Inter Milan wingback Denzel Dumfries has faced criticism for his anonymous performance in Champions League clash against Red Bull Salzburg.
L’Interista highlight that the player ratings for the match across Italian media found the Dutchman to be one of the Nerazzurri’s weaker performers on the night.
Over the weekend, Dumfries played a starring role from the bench.
The 27-year-old played as a substitute in the second half of the Nerazzurri’s Serie A victory over Torino. He made an instant impact by setting up Marcus Thuram for Inter’s first goal of the match.
And it wasn’t just the goal for Dumfries.
The former PSV wingback looked full of confidence as he ran at the Granata defense, and made incisive contributions in the final third.
It was not a surprise, therefore, to see Dumfries in the Inter starting eleven to face Salzburg yesterday. But it was a much different story compared to the match over the weekend.
Denzel Dumfries Not At His Best In Red Bull Salzburg Clash
A big part of the problem for Dumfries came in the form of Salzburg captain Andreas Ulmer.
Even at the age of 37, the left-back had the energy to push up the pitch. And this meant that Dumfries frequently had to deal with Ulmer defensively rather than getting into attacking positions.
Midfielder Maurits Kjaergaard also gave Dumfries a difficult time.
There were no big defensive errors from the Inter wingback in dealing with the Salznburg pair.
But in truth, he got run ragged for a lot of the time that he was on the pitch.
And then when Dumfries did manage to make runs up the right flank, his contribution was not terribly incisive.
The 27-year-old attempted a couple crosses and shots. But other than one which Salzburg defender Amar Dedic put out for a corner, nothing really came of it.
It wasn’t a disastrous day at the office for Dumfries. But it also wasn’t a terribly memorable one.