little quirky sea faring town which has produced 1) incredible football talents, 2) incredible musical talent and 3) a rugged and headstrong local people who tend to live by their own rules.

Volendam is hard drugs, great seafood, incestuous relationships, creative talent. I am not sure if there is a correlation.

It’s not strange for clubs like AZ and Ajax (who are a stone throw away from Volendam) to ignore talents from there. There is a list of players who shine in the Volendam orange, but fade in another jersey or even when 15 kilometers away from Volendam.

Some football examples? The brothers Mühren (Gerry, Arnold) – Ajax, Man United, Oranje. Wim Jonk – Ajax, Inter Milan, Oranje. Keje Molenaar – Ajax, Feyenoord, Oranje. Johan Steur – Feyenoord. Edwin Zoetebier – PSV, Feyenoord. Tom Sier – Ajax, Heerenveen. Joey Veerman – Heerenveen, PSV. Henk Veerman – Heerenveen, St Pauli, FC Utrecht. Robert Mühren – AZ, Zulte Waregem, SC Cambuur. Pier Tol, – AZ, Oranje.

Veerman’s part time fish stand at the PSV grounds… PSV should pay him better!

Some Volendam talent has trouble playing outside of Volendam. They miss the friends, family, the rhythm of the village. It’s a very tight knit community. As an example: typical Volendam and places like Volendam (Urk for instance) have a very low vaccination ratio. They simply refuse as a group. As a sub culture in The Netherlands. Don’t forget: they used to be on sort of an isolated island and they used to be free from government interference. They were fishermen. They worked hard, played hard. And their heads are very hard as well :-).

So Veerman was passed over by AZ and Ajax. “A very gifted player, but he has a mind of his own. We are not sure he’ll fit the group dynamics.”

Heerenveen likes to use Volendam born players and signed him. He made his mark there which got him a transfer to PSV.

Lets look at Veerman in the role of defensive mid. In the Conference League match v Leicester City, all that was good in attack started with Joey. But on his own half, he also helped Leicester City at times.

This was the way the teams were set up.

In the first two minutes of the game, he gets a smile from the football aficionados. He sees Gotze run in behind and plays the pass with a subtle chip, putting the German Weltmeister in front of the goalie. He impresses on the ball, but he also comes with some issues.

Schmidt selected Veerman because his go to man for the role Erick Gutierrez is suspended. The choice for Veerman’s creativity over Van Ginkel’s running pays off almost immediately. But Schmeichel stops the attempt and there will be no assist for Veerman.

Beautiful pass, great timing by Götze but also weak finishing by the German

But, what also sticks in the mind, are the number of times he is the one starting the Leicester counter. In the 20th minute, Dewsbury Hall is on Veerman’s toes and won’t give him the time of day. His pass is intercepted and Iheanacho finds himself face to face with the PSV goalie. The striker misses.

This is the biggest lesson for Veerman. The pace in these games is way higher than what he is used to in the Eredivisie. I find him slow at times even in the Dutch league. A bit too relaxed at times. And in the holding mid role, it usually means that losing possession results in a chance for the other guys.

Take this situation: he gets the ball from Max, a square pass. The pass is not good, lacks pace, but Veerman should be able to keep possession. He tries to “roll” the opponent and open up with his right to the right flank. Good idea. But an idea that is predictable and the intelligent Dewsbury Hall won’t have it. The whole midfield is now open for Leicester. In the end, it’s Maddison with a weak shot on goal.

Just before the break, Veerman shows his weakness positionally. He gets it wrong three times!

Here, Iheanacho mis-controls the ball. Veerman isn’t ready for it. The ball comes into his zone, but he’s not able to take advantage.

Then, a second issue with Veerman: ball watching and not communicating with this environment.

Here he completely misses Iheanacho’s run in his back. PSV does not play man to man marking so it’s ok for Veerman to let the forward leave, but it’s Veerman’s role to block the pass line to the running Leicester player. He doesn’t and Leicester has another attack.

He is definitely not unwilling to put in a shift. Here, a couple of moments later, he’s back in his own box defending. Harvey Barnes wants to penetrate but Veerman pushes him wide. This is a good situation for PSV to be in.

Then something happens which can be lethal at top level. Veerman thinks the situation is under control and doesn’t look around him, to see that Barnes is making a dart. The midfielder sees it too late and by then Barnes has rattled the cross bar.

In the 64th minute, another typical Veerman situation. Zahavi is impeded in a challenge. The ball rolls towards Veerman, who believes PSV will get a free kick.

But the ref lets the play go on and suddenly the PSV defence is horribly exposed, not for the first time. An offensive player can gamble at times. A defensive player cannot.

By the way: Sangare is not helping Veerman much. He should cover a bit better for the youngster but is usually further up field, exposing his partner too much.

An attacking move in the 85th minute summaries Veerman’s game. First he accelerates the game with an excellent pass to right winger Doan. And then he moves forward himself, to contribute more to this attack.

When Doan loses the ball, Veerman has a mourning moment. He takes a couple of seconds to deal with the disappointment and runs back to his own half.

PSV is completely exposed now. Leicester has a 5 v 5 situation and defensive mid Veerman is nowhere to be seen. The Leicester team doesn’t take advantage though.

Joey Veerman played a match showing his both faces: on the Leicester half, he’s amazing. His passing range, his vision are top. On his own half, he’s a danger for his own team. He’s a bit complacent at times, arrogant almost and his positioning and orientation need to improve. The latter – orientation – is always a big thing for Louis van Gaal.

The question is: will Schmidt risk playing Veerman in that role more often, or will he use Veerman as the understudy of PSV’s #10 (Gotze or Gakpo).

Source: VI Pro