As you’re probably aware by now, especially if you’re a Brighton and Hove Albion fan, goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen is currently the Netherlands number one.
Dutch boss Ronald Koeman has seemingly decided to plump for the Brighton man after months of speculation and battling between Verbruggen and Brentford’s Mark Flekken.
It’s an ongoing debate who takes up the number one spot for the Oranje moving forwards, a debate which this week saw journalists Sjoerd Mossou and Martijn Krabbendam going head-to-head.
They were discussing whether the goalkeeper’s role should fall to Feyenoord’s Justin Bijlow or Brighton’s Verbruggen.
Unlike the former, Verbruggen is yet to fully establish himself as number one at club level, with Seagulls boss Roberto de Zerbi continuing to rotate between him and Jason Steele after the latter’s impressive performances for Brighton last season.
Because of that, there is debate about whether Verbruggen should be the undisputed number one for his country, a debate that Mossou and Krabbendam continued this week.
“Bijlow will be in the starting line-up,” started the latter.
“I know that the Bijlow polonaise is intense, but I think Verbruggen is potentially better anyway. And there is no reason to change at the moment. No one is saying that there is a perfect solution at the moment,” responded Mossou.
Krabbendam then brought up the fact that Verbruggen doesn’t’ play every week for Brighton, an important factor as far as he’s concerned, but something Mossou doesn’t agree with.
“It’s very bizarre, but if he played in the Dutch national team, he (De Zerbi) also takes that into account,” he added.
“It’s very strange, but first of all, that boy can’t help it. And secondly, he will play 20 to 25 games in the Premier League this season.”
