Dutch icon Pierre van Hooijdonk has claimed Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman missed a trick in the 6-0 win over Gibraltar, by not playing Liverpool’s Cody Gakpo as a wing-back.
The former striker has been speaking after the Netherlands comfortable win over their lowly opponents this week, which Gakpo started on the bench.
The Dutch boss went with a 4-3-3 formation in the game, with a front three of Donyell Malen, Wout Weghorst and Calvin Stengs meaning that Gakpo was left watching from the sidelines, despite having been a regular for his country in recent years.
The decision proved to be a solid one from Koeman, as his side ran out comfortable winners with a hattrick from Stengs and goals from Mats Wieffer, Teun Koopmeiners and then Gakpo in the 81st minute.
All in all, it was a positive evening for the Oranje, who had already secured their place in the Euros in 2024 with a narrow 1-0 win over Republic of Ireland in their previous game.
It meant this game was more of a tester than anything else, but Van Hooijdonk believes Koeman missed a trick by not using the Liverpool star in a completely new role.
“This is an excellent opportunity to give people playing time and things to do,” he said.
“I would have liked to see, if you play 4-3-3, that you put a Gakpo away at right-back, to do something completely different. He only gets around to attacking anyway.”
Fellow analyst Van der Vaart added his opinion on using the Liverpool forward in a new, untested role: “Then you should have played 3-4-3, like last week (against Ireland). Then you could have taken those backs out and put wingers there.”
