Arne Slot tempers euphoria and finds suggestion that Feyenoord is stronger ‘disrespectful’ to departed players | Dutch football

By Mikos Gouka

The compliments after the 2-5 win in Arnhem against Vitesse were of course welcome, but Arne Slot decided to step on the brakes a day before the second competition match. The euphoria after the win in the Gelredome was here and there even the reason to predict that this Feyenoord is or can become better than the team that played the final of the Conference League in Tirana last season. ,,That’s disrespectful to last season’s team”, said Slot. ,,I think this team still has a lot of tests to pass to come to that conclusion.”

But with Javairo Dilrosun, Danilo, Sebastian Szymanski, Patrik Walemark and Quinten Timber on the field, Feyenoord may seem more frivolous than it was last season. ,,But with frivolity you won’t win prizes and you won’t reach the European final”, said Slot. ,,I was also happy with the 2-5 win in the first game, but I thought the euphoria was a bit exaggerated. And not rightly towards the players from last season.”

It would be a major achievement if Slot, after so many changes in the selection, could so quickly form a team again that can compete with Ajax and PSV and can soon perform in the Europa League. ,,That often takes time”, says Slot.

The trainer, who knows that the Brazilian left striker Paixao (Slot: ‘type of player that I can appreciate’) will officially sign in Rotterdam soon, does not seem to have to worry about his attack line for the time being. But the wash is thin in the back.

Feyenoord is fishing for David Hancko, a left-footed Czech defender. But against Heerenveen tomorrow, Slot really only has four real defenders: Marcus Pedersen, Gernot Trauner, Jacob Rasmussen and Lutsharel Geertruida. Behind that quartet are the youth players Mimeirhel Benita and Quilindschy Hartman, known in de Kuip as the players with the difficult first names. The latter received a compliment from Slot as a result of his performance earlier in the week against the reserves of FC Dordrecht (4-0 win).

Now that Feyenoord has let thirteen players go and, including Paixao, has brought back eleven, the question is what the youth players of Varkenoord can expect next season. Slot indicated that there was even more room for young players to show themselves on the training field.

,,Just this week, five players from our under 21 team joined a party form”, says Slot. But the trainer also uses the approach of doctors in a hospital who tell people in no uncertain terms what the situation is, even if that is not good news. ,,The players often still participate in order to arrive at the right numbers or because we cannot occupy certain positions”, says Slot. ,,We have to make sure that players are added to the selection purely on the basis of quality.”

So too much for the quantity and not the quality. The fact that Noah Naujoks made his debut as a substitute in Arnhem was of course wonderful for the young player. And according to Slot, he also earned those playing minutes based on the preparation. ,,But behind Danilo we didn’t have a striker and now Santiago Gimenez is in the selection and the situation is already different.”

The Mexican is eligible to play and will start on the bench, just like the again fit Orkun Kökcü. Only the injured Mats Wieffer and the newly recruited Peruvian Marcos Lopez, who is not yet in the Netherlands, are missing against Heerenveen. The Frisian club started with 0-0 and that is a quality of trainer Kees van Wonderen, setting up teams in such a way that few goals are conceded. It’s up to Feyenoord to tear it apart in a completely sold-out Kuip.