Two Man Utd stars dropped from national team after manager’s brutal ‘not good enough’ assessment

Two Manchester United stars have been omitted from the Netherlands’ preliminary squad ahead of their Nations League clashes with Spain, and Ronald Koeman has delivered a withering assessment on one of the pair.

The Netherlands square off against Spain in the quarter finals of the Nations League next week. The two clashes are scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 20 and Sunday, March 23.

National teams bosses – including England manager Thomas Tuchel – will name their respective squads for the international break at various points throughout this week.

Koeman has already selected his preliminary squad, though with two notable absentees.

Man Utd pair, Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee, were both axed from Koeman’s 25-man list.

And speaking to Studio Voetbal, Koeman was particularly scathing when explaining why Zirkzee was left out.

“He wasn’t in the preliminary selection because I don’t think he’s good enough at the moment,” said Koeman. “Especially scanning when turning or passing often goes wrong.

“Yes, in principle, form and fitness are always leading, but that is not always possible. We have a lot of central defenders and midfielders, but we are somewhat limited up front.

“But even then, I still think that you have to earn your selection, and I think he doesn’t deserve that now, but that could be the case again in another period.”

The six forwards selected ahead of Zirkzee are Justin Kluivert (Bournemouth) Brian Brobbey (Ajax), Memphis Depay (Corinthians), Cody Gakpo (Liverpool), Noa Lang (PSV Eindhoven) and Donyell Malen (Aston Villa).

Zirkzee made his senior debut for the Netherlands at Euro 2024 and had been included in every squad since.

De Ligt, meanwhile, has suffered his first real omission since making his own debut for the Dutch back in 2017. The only other occasions when De Ligt was excluded related to injuries/fitness.

Latest Man Utd news – Kobbie Mainoo, Gary Neville

In other news, TEAMtalk have been informed Chelsea remain keen on signing Kobbie Mainoo if an exit is greenlit in the summer.

The Guardian recently claimed Mainoo plans to quit Man Utd and ‘move abroad,’ though TEAMtalk understands Chelsea will attempt to convince Mainoo to remain in England and move to London is he is on the move.

Mainoo earns just £20,000-a-week at present and wants to be paid in line with the club’s higher earners. United have held talks over an extension, though as yet the negotiations have not borne fruit.

Man Utd are understood to value Mainoo at £70m and would reluctantly approve a sale if Mainoo determines he wants out.

The proceeds from his sale – given Mainoo is homegrown – would be logged as ‘pure profit’ on the books and greatly enhance United’s spending power.

Elsewhere, Gary Neville has urged Ruben Amorim to rip up his Man Utd squad and start over.

“I think they’ll back him. I think that they’ll back him in the summer, they’ll give him money and [the] chance to alter this squad,” the pundit said on Sky Sports.

“He is positive, he’s got nothing to lose by being positive. Managers over the years have tried to defend players here and not call them out.

“You talk about what we say here in this studio but he delivered the harshest line on this squad, he said they’re the worst team in Manchester United’s history.

“I think it genuinely could be, it’s a really poor squad. Obviously it’s been expensively recruited over the last few years but it needs ripping up.

“The lack of pace in midfield and attack, and in wing-back areas, is unbelievable. You’ve got [Joshua] Zirkzee, [Alejandro] Garnacho and [Christian] Eriksen, Casemiro and Fernandes in midfield who aren’t the quickest, and you’ve got two full-backs at wing-back who can’t create up top.

“His attacking options to score goals are absolutely none. [Rasmus] Hojlund, he’s living off less than scraps.”

Neville continued: “The only manager in the last 10 years who’s been able to play on the front foot successfully is [Louis] Van Gaal. The rest of the them have come in with fantastic ambition to be a front-foot team, a pressing team but they’ve ended up at the back of their own box.

“Amorim, [Erik] ten Hag, Ole [Gunner Solskjaer], [Jose] Mourinho, [David] Moyes always ended up back at the edge of their own box. That has got to change.

“You can do it sometimes, but you have to have the ability also to sustain attacks in the final third, like Arsenal have done. That’s when you are a really good team.”

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