Ronald Koeman defended Manchester United defender Matthijs de Ligt after his disastrous showing in the Netherlands' 5-2 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On Saturday, the Dutch team delivered a strong performance, with goals from Joshua Zirkzee, Tijjani Reijnders, Cody Gakpo, Wout Weghorst, and Xavi Simons. Despite the commanding win, Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to equalize at 1-1 in the 27th minute.
Ermedin Demirovic capitalized on some inadequate defending by De Ligt—who joined Manchester United from Bayern Munich over the summer—to level the score.
De Ligt’s poor positioning allowed Demirovic to remain onside, and the Manchester United centre-back was also criticized for not tracking the play as Edin Dzeko scored to make it 3-2 in the 73rd minute. Late goals from Weghorst and Simons eventually ensured the Nations League points for the Netherlands.
Reflecting on Demirovic’s goal, Koeman commented, “Xavi Simons should have done better. He was marking their left midfielder and suddenly walked away from him. Of course, the centre-backs are positioning themselves wrong too.”
Koeman responded When asked about his concerns regarding De Ligt’s performance: “He realizes that he was in the wrong position. This should not happen, but mistakes are part of football. It is unfair to make a big deal out of it.”
Koeman also expressed that his team should have secured the win earlier before Dzeko’s goal gave Bosnia and Herzegovina a chance. “We played very well in possession of the ball,” Koeman said.
“Very fresh, fast, often finding the people between the lines. We certainly had a good phase after the break, but the match had to end. When you concede two goals, you take that with you. When it was 3-2, you also saw some doubt in the team, which wasn’t necessary if you looked at the statistics. The opposition scored two goals out of very little.”
