NATIONS - Louis Van Gaal answer the question about De Ligt

"Why was De Ligt always a starter before? Well, I wasn't the coach," Van Gaal explained in the press conference on the eve of the match against Turkey. Two exclusions but no controversy on the part of the Juventus player, who in recent days had recalled how special was his relationship with his colleague friend De Vrij, with whom he had also shared the relaxation of the last August: "We are friends, even if we don't have still played together. When he first came to the national team we immediately found ourselves together. Since then we have always been close. Stefan is now in great shape, the one who doesn't play must support the other. And I always will." 

In 2020-2021, De Ligt overcame the shoulder problem that had kept him out in the first part of the season exactly one year ago. He had always been a starter in the 3-man defense with which De Boer had set up his team. Of course, the absence of Van Dijk, a victim of the knee's injury, have also helped him. But the ownership of him was a kind of established fact and perhaps no one, even with the return of the Liverpool central, could have imagined a double exclusion of him. Here, then, precisely a return to a different tactical alignment by Van Gaal, who, however, has almost never used that game system in his career, could bring him back to playing in orange as well.

With Juventus, however, the competition is similar but less fierce, considering that Chiellini cannot play more than one game per week (perhaps even less) and that Allegri is much more inclined to propose a 3-man defense than his Dutch colleague. Leaving aside the oranje disappointments, it is in the Old Lady that De Ligt could find comfort and minutes as a starter.