Netherlands legend Willem van Hanegem believes AZ Alkmaar’s Dutch talents deserve a chance in the Oranje squad.
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AZ have made a strong start to the season and currently sit third and only one point behind Ajax and PSV.
Dutch youngsters Teun Koopmeiners, Calvin Stengs and Myron Boadu are all excelling so far but all three were missing from Ronald Koeman’s provisional Netherlands squad for the upcoming Euro qualifiers with Northern Ireland and Belarus.
Writing in his column for AD, Van Hanegem said, “AZ plays much better, and does achieve a fairly constant level.
“I think it would make sense if Calvin Stengs, Myron Boadu or Teun Koopmeiners were given a chance in the Oranje squad.”
Van Hanegem also calls for Kevin Strootman to be dropped and even ventured a reason for Koeman’s decision to not call up AZ’s talents, “I want the best for a boy like Kevin Strootman, but he never plays. Why not give the youth a chance with a view to the future? Surely it won’t be that Ronald Koeman is still bothered that he was fired at AZ? I can hardly imagine it. ”
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Something to think about. This Strootman thing is becoming ridiculous when Dutch football is currently bursting at the seams of good young talents.
I can’t understand some of koeman’s choices, stengs and dilrosun out and they are in fantastic form
I can understand the Strootman thing. It’s a veteran presence. In another year or two he will be gone and the veteran will be Wijnaldum and van Dijk. But for now we need that balance. Boadu, Stengs and Koopmeiners are probably on the fringe, Dilrosun just came back and will need to get everything back (although it does seem like he hasn’t lost a step). They are ready for the most part, but at this point, to integrate them into the first team will be slow and I don’t see them all getting thrown in at once. Give it time!