Belgium lost 0-1 to France. In his analysis, reported by HLN, Marc Degryse keeps a positive feeling and picks out two new faces: Roméo Lavia and Joaquin Seys. On Seys he says one precise thing: he is knocking more and more on the door of a starting place, on the left and the right of the defence.
One full-back for two sides. Freddy read the line at the clubhouse bar, coffee cup in hand, and opened his folder.
“Now, tactically, the two-footed full-back is my speciality. I’ve got one who plays left in the first half and right in the second. Not for tactics: on pitch 2, the left side runs downhill, and he refuses to climb that slope for two halves running. The level in the third provincial division (Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues) has gone way up, people don’t realise. A flat pitch away, mind you, him and Seys are the same profile.”
Degryse also talks pressing. He notes that Charles De Ketelaere did not have his best match but worked hard and mattered in that press. And he raises a question over Romelu Lukaku, who played only around ten minutes against Italy and did not come on against France. “Can he physically handle that role right now? He needs to start playing more minutes at Fenerbahçe urgently, or he’ll really have a problem,” he said, according to HLN.
Mark van Bommel, for his part, confirmed after the match that he always wants to play the same way, whoever the opponent. Freddy underlined the line in biro in his folder.
“Same system against everyone. I run that on Tuesday. When we’ve got eleven, that is. On Sunday, we adapt to whoever showed up.”
According to Degryse, the head coach made a good impression again. Lavia, he reckons, would even have a place in the France squad.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
