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Dirk Kuyt: "When the people near
you show they have faith in you, you feel better"
Wednesday 19 November 2008
Ahead of Wednesday's friendly with
the Dutch national team against Sweden Dirk Kuyt says
that he enjoys being center forward, but that he doesn't
mind playing on the wing either: "I'll play where
the coach needs me".
The man from Katwijk is feeling
extremely well lately.
All is going well at his club as
Liverpool are top at the table in the Premier League
and well on the way for qualifying for the next round
of the Champions League.
Kuyt has also started scoring goals
for Liverpool and on top he and his wife welcomed their
third child last week, a son called Jordan.
Not a worry in the world it seems
for the former Feyenoord player.
"No, I am feeling very well.
The way it's going at the club, the birth of our child;
they are all good and positive things. It's perhaps
not so great that I have to leave my family behind at
a moment like this, but that is part of the job,"
Kuyt says.
"It's not so that it's all
in my head when I'm playing, but the one thing of course
influences the other. When all is well at home you can
play freely and achieve things."
Now that he is the man in form
at Liverpool and with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar out with an
injury it seems only natural that Kuyt is the center
forward when Holland take on Sweden, but Kuyt doesn't
count on anything.
"You always hope that you
will play. Sure it's only a friendly, but every game
is a game and all of us at the national team want to
continue the positive development we started. We want
to finish the year with something good."
Many have wondered though what
is the point of a friendly in these busy times for the
clubs five months ahead of the next World Cup qualifier
and Kuyt understands these concerns.
"But what's the point of constant
discussions? Fact is that we are playing this match.
We're here in Noordwijk for three days. We have every
chance to prepare well and it's great that we are playing
in Holland and not in some far away place where it all
costs a lot of energy."
"And to not play between October
and March when we face Scotland would have been a very
long time. All of us at Oranje have a goal. Now this
might be a friendly but it is important that we keep
progressing, that we become better as a team and so
a good result is very important for us."
Since the arrival of Fernando Torres
last year at Liverpool Kuyt has been used on the right
wing by Rafa Benitez and with the Dutch national team
the place of the center forward has been taken by Ruud
van Nistelrooy and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.
Against Sweden there is a good
chance that Kuyt will play in the center again, although
for the man himself it does not make much of a difference.
"Don't ask me how I think
we should play. That is up to the coach. I think it's
great to play up front, but it's not that I want to
pin myself down to just one position. At Liverpool I
was in the center in recent weeks because Torres was
absent and I really enjoyed that. Now that Torres is
back I play on the wing again. I don't prefer the one
position to the other. I love playing in the center
but when he coach needs me somewhere else I'll be ready."
Kuyt thinks his refound scoring
ability has nothing to do with the absence of the Spanish
star.
"No, I think it's been going
rather well all season. When Torres was still there
I also scored. It started going well at the end of last
season and I have just continued that into this season.
I am simply feeling well. The manager gives me a lot
of confidence and that seems to be paying of now. Every
player needs confidence, me too. In the end it's all
up to you but when the people near you show they have
faith in you, you feel better. I think that's only human."
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