Netherlands boss Frank de Boer has an idea which 26 players he will take to the European Championships and has made no promises to Jurrien Timber, Teun Koopmeiners or Cody Gakpo.
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On Friday, De Boer named a 34-man provisional squad and he was a guest on Humberto Tan’s talk show on RTL4 to discuss his choices.
De Boer explained his decision to omit Ryan Babel, “I have a lot of choices for his position. Before that I did not want to move too much in the selection because I had just arrived and you do not want to disrupt the group. I try to make the best choices and Ryan does not fit in with that at the moment. He is a good player and a fantastic boy, but you have to make choices. That was difficult. “
Arjen Robben is also not an option for De Boer despite the winger’s return for Groningen, “That has never been an option. He hasn’t played for a year and a half or two. He hasn’t even played ninety minutes once. Of course I would love it for him, but at any moment he could get injured again. Then all the attention goes to him. I don’t think that it would be a good choice. “
The omission of Calvin Stengs also concerned De Boer’s family, with the winger dating his daughter, “That was not easy. My wife had known it for a while. She already asked: What are you going to do with him? That is quite difficult, my wife is more concerned with it than I am. Of course, it certainly affects you personally. But I never find that difficult professionally, to be honest. “
De Boer has named a number of young players in his squad, with Teun Koopmeiners, Jurrien Timber, Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch, Donyell Malen, and Owen Wijndall all able to represent the U21’s who face France in the quarter-finals of the European Championships. However, now they are in the Oranje provisional squad they are not able to drop into Erwin van de Looi’s squad if they are not selected by De Boer.
The Netherlands boss said the U21’s was “Never a consideration,” and added, “I determine it, because the big Oranje is of course the most important.”
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