While Simon Kjaer is the national coach Åge Hareides fixed forsvarsklippe with 37 of nordmandens 40 matches in the lead of Denmark, the situation has evolved quite differently on the klubplan.
Shortly before the transfer window slammed in he was leased from Seville to Atalanta, and it has until now certainly not been a happy tenancy for the 30-year-old defender.
Simon Kjær has in three of the seven matches only played 144 of 630 minutes in the last month, since he returned back to Italy after landskampene in October.
He has been firmly planted on the bench the last three matches.
Simon Kjær back in Herning, where the national team was to inaugurate a new hybridbane, which has claimed the lives of 12.4 million. kr. It is supposed to landsholdene must train on the pitch when they are located in the area. Photo: Lars Poulsen.
– of course, I would like to play more. For I am fit and ready, when there is a need for me. But I see it in no ways as a problem, that I have sat out a few matches. It had been a problem, if I had not played in two-three months, he explains.
Have you gotten an explanation from the coach?
– I need no explanation. I have soon played 500 matches on top level and has tried much. The coach has opted for other solutions.
– You should think to the way we play at Atalanta is very demanding. It was such that I couldn’t just enter into a three-back chain. We play a special system, where we need to push up from the bottom.
A serious Simon Kjær is shown here together with the national coach Åge Hareide. In spite of the lack of playing time in the recent past, neither the captain or the national coach worried about. Photo: Lars Poulsen.
– But I’m not too old to learn something new, even though I have been 30 years, explains Simon Kjær and comes with its own explanation of why he, until now, only been marginalspiller in the Italian topklub.
– It is certainly not to my advantage, we’ve played so many matches, because it means that the training becomes very limited. The only times we can actually work out multiple days in a row, is in landskamppauserne. And I’m with the Danish national team, explains Simon Kjær.
Monday was Kjær and landsholdskammeraterne gathered in Herning, where a new hybridbane was inaugurated, at the same time, preparations started for the last two qualifiers-matches against Gibraltar and Ireland.
– I’m always happy to be at home with landsholdskammeraterne again. Already when I came, I felt a joy in all that we are together again.
– We have the task to bring the nation together this week, where we must win the two matches. We think all only at, we have to qualify us directly to the EM. The opportunity that exists via the Nations League, are not in our thoughts, he points out.
He will, however, do not call it failure, if the direct road to the EM fails.
– It will be an incredible bump in our path. But as I said: The option is not in our thoughts now. We think we even need to fix things, says he.
Decision time is in Dublin next Monday.
See also: Icy Cornelius, punishes the team
Here is Hareides selected
Kasper Schmeichel, Leicester
Jesper Hansen, FC Midtjylland
Frederik Rønnow, Eintracht Frankfurt
Henrik Dalsgaard, Brentford
Mathias Zanka Jørgensen, Fenerbahce
Peter Ankersen, Genoa
Simon Kjær, Atalanta
Jonas Knudsen, Malmö
Joachim Andersen, Lyon
Andreas Christensen, Chelsea
Jens Skims Larsen, Udinese
Christian Eriksen, Tottenham
Christian Nørgaard, Brentford
Lasse Schöne, Genoa
Daniel Wass, Valencia
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Southampton
Thomas Delaney, Dortmund
Andreas Cornelius, Parma
Martin Braithwaite, Leganes
Robert Forest, Hoffenheim
Christian Gytkjær, Lech Poznan
Yussuf Poulsen-RB Leipzig
Kasper Dolberg, Nice
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