NewsKoeman's press conference framed the Japan opener not around the back four — which the day-before squad announcement effectively settled — but around the unsettled point of the attack. Asked whether Memphis will start in Arlington on June 14, Koeman said the situation was still open, and noted he wanted to see how the forward finished his Corinthians match the same night. He explicitly compared his thinking to Euro 2024 and the Qatar World Cup, when he started a not-fully-fit Memphis from match one, and said he had since questioned that call and that 'this time may be different.' Koeman also stressed there are still two pre-tournament fixtures for Memphis to push toward what he called 'the Memphis we need.' If Memphis is not ready, the bench is wider than usual: Voetbalcentraal, summarising VI's read of the press conference, reports four striker options under consideration — Memphis, Donyell Malen, Brian Brobbey and Wout Weghorst. Koeman publicly opened the door to using Malen as an inverted right winger cutting inside rather than as a centre-forward, and described 33-year-old Wout Weghorst's role as 'important' for power play and defensive set-pieces, not as the default starter. For Japan, the practical scouting question for the opener has shifted: the centre-back pairing is now reasonably narrowed (Van Dijk plus one of Timber or Van de Ven), but the man Japan's centre-backs will mark is not yet a fixed name, and the type of striker — orthodox No.9 (Brobbey/Weghorst), false-nine drop-off (Memphis at partial fitness), or inverted wide-to-central runner (Malen) — implies meaningfully different first-line pressing and back-line shape choices for Hajime Moriyasu. Nothing in this brief is a starting-XI prediction; Koeman himself has refused to commit, and Japan-side comment has not yet been added.
Track Group F as Japan-Netherlands approaches on June 14.
JAPAN_FOCUS · AI auto-published
Koeman keeps Netherlands' striker choice for the Japan opener open as Memphis Depay works back to fitness
One day after naming his 26, Ronald Koeman told his squad-announcement press conference in Zeist that the Netherlands' starting striker for the June 14 opener against Japan in Arlington is still undecided. Memphis Depay played his first minutes back from a thigh problem for Corinthians on May 25 — about 30 minutes — and Koeman is now publicly weighing four options at the top of the attack: Memphis, Donyell Malen, Brian Brobbey and Wout Weghorst.
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