Louis van Gaal says the Netherlands will assess Memphis Depay’s health following his cameo of their victory over Senegal.
The Oranje marked their return to the World Cup finals with a 2-0 win over the Africa Cup of Nations champions, with late objectives from Cody Gakpo and Davy Klaassen sealing the factors in Group A.
Depay started the sport on the bench as a consequence of an ongoing hamstring difficulty, however was launched for the ultimate 28 minutes on the Al Thumama Stadium and the Barcelona ahead will hope to function towards Ecuador on Friday.
“We had agreed earlier than the sport that he would play about half an hour,” Van Gaal mentioned of Depay, who has been restricted to simply two LaLiga appearances this season.
“With Ecuador, he’ll wish to play, however I’ve to evaluate his kind after this recreation. I by no means thought we might lose and, with the entry of Depay, I wished to have extra possibilities to attain. He’s a participant who could make the distinction.”
38 – Louis van Gaal gained his thirty eighth recreation accountable for @OnsOranje, a brand new document for a Dutch NT supervisor (Dick Advocaat 37). Golden. pic.twitter.com/dH2uN60qEM
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) November 21, 2022
Van Gaal oversaw his thirty eighth victory accountable for the Netherlands, probably the most by any supervisor in historical past, and praised the shows of Gakpo and goalkeeper Andries Noppert, who registered a clear sheet on his senior worldwide debut.
However the head coach is looking for an enchancment from his gamers because the match progresses.
“Gakpo was decisive, I left him inside as a result of he is aware of tips on how to rating objectives and may be very agile,” he added. “Senegal had three possibilities, however we’ve got a goalkeeper who is aware of his stuff between the posts.
“We didn’t play very properly, too many instances we gave them the ball and the prospect to attain. We needed to be extra compact. We are able to solely enhance, there was most likely some rigidity between the gamers.”
