August 30 – Belgian manager Domenico Tedesco has left Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard out of his Nations League squad to shake up his selection.
Romelu Lukaku and Axel Witsel are the other main absentees in the Belgian squad that will take on Israel and France in September as the fourth edition of the Nations League kicks off. Tedesco said that Lukaku, who has moved to Napoli where he will rejoin Antonio Conte, demanded to be omitted from the September camp.
At a news conference, Tedesco explained: “Romelu himself asked me not to be called up. He had a difficult preparation and has only just made his transfer. He is not in good enough shape to come. He is honest, and that is good.”
Tedesco also left out veteran Witsel, who featured in the Euro 2024 squad but didn’t play a minute, and Trossard, who, at Arsenal, is increasingly knocking on the door of the starting eleven. The Belgian manager explained their omissions as a choice to give opportunities to younger players, including Borussia Dortmund’s 18-year-old Julien Duranville and Celtic Glasgow’s Arne Engels.
“He can become a big player and is already important in Dortmund,” said Tedesco of Duranville. “His coach Nuri Sahin is very positive about him. Duranville is stable now after a period with many injuries. I promised that we will treat him well.”
Following Belgium’s disappointing round of sixteen exit at Euro 2024, the manager received a lot of criticism and Tedesco spent a lot of time reflecting on a torrid summer.
The Belgians opened their campaign in Germany with a shock 1-0 defeat to Slovakia before overcoming Romania 2-0 and being held to a goalless draw by Ukraine. It was enough to progress from the group, but Belgium’s supporters jeered their the team after the final whistle in Stuttgart and the players trotted off without saluting the fans.
Tedesco himself often seemed to struggle with the demands and pressure of a tournament environment. He admitted Belgium didn’t show enough courage against Ukraine.
“I consider myself partly responsible for that: in that match, I made too many one-on-one substitutions. In retrospect, I would have done that differently. Just like my communication: that reproach of the Stuttgart police (Tedesco stated that they held up the team bus on the way to the stadium) was wrong of me,” said Tedesco.
He added: “We can do better and we learn from that. In the future I will play more with these Devils from our own qualities. It has to be more intense again.”
Belgium’s Euro 2024 failure has prompted a crisis at the Belgian FA. CEO Piet Vandendriessche and operational director Jelle Schelstraete were dismissed and technical director Frank Vercauteren’s contract was not extended, even if he might remain at the FA in a different role.
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