Mark van Bommel spoke to the press on Friday afternoon ahead of Saturday’s game at Sparta Rotterdam. “We look to return to winning ways”, said PSV’s head coach before analysing the poor results of the previous three games.
“Each game is different”
PSV were unable to defeat FC Utrecht, LASK Linz and AZ last week, but Van Bommel was not unduly worried. “Each game is different. We put in a decent display against LASK and deserved a win. We were reduced to nine men, following two straight red cards, at FC Utrecht, just when we thought we could break the deadlock, and we were down to ten men after 22 minutes when we hosted AZ, while we missed several players through injury.”
Harsh reality
“But the harsh reality is that we suffered two emphatic defeats”, admitted Van Bommel. “You usually concede more goals when you are reduced to ten men. But we don’t intend to change our style of play. I can’t expect each of my players to produce a sparkling performance each and every game. No player can possibly meet such high expectations but we may assume they will execute the game plan from the first minute. You need eleven players to be at their very best to play a perfect game. The idea, though, is that we make progress, also in good times.”
Injury update
PSV’s head coach finally provided an injury update at his pre-match conference after training. “The game comes too early for Donyell Malen. Steven Bergwijn misses the clash at Sparta Rotterdam due to injury and Ryan Thomas, Jorrit Hendrix and Nick Viergever are suspended.” There was also positive news from the treatment table. “Mo Ihattaren has shaken off an injury and is available for selection. Young guns Richie Ledezma, Claudio Gomes, Cyril Ngonge and Amar Catic trained with the senior squad and some of them will make the trip to Rotterdam. “