Wesley Sneijder is mild for Xavi Simons, who has so far been disappointing in the Dutch national team. “We should maybe stop making him bigger than he is.” The twenty-year-old attacking midfielder from RB Leipzig again failed to register his first goal or assist in the Dutch team against Scotland (4-0 win) in his twelfth international match on Friday.
After the 4-0 win in the Johan Cruijff ArenA, Wim Kieft wrote extremely critically about Simons’ game in his column in De Telegraaf: “He was a loser of the ball and played as a junior against the Scots. Not for the first time in Orange. He doesn’t care. He is now no longer 16 years old, but 21 years old and you can expect more from someone who gets many opportunities from Koeman in the starting line-up and performs at the top of the Bundesliga every week. In such a case you cannot surrender eight out of ten balls. Also the simple one. In general, he wants to make it too difficult, but not every pass has to be decisive,” the former striker noted, among other things.
In Veronica Offside Kieft came up with similar words on Monday evening: “Xavi bothered me a bit, if I’m honest. But also to his teammates,” he said. “I talked to Wesley about that,” Kieft continued, “If you are a teammate, you can also correct him. I was really amazed that you are so talented, but can do so much wrong in a short period of time.”
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After watching national coach Ronald Koeman’s reaction to Simons’ play, Sneijder was given the floor. “I think maybe we should stop making him bigger than he is. I do feel that. Everything and everyone makes him very important, and he takes that with him into the match.” Evidence for that statement can literally be read from the face of the player himself, the record international pointed out: “You can see that in his facial expression when he loses a ball. Then you see that he is saddened by that moment, and at some point it will get into his head.”
