“I don’t think they are football players in that medical world,” said the light cynical national coach who admitted to be somewhat old -fashioned.
“I understood from Edwin Goedhart, our federal doctor, that the children you are talking about once once every twelve games. That means three times in a year. Then you can also ask yourself: what are you worried about?”, Says Koeman. “Koppen is part of football. But it is clear that you shouldn’t do that very much at a younger age. But if you limit that to playing football, then that happens very little.”
Ronald Koeman knows the dangers
Koeman knows that it has been shown that there can be a connection between Alzheimer’s and heads. “But I think that much more people used to be headed. I remember that I once hung a head galg (to train heads, ed.) At Feyenoord. I now regret that, I believe.”
“But have you headed a ball in this training camp so far?” Koeman asked the Tijjani Reijnders sitting next to him who answered with ‘no’. The national coach: ,, And in competitions you still have to head if necessary. But with the youth I understand that they look at it. “
Houdini act from Vitesse, but is the club now definitively saved?
Another current topic was also reviewed: Vitesse, which can return from the Court of Appeal to the Kitchen Champion Division. The national coach started his career as head coach in Arnhem in 2000.
Tijjani Reijnders has a great time during the press conference. © ANP/HH
What does Ronald Koeman think of the situation around Vitesse?
“I am surprised, just like everyone else, I think. For the supporters of Vitesse it is nice news, because this is their lives. I understand and respect that. And for the rest I have no understanding of it. Apparently after two lost court cases there is always the chance that you can be right. Whether a withdrawal of a license is suspended.”
The lukewarm reaction is not related to the fact that Koeman is now an employee of the KNVB, who got the lid on the nose, he assured. ,, I just know too little about it. Going deeper into it, makes no sense and is also not my package. “
Naturally, it went on the way to meeting Poland in De Kuip also about the Dutch national team, which after the transfer period has even more internationals in the Premier League. “We are certainly European top and to get more clarity about whether we are also world top, we have to play a World Cup, because then you will come across the other large countries.”
“We were already good, but we certainly made an improvement. The matches against Spain have been an incredibly beautiful stimulans and have shown what we can put on the mat together. Now we want to stay good. It should not be incidental. We want to grow as a team and that also has to do with the individual development of players.”
Ronald Koeman is disappointed with the intended basic team Dutch team: ‘We were not ready yet’
Yet there was an alarm bell in Zeist on Wednesday morning. “The reserve team was better,” the national coach explained. “So we are not ready for Poland yet. That can be due to a lot of things, but I have experienced it more often and it is not nervous. It is a good time to put the dots on the i,” said Koeman, after which Reijnders announced the result between the base and the reserves. “0-0.”
Dutch national team takes long poles into account
Against Poland, the Netherlands is wary of the game resumes. ,, Of course we paid attention to that, because we know how much length Poles has in the team. We have to defend well. The difficulty is that there is a whole new staff. What are they going to do with attacking and defensive corners? A new national coach has different ideas and that may also apply to the system. So it is even more important that we are super sharp. “
