September Internationals: Veltman shines, Duffy scores & Trossard debuts
The first round of international matches since November has just been completed with the biggest take away from the Brighton players on duty being what we learned about Joel Veltman.
When Veltman arrived at Brighton for £900,000 from Ajax earlier in the summer, it appeared as though he had been bought in to provide competition for Tariq Lamptey at right back.
Those feelings were reinforced when Martin Montoya was allowed to leave for Real Betis. Veltman though started both of the Netherlands’ UEFA Nations League games at centre half, excelling alongside a bloke called Virgil van Dijk.
What was notable about this was that Veltman was preferred there to Nathan Ake, a player who Manchester City have forked out £41 million to sign from Plucky Little Bournemouth.
Ake as a result was shunted to left back, a multi-million pound defend bought by one of the richest clubs in the world having to play out-of-position to make room for a defender whom many Albion supporters thought Brighton had signed to play back up to Lamptey.
Veltman helped keep a clean sheet in the Netherland’s 1-0 win over Poland on Friday night, delivered via a Steven Bergwijn goal. He was then booked in Tuesday evening’s 1-0 defeat to Italy. Both games were played at the Amsterdam ArenA.
The selection of Veltman at centre half ahead of a player of Ake’s considerable talents shows that Brighton have picked up an absolute bargain for £900,000. Such a knockdown fee was made possible because of a release clause in Veltman’s Ajax deal.
It also shows that Veltman’s strongest position may actually be at centre half rather than right back and that he is probably too good to sit on the bench. Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster and Ben White might not be the automatic selections in a back three that everyone has assumed.
The Albion are clearly building real strength in depth in their squad. That we can sit here talking about how Graham Potter fits into his side a Dutch international who has played in Champions League semi finals tells you that. Potter will have his work cut out keeping all those defenders happy.
One defender who is no longer his concern is Shane Duffy, who has completed his dream move to Celtic on a season-long loan. That was the start of a very good week for Duffy, who captained the Republic of Ireland and scored their injury time equaliser away in Bulgaria on Thursday night when rising highest to head home a Robbie Brady corner.
It was an emotional evening in Sofia for Duffy and not just because he had the captain’s armband. Duffy was pulling on the green shirt for the first time since his father passed away earlier in the summer and he dedicated the goal to a man who was as much a character as Duffy himself.
Sofia is one of the few cities in the world outside of Ireland which has an Irish pub that the WAB Team would recommend to anyone (other than Molly Malone’s, obviously).
Hopefully, Duffy was able to sneak away and enjoy a few Guinness and a chicken burger in The Irish Harp to celebrate without having his wallet stolen in the nearby McDonalds. That sort of thing happens, so we have heard.
A man with less reason to celebrate in the Bulgarian capital was Aaron Connolly, who missed a couple of glaring opportunities for the Republic as the game finished 1-1.
The most notable of those came when he curled off target with only Bulgaria goalkeeper Georgi Georgiev to beat when he could have squared to Norwich City’s Adam Idah for a tap in.
Three days later and Duffy and Connolly were joined in the Republic starting line up by Jayson Molumby for Sunday night’s 1-0 home defeat against Finland.
Molumby gave a typical blood-and-thunder performance, marking his debut with a booking. The young midfielder is already on record as saying that if he is not in the first team picture at Brighton this season, he will seek a loan move to the Championship to play regularly.
Clearly, he is a driven young player. Winning his first international cap will only increase that desire to succeed, making him another one that Potter will need to find a way to play this season.
Finally, there was a long-awaited Belgium debut for Leandro Trossard as a substitute in his nation’s 2-0 win in Denmark on Saturday.
Trossard was called up two squads last Autumn but had to withdraw both times through injury. He was given the final nine minutes at Parken Stadium in place of Napoli winger Dries Mertens before being an unused sub as Belgium hammered Iceland 5-1 on Tuesday.
