National coach Ronald Koeman continuously gestured to , during the Netherlands’ practice match against Scotland (4-0), Kenneth Perez noticed. The Dutch attacker had to keep the field wider in Koeman’s eyes. Perez fully agrees with this.
The ESPN analyst saw that the Dutch team was ‘tapped from pillar to post in the first 35 minutes by a very good Scotland team. According to Perez, the way Simons moved across the field made it more difficult for the Dutch team to play under pressure. “I didn’t think Scotland could be this good. The Netherlands actually had no answer to that. It was very poor in possession of the ball, also because the field was made very small by Simons, who did not play well.”
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Perez couldn’t hold back his laughter when he criticized Simons. “He was perhaps the worst man on the field. He was constantly walking to the inside. He once participated in the build-up, when he was standing near his own sixteen-meter area. Of course he has to be in the front. This made it very difficult to play football for the Dutch team.”
Koeman said before the match that Simons was a right winger on paper, but not in practice, because Jeremie Frimpong was going to play there. He wanted Simons to appear more in the ashes of the field, but that did not work out as hoped. “That’s the most dangerous thing you can say to a player,” Perez said. “Koeman was also shouting during the match: ‘Xavi!’ He gestured to Simons to widen the field. If you give a free role to a winger who is not actually a winger, you can bet that he will only be found in the middle.”
Perez was not the only ESPN analyst who was critical of Simons. Hans Kraay junior was also not happy with the RB Leipzig star. “He was so incredibly good against Real Madrid, but he plays thirty percent less well with the Dutch team than with Leipzig. I keep hoping for players like Koopmeiners and Simons that they will show what they show at their club, but that still happens not.”
