Kenneth Perez is impressed by Daley Blind’s rise at Girona in LaLiga. The club from Catalonia defeated fellow countrymen Barcelona 2-4 on Sunday and is once again the proud leader of the Spanish league after sixteen match days. In the analyst’s view ESPN Blind was the driving force behind the victory. “Did you happen to see Girona against Barcelona? An excellent Daley Blind.”
“Do you know how Girona got into playing football? Because of him,” Perez emphasized in the program Football talk. “In the three-man defense he was on the left center, and I have seen him do unprecedented things that make you think: how is this possible?! Of course, there is always quite a lot of criticism of him, especially in defensive terms. But Girona is a bizarrely good football team. They just as easily joined Barcelona.”
“But if Blind can use the same role with the Dutch national team, so in a three-man defense… They also looked for him all the time at Girona. If he got into trouble for a moment, he would immediately play through to midfield and then it would be open again. My eyes really opened again,” Perez pointed out. “I hadn’t seen him play football for a while after he left Ajax, but he plays football so easily. I think he can still play football for Girona at the age of 48. Really, unbelievable.”
Daley Blind excels at Girona
Blind almost made the most minutes at Girona this season. Only goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga (1440) and Aleix García (1440) made more competition minutes than Blind: 1353. The son of former international Danny Blind played international number 104 last month: he played ninety minutes in the European Championship qualifier against Ireland (1- 0). He did not play in the other three of the last four international matches.
Blind said he had already accepted that his role with the national team would change. He became a kind of mentor, but after his rise with Girona he can again become the important force he was in the past. “At a certain point you come to a different role at Oranje and you have to adapt to that. Then you work hard for the other boys and you try to be there yourself and fight your way back into the team,” Blind said last month. “Ultimately we remain one team with one goal. I am very proud that I have been part of the Dutch national team for so long.”
