Van Gaal surprises with names such as Struijk and Noppert in the preliminary selection towards the World Cup

National coach Louis van Gaal has included 32 players in his pre-selection for the Nations League matches against Poland and Belgium later this month. Notable names include Joey Veerman, Brian Brobbey, Kenneth Taylor and Pascal Struijk.

Goalkeepers Remko Pasveer (Ajax) and Andries Noppert (sc Heerenveen) are also part of the pre-selection, in which Van Gaal has included five keepers.

In two weeks, on Friday 16 September, the final selection for the two matches will be announced. These are the last matches of Orange before the players gather on Monday 14 November for the World Cup in Qatar.

Not every name from the selection is already known to the general public. Think of Jeremie Frimpong, Andries Noppert, Pascal Struijk and Kenneth Taylor.

Frimpong (21) is right back for Bayer Leverkusen in the German Bundesliga. The born Amsterdammer moved to England at the age of seven, where he was picked up by the scouting apparatus of Manchester City. He made his professional debut with Celtic and moved to Leverkusen midway through the 2020/2021 season.

Noppert (28) was discovered by sc Heerenveen coach Kees van Wonderen, who took him from his previous club Go Ahead Eagles. He is showing form under the Frisian bar this season. In three of the four Eredivisie matches, including the one against Feyenoord in De Kuip, the more than two meters long goalkeeper kept zero.

Struijk (23) is a left-footed central defender, who made his debut for Leeds United in 2019, where he still plays. He can also play as a defensive midfielder or left back.

Taylor (20) is emerging as Ajax’s basic player this season. The midfielder has already kept Davy Klaassen or Steven Berghuis out of the starting lineup and has scored twice so far.

Whether the new names will get playing time remains to be seen. For Van Gaal, the matches against Poland and Belgium are mainly dominated by the world championship. And he will largely select the players that he also wants to bring to Qatar.

Moreover, he will mainly want to play in the system with which he hopes to win the World Cup final on Sunday 18 December. There will be no extensive experimentation.

That also means that the players who are not selected now should be concerned.

It is already known that Georginio Wijnaldum is not expected to make it to the World Cup. He will not recover in time from his shin injury. In addition to the AS Roma player, Arnaut Danjuma and Luuk de Jong are now also missing – they are also injured.

Also notable absent is Tim Krul. The goalkeeper who helped Van Gaal one round further at the 2014 World Cup has been passed by five other goalkeepers: Jasper Cillessen, Justin Bijlow, Mark Flek, Pasveer and Noppert.

It’s no secret; Van Gaal denounces the place of the World Cup on the calendar. This ensures that his preparation time is different from a tournament in the summer months, when the competitions have ended much earlier. Play will now continue through Sunday, November 13, less than a week before the opening game.

As a result, no training camp can be organized somewhere in the mountains to forge an even closer team feeling. Van Gaal will have two more weeks to dot the i’s and cross the t’s before the first World Cup match (against Senegal) is scheduled for Monday 21 November.