Derksen points to former PSV player: 'Optimally motivated'

Johan Derksen seems to have revised his opinion about Joey Veerman in Oranje. Derksen agreed with the fact that Ronald Koeman did not call on Veerman.

For the World Cup in North America, the then national team coach and the then PSV player were openly at odds with each other. Koeman cited Veerman’s character several times as a reason not to take the midfielder to last summer’s World Cup, and that was more than enough for the man from Volendam to say that Koeman no longer needed to call him.

During an episode of Vandaag Inside on Curaçao last May, Derksen, during a heated discussion with sports marketer Chris Woerts, openly sided with Koeman, while Woerts was actually on Veerman’s side. ''Ronald Koeman has behaved like a gentleman. Koeman gets a question from Valentijn (Driessen): 'Does it also have to do with his character?', Valentijn asked. Then he said: 'Yes, partly.' I think that's a proper answer. Joey Veerman can play well against Excelsior and Willem II, but in Oranje you don’t have anything to show for it'', De Snor scolded, among other things, at the time.

Now that the Netherlands has a new national team coach with Xavi Hernandez, a different wind is blowing in Zeist and Veerman is back in the picture. This can count on a great deal of appreciation from journalist Valentijn Driessen, and Driessen also points to Ruben van Bommel.

''I really enjoyed that Mexx Meerdink. It’s just nice that you’ve got a number of new players and you can also see that everyone wants to embrace that team again, with that Meerdink, Ruben van Bommel and also Joey Veerman'', De Telegraaf journalist says on Vandaag Inside.

Then René van der Gijp takes over. ''If you remove the result, I thought it was a pretty mediocre match'', reacts René van der Gijp. "An unbelievable amount of possession was lost, while that didn’t have to happen. Let’s be clear: everyone could have played in Veerman’s position. That’s how he prefers to play. Catch every ball cleanly and then place them where you want them to be. In itself it’s not so bad, but you should certainly be able to win at home against Serbia 5-0. You’ve got to put that away. Wow, wow,'' says Van der Gijp, after which Driessen suggests putting Veerman in the starting lineup for the coming period: ''Frenkie de Jong isn’t there for the time being, so let the boy play. And not Quinten Timber. He wasn’t good at all against Germany, until Veerman came on. He lays off passes every now and then and commits relatively few turnovers.''

In the end, Johan Derksen also joins the discussion and, in doing so, points to Veerman as well. ''He is still working on something somewhere. He is optimally motivated, because little by little he is proving Koeman wrong. That is of course his driving force, because he is hurt by Koeman. And Koeman was right, of course, about what he takes issue with. Because if you have a team where you cannot afford to lose the ball, he is usually at the root of it and he doesn't take part,'' De Snor said.