Dorus de Vries

Wouldn't say they would be his reasons, nobody wants to be playing for EPL cannon fodder. I'd say it's down to him coming to the * end of his career and wanting to make all the money he can before it's over (and rightly so)

 

Dorus de Vries: I'm ready to star for Celtic against Rangers and Barcelona

DORUS de Vries, the Dutch keeper who replaced Craig Gordon in the Celtic starting line-up on Saturday, has insisted he is ready to face Rangers and Barcelona after coming through his first full game of the season.

De Vries, who signed a two year deal with the Scottish champions earlier this month, performed well for his new club in their 4-1 victory over Ladbrokes Premiership rivals Aberdeen at Celtic Park at the weekend.

The 35-year-old, who had been sidelined with an ankle injury, previously worked under Brendan Rodgers at Swansea City and was preferred to Gordon at the weekend due to his greater aptitude for passing the ball out of defence.


The former Nottingham Forest player is hoping to retain his place in the Celtic side for their Premiership match against Rangers at Parkhead on Saturday week and the opening Champions League group game against Barcelona in the Nou Camp three days later.

“I always feel ready,” he said. “Especially after Saturday. You always want to get your debut out of the way. It was a good win by the team and especially after returning from my injury in the last two weeks. It’s just been really nice to be on the training pitch. The more you train and the more you play games the better it will become.

“I’ve only been here for a short time, but it’s a great time to be involved. There’s a lot of things happening at the club. I was there in Israel the other day and you could see how much it means to qualify for the Champions League again, which is a great achievement by all the players.

“That was a great moment to step on and kick on. Saturday was a really important game. We all know about Aberdeen and what they did last year. They are always going to be a good side and in the past Celtic have always been a little bit difficult against them. But we showed today that we intend to do whatever we can do and score goals.

“You always want a game, it doesn’t matter who against. If it’s a pre-season friendly, it’s a pre-season friendly, it doesn’t matter which opposition. You don’t take things for granted as a player, you never should, you don’t want overestimation or underestimation to come into play. All you want to do is perform on the day itself, whoever the opponent is it doesn’t matter.”


De Vries, who was substituted after 19 minutes of Nottingham Forest’s match against Burton Albion at the start of the month, confirmed that Gordon had wished him well before kick-off on Saturday and stressed there was no resentment within the Celtic squad at his selection.

“I think throughout my whole career at every club I’ve been it’s no different, whether goalkeepers or players,” he said. “There is always somebody there who wants to fight for their place, especially at a club like Celtic. There has to be competition, there has to be fighting for places because that’s how you get the most out of people.

“I was just wanting to focus on the Aberdeen game, which was important game for everybody and for me as well. It was great to have my debut. What’s happening in the future I don’t know, I’m playing now and I want to be part of it of course, but it’s just up to the manager’s decision.

“Craig and the other goalkeepers as well wished me well. And that’s the way I like to work as well, my character is the same. You always want to wish the team well and players and Craig is not any different. We are professionals, you want to get the best result out of the players and you support each other no matter what.”


De Vries, who played for Dunfermline Athletic during the 2006/07 season, admitted he had been brought in due to his familiarity with the system Rodgers is trying to implement at Celtic.

“The gaffer is someone I know from working with him in the past,” he said. “I know exactly what he expects from his goalkeeper. You can see more and more teams have been developing in recent years. I think it’s an important part of the game.

“It’s a playing style that I’m used to. It goes back to my Swansea days under the gaffer. I’m there as an outlet just to keep ball possession. Sometimes it’s a little bit harder to keep it and as a goalkeeper you play your part in that.

“Saturday was a really good game. Instantly you know what’s in front of you and that’s good for me because as a goalkeeper you want to make your debut at a great club like this and you’re trying to search for your pace, your rhythm if you know what I mean.

“Playing is a big part of course and you want to be good in ball possession, sometimes you force it a little bit and sometimes it doesn’t work out but that’s just the way it is. But it’s the knowing process, the learning process of getting to know the players, getting to know the timing of it, when to do it, when not to do it. That was actually a good game for us.”

 

I would say the goal was more down to Forrest for his slack pass and giving away cheap possession, and then I felt Brown and perhaps Bitton didn't react at all when Toure cut out the cross from McGinn. If Brown reacts quicker then he beats Rooney to the ball in my opinion, or at least stops him being able to turn and get a shot away.

 

You think so? Plenty of decent players happy to move to what would be considered EPL cannon fodder.

 

He has GOT to be good or else we are up the *


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BR: 'I've got good goalkeepers at the club. One in particular who knows how I work over many years.' We can expect De Vries to be the new first choice.

 

Well he's not going to drop him next game after bringing him

 

I dont think theres much he could have done about rooneys goal, the defence fell asleep and rooney pounced on the chance.

His kicking was no better than Gordons and he did make that howler with his kicking- so jury's out for me. I dont really know much about him and when told we were signing de vries i thought of the former hearts striker marc LOL

 

Heard this Steamin idiot walking about Glasgow at the weekend singing:

To the tune of sweet dreams by eurythmics:
https://youtu.be/qeMFqkcPYcg

"Sweet dreams are Doris de vries
Who is he to keep clean sheets"

Didn't catch the rest of it but was pishing myself.

 

Its interesting how many of the fans on this forum have him in their starting XI but Rogers still has not dropped Gordon yet despite buying De Vries.

I think both are good GKs so I'm easy going about it.

 

He did drop Gordon tho...? First game De Vries was healthy he played against Aberdeen :smiley-laughing002:. Still need to see more of him before we can make a judgement on him. One start with very little to do isn't enough to form an opinion on a player.

 

1 start against barca and we'll know for sure if he can save the ball

 

I think Gordon is better overall, the dropping of Gordon I think is more BR way of teaching him a lesson, sharpen up or your not playing...

 

DDV hasn't shown that he's better than Gordon yet. This is the kick up the * Gordon needs to train hard and work on his weaknesses. As a professional footballer if he can't or won't do this then he can't be number 1

 

Sadly I think that's more like it.

 

What about going under it, are you easy then?

 

I read that twice before I realised you'd changed it

 

Yeah that seems like a Rodgers thing to do in one of the biggest league games of our season.