Since taking over the Netherlands men’s national team after the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Jeroen Delmee has been busy making changes. The Netherlands finished a disappointing sixth after losing out in the quarter-finals to Australia. Delmee is keen to put that result firmly in the past and to inject some energy and new thinking into the squad.
‘If you look at our team now compared to the Tokyo squad, we are missing nine players, so we have a new team; we have guys who have not played an international game, so we are going to test players and see what they can do.
‘A new group brings new energy and I am curious to see how they will do against the Olympic and World Champions. We want to see the guys really go for it, no matter whether we are playing Belgium or a lower-ranked team.’
Despite no international competition for many of Delmee’s squad, the Frenchman points out that the players are all getting the highest standard of club competition in the Dutch Hoofdeklasse. He says he is interested to see how the players will make the next step from club hockey, albeit in a highly competitive league, to the pace and tempo of international hockey.
The matches will be played on Friday 26 November and then two days later on Sunday 28 November. How important is that 48 hour window for tweaking the performance of the squad?
’Within that period, you can only work on details. To now, we have been training for six weeks. It has been difficult to work on tactics in that time because you need the games for that. The period between January and February will be more important for progression and development of tactics ahead. Of course, there will be little things we can improve in 48 hours but to make a lot of changes in a short window of time you need an experienced squad and we have a lot of people with very little experience.’
Delmee says his squad has the qualities to hurt any team, including a strong penalty corner routine and fast, skillful players. He accepts that mistakes will be made and there will be times when they will be dominated by Belgium but that is all part of the learning process.
‘We need to accept mistakes. But we can still play a good game and we can be very dangerous and we will give it the max.’
Watch the full interview on Watch.Hockey.
