Kwakman: ‘He must succeed Gimenez at Feyenoord, then he will join the Dutch team’
Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 9:44 PM
Kees Kwakman recommends Thijs Dallinga as Santiago Gimenez’s successor, should the Mexican attacker decide to leave Feyenoord after this season. In this way, the Toulouse striker will also be seen more quickly by national coach Ronald Koeman, the analyst judged on Saturday in ESPN’s De Eretribune.
“He has to return to Feyenoord (never played there, ed.) next year, when Gimenez is gone,” Kwakman advises the Rotterdam club on transfer matters. “Then he has to score five in the Eredivisie, and then he will be called up.” Presenter Jan Joost van Gangelen wonders whether playing in Ligue 1 has to do with the fact that Dallinga is not (yet) on Koeman’s list.
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“I have the feeling that that is the case, yes. Because that is also the case with Jerdy Schouten, isn’t it?”, Kwakman wonders. The PSV midfielder returned to the Dutch national team after a year and a half of absence, coincidentally shortly after he had exchanged Bologna for the Eindhoven club. “He played quietly in Italy for years. He did excellently there and was linked to top clubs several times. And then he comes back to PSV and is called up.”
Isn’t the Eredivisie better for internationals?
Van Gangelen listens to Kwakman and uses the term ‘board-on-lap scouting’. “No, and that’s what I think is strange about it,” the analyst immediately counters. “Because in general there are scouts employed by the KNVB. They all watch matches and also go to matches. But it has been the case for years that you are called up more often from the Eredivisie.”
Thijs Dallinga’s impressive figures since the beginning of last season.
Kwakman is very impressed by the progress of the only 23-year-old Dallinga. “This is a really good striker.” Fellow analyst Mario Been wholeheartedly agrees. “An approach, but also the smart running away. You saw that a few times against Liverpool. He scored a goal at Anfield and now again,” Been refers to Dallinga’s goals in Toulouse’s Europa League matches against Liverpool .
“This is simply a player with enormous potential. However, perhaps the argument is still that it is only his second year at the highest level,” Been tries to get into Koeman’s head. “And there are now five or six strikers in the Dutch selection. And Gakpo is back. Then you have to put Dallinga next to Weghorst. And then you have to say: ‘Who is the better striker?'”
Been’s explanation does not entirely appeal to Kwakman. “In the same cycle we call up Hato from seventeen? Yes, that argument dattuh…. “, the former midfielder does not finish his sentence. “I might have taken him with me to get used to the level. That Koeman can also see him. I think he is an excellent striker,” Been adds to the discussion about Dallinga and the Dutch national team.
Thijs Dallinga to succeed Santiago Gimenez at Feyenoord?
Dallinga is convinced
Dallinga hopes that Koeman will soon send an invitation to France. “That would certainly be very nice. For myself too, because in the end I have achieved the quality that I have always been convinced was there,” the Toulouse attacker said earlier this week in an interview with the Dagblad van het North.
No call yet
Dallinga was part of the core of the Dutch Juniors at the youth European Championship in Georgia last summer and played a total of nine youth international matches for the Dutch national team. In any case, the call for the striker to be selected for ‘the real Orange’ is increasing. For example, ESPN analysts Kenneth Perez and Marciano Vink think Dallinga’s figures are too impressive to be left unrewarded. “For me, he should be there. If you already have such a problem with attackers, and you have someone who makes them so easy internationally, you should at least be given a chance,” said Vink.
Football International journalist Martijn Krabbendam has the same opinion. Dallinga has to tolerate Wout Weghorst (TSG Hoffenheim), Brian Brobbey (Ajax) and Donyell Malen (Borussia Dortmund), among others. Krabbendam wonders when Dallinga will get a chance. “We said it a while ago, didn’t we? If you don’t have a striker, you go and see which striker scores a goal abroad. Dallinga does that!”
2023-11-11 22:55:00
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