Van Gaal is looking for his perfect goalkeeper for penalties

louis van gaal He is a coach who thinks about everything and in every possible situation. We can see some of them in Brazil World Cup 2014where the Dutch coach was removed Jasper Cillessen of the intention to release Tim Krull minutes before the end of extra time in the quarterfinal against Costa Rica. A fact that helped him to pass on semifinalsbecause the new goalkeeper is determined in the penalty shootout saves two pitchesdespite the fact that in the others -although he didn’t stop them- he guessed the address.

This time the coach will not back down, and he announced on Monday that during the national team break he will take the opportunity to test his goalkeepers in a special penalty shootout training sessionwith an eye to preparation and search for him best goalkeeper in penalty shootouts.

Because of that, Van Gaal called four goalkeepers instead of three – as usual – for this coming week’s Nations League games against Poland and Belgium: Jasper Cillessen (NEC Nijmegen), Mark Flecken (SC Freiburg), Andries Noppert (SC Heerenveen) and Remko Pasveer (Ajax).

For the coach, finish the group first and move to final phase June 2023 is not only your priority, it is also to define the finishing touches a template for worldas well as finding his perfect goalkeeper for penalty shootouts.

“I’m looking for the best penalty taker and that’s why we test all the goalkeepers. I’m always looking for small advantages and that’s why I’m paying special attention to this thing. We’ve seen in the past how penalty shootouts play a big role in the World Cup”, admits Van Gaal.

Even not yet confirmed if FIFA agrees Van Gaal summon the four goalkeepers in his squad of 26 players for the World Cup, because the coach himself transferred him Doubts for this reason.

“I’m not sure yet because FIFA hasn’t given us clarity on this issue, but I think it makes sense to do it.”