Scotland lost 4-0 to The Netherlands in an international friendly held in Amsterdam on Friday night, March 22. The Flying Dutchmen were led by former Celtic player Jeremie Frimpong, but Rafael Van der Vaart, a former Tottenham player, was not pleased with the 23-year-old’s performance.
He incited anger with his team’s performance as a whole, claiming that Scotland “could easily have finished 4-0” and characterizing it as “average.” Nevertheless, he focused most of his criticism on Frimpong. He urged Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman to start Denzel Dumfries at the European Championship in place of Frimpong, claiming the latter is “not there yet” in terms of the “level required” on the global scene.
In the summer of 2019, Frimpong signed a contract with Celtic after finishing his nine-year youth stint at Manchester City. After making 36 league appearances and tallying three goals with the Bhoys, he was acquired by Bayer Leverkusen in 2021 for an unknown sum.
Van van Vaart declared following The Netherlands’ triumph against the Tartan Army: “I didn’t learn much watching us versus Scotland. We were dreadfully average. It was actually rather astonishing that we won 4-0, given Scotland might have very easily won 4-0.
We had a really mediocre performance overall, however there were a few bright spots. Regarding the players, I concluded that Denzel Dumfries had to participate at the Euros instead of Jeremie Frimpong. That became evident in the opposition to Scotland. Frimpong is a talented player who has the potential to reach the necessary level. However, he is still not there, and Dumfries is once again our top option.”
