Bosz gets extremely annoyed during ESPN interview: 'I find it so strange what you're saying now'

Peter Bosz had little patience for questions about his tactical choices after the 2-2 draw between PSV and Fortuna Sittard. The coach was visibly frustrated by the dropped points in the opening match of the Eredivisie season, but he wanted nothing to do with the suggestion that his adjusted positioning had to do with Édouard Michut’s late equalizer.

PSV had the most possession at the Philips Stadium, but for a long time failed to turn that dominance into many clear-cut chances. Just before halftime, Ole Romeny benefited from a mistake by Ryan Flamingo and put Fortuna ahead. After the break, Flamingo recovered with a fine header, after which debutant Noah Fernandez brought the home side to 2-1. Still, it all went wrong deep into stoppage time, when substitute Michut made it 2-2 with a shot that was redirected.

In conversation with ESPN, Bosz looked hard back at his team’s performance. When reporter Wouter Bouwman described the first half as careless, the PSV coach corrected him immediately. "I would replace the word careless with the word bad."

Then Bosz was asked about the changed style of play with which PSV appeared at kickoff. According to the training instructor, that approach worked properly. "We put something up against them that maybe is quite risky, but that I think worked perfectly, because they themselves didn’t create any chances. We gave them those in the first half."

The suggestion that the adjusted positioning had caused confusion among his players, Bosz firmly rejected. "If it’s right, then no, because this is exactly what we explained and what we trained." Even with the benefit of hindsight, he would not change anything in his plan. "I’m not going to present it differently because we didn’t win this match. That would be ridiculous. That’s really talking back to the result."

When Bouwman subsequently pointed out that not only the outcome, but also the style of play, provided grounds to question the chosen player positioning, Bosz’s irritation only increased. The coach emphasized that, in his view, the countergoals were the result of individual mistakes. "If you head a ball back like that, or if you play a ball through the middle twice like Ruben... That has nothing to do with a system or anything like that, does it? You have to agree with me on that, I assume?"

After Bouwman indicated that a different lineup configuration could influence such situations, Bosz was done with it. "Stop. I find what you’re saying right now so strange; I really mean it. I understand you want a discussion with me, but this has nothing to do with a system. No."