Squad has been rocked by injuries to key midfielders but coach is quietly optimistic going into opener against Poland
Ronald Koeman makes final preparations for the Netherlands’ first match and is confident his squad is strong enough despite injuries.Ronald Koeman makes final preparations for the Netherlands’ first match and is confident his squad is strong enough despite injuries.
The start of training on Saturday, at Wolfsburg’s AOK Stadion, where the Bundesliga club’s women’s team play matches, had players and staff in hysterics as the conditioning coach, René Wormhoudt, played ringleader in a game akin to tag and inside the Dutch camp at least they insist the painful absences of the midfielders Frenkie de Jong and Teun Koopmeiners, owing to ankle and groin problems respectively, have been parked, mentally compartmentalised at their pre-tournament training camp in...
At the time Zirkzee, who missed the end of the Serie A campaign with a hamstring injury, had not long started his holiday at Disney World in Florida and just like the versatile Chelsea full-back Ian Maatsen, who was on a yacht in Mykonos when the call came on Tuesday, he had to quickly make tracks for Germany. At pains to ease any disappointment, Disney Land Paris reached out to Zirkzee to tee up an end-of-tournament trip.
“In qualifying we had injuries all the time but it is not about one or two players,” Koeman says. “I think the squad is really strong, we can survive in positions with other players who have experience. It is a big group of players with a lot of qualities and experience, with talented youngsters. There is no point focusing on injured players when preparing a team because you can’t play with them. You need to put all of your attention on the rest of the team.
Midfield is the obvious cause for concern but there are plenty of pluses and any lingering frustrations will surely be soothed bymissing their sharpest tool in Robert Lewandowski, who will be among the substitutes but only in a cheerleading capacity as he steps up his recovery from a hamstring injury.
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