Louis Van Gaal points to flaws in his side after Ecuador draw

In a press conference this Friday evening, the coach of the Netherlands Louis van Gaal (71), logically held in check by Ecuador (1-1) in group A, is not happy with the performance of his players: “We didn’t have a good game. We played well on possession of the opponent’s ball but not when we had the ball at our feet. It’s our problem. It was already in the first match (2-0 victory against Senegal). All the duels, all the second balls have been for Ecuador. We couldn’t win […] Ecuador could have won. But they didn’t have many chances, even though they shot the bar. I’m happy with the 1-1, but not with this game. The good point is to have taken a point against a much better opponent (than the Netherlands, editor’s note).

Still in comments reported by The Teamthe Batavian technician also spoke about the Tri, which he considers better than Senegal, which he beat when he entered the running at the very end of the match last Monday (2-0): “I thought Ecuador would play at a very high level. I said he would be stronger than Senegal. We just have to improve our possession game, we have to work on that. We did it and we will continue. Are we going to get there? We have several options in the middle and we can try them. As for Memphis Depay, he could hardly do things, because he rarely had the ball, and when the ball arrived, it was in difficult conditions. He could not show his qualities. It has not much to do with the qualities of Memphis, but everything to do with those of the team.