In an interview with Voetbal International, Netherlands national team manager Ronald Koeman has spoken on the difficulty having to leave out several top quality players.
“The best examples are Stefan de Vrij and Nathan Aké, two really great defenders. One is at the top in Italy with Inter, the other has been playing in the Premier League for years and can still take it one step higher. But then they have Matthijs de Ligt and Virgil van Dijk in front of them,” he explained.
de Vrij, who has 37 caps for the Oranje, has not played in over a year, despite always being in the squad. His last appearance came back in a friendly match with Belgium back in October 2018.
This season the former Lazio centre back has made 20 appearances across all competitions. In 1734 minutes on the park, he has scored once, assisted four goals and helped Inter toward keeping six clean sheets.
