Wim Kieft is sparing former PSV player: “We all went backwards.”

Despite his struggling fitness last season, national coach Ronald Koeman decided to still leave a spot in his World Cup squad for former PSV player Memphis Depay. Depay came on in the second half of the match Netherlands - Japan (2-2) for Donyell Malen and managed to make anything but an impression.

Afterwards, Koeman's decision to bring the forward on drew a fair amount of criticism as well. According to Wim Kieft, however, this criticism is not entirely justified.

This lets the former striker know in the podcast KieftJansenEgmondGijp. ''Donyell Malen will not yet feel Depay's hot breath on the back of his neck after his first appearance'', writer Michel van Egmond notes.

Apparently, the former PSV player strongly disagrees. ''That isn't fair, Memphis had to play on the halfway line'', Kieft begins in his defense.

After that, the former international explains why he thinks Memphis didn’t fare well against Japan. ''We all went backwards. You don’t like Memphis; you’re sure he’s too flamboyant. The Netherlands team can’t move much if there’s no space for it,'' Kieft said.