Mark van Bommel has not managed many Red Devils matches: one, against Italy, won. He has already settled a question Belgium has been asking itself for decades.
“I also think Kevin was stronger than he was at the World Cup. If everyone knows their job and does what’s asked of them, you have a player like Kevin who can make the difference. He remains the best player in the history of Belgian football,” he said, according to L’Avenir. He refused to take the credit himself: “It’s his merit that he had a good match, not mine. Don’t forget one thing: his presence on the pitch helps other players.”
The goals came from Dodi Lukebakio, on a counter-attack, a “very nice goal” according to his manager, and from Mika Godts. Senne Lammens made a big save in the second half.
On everything else, Van Bommel was more measured. Content 100% with the win, rather less with the quality of the football. “I’m 100% happy. Yes, we could have improved a few things, but we only started together on Tuesday. We showed intensity early on, we controlled the match and created chances,” he told RTBF. He made changes during the game to try to regain that control. Time to fine-tune things will be short: the Red Devils play four matches in eleven days in the Nations League.
We put the line about De Bruyne to Marcel, who was reading his weekly paper at the chippy. He read it twice.
The best ever. After one match. In my day, a manager waited at least until his second season before offering an opinion. I looked for an argument against it. I found none. That’s the first time that’s happened to me since VAR. I’m not criticising. I note that I have nothing to criticise, and it bothers me. Four matches in eleven days, on the other hand. In 1980, we played on Sunday at three o’clock, and on Monday we read the paper. Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: RTBF Sport.
