Leandro Trossard’ s hopes of more Euro 2024 minutes could come crashing down after his Dad’s withering assessment of Belgium boss Domenico Tedesco.
The Arsenal forward started his nation’s Group E opener against Slovakia last week – a shock 1-0 defeat in Frankfurt. Trossard was then named on the bench against Romania.
Belgium managed to get their campaign up and running with a 2-0 victory. But Trossard struggled to have much of an impact.
His Dad has now spoken out ahead of Wednesday’s decider against Ukraine and has pulled no punches with his thoughts on boss Tedesco.
Speaking to Belgian outlet De Morgen, he said: “Leandro is criticised, but he was moved from one position to another, it’s difficult to keep a guideline in your game in these conditions. I don’t think Tedesco is a good coach for Belgium, even if he doesn’t have the stubbornness of Roberto Martinez.”
Tedesco has been in charge of the Belgian national team since February 2023. He replaced Roberto Martinez at the helm, with the Spaniard going on to take charge of Portugal.
Trossard has earned 12 out of his 36 international caps under Tedesco. Speaking in March, Tedesco claimed the Arsenal star was irreplaceable.
He said: “Yeah, we talked several times about Kevin De Bruyne’s replacement. I think that you can’t replace him because he’s a different player. He is doing different things and the same for Leandro.
“If we speak about the replacement of Leandro, it’s also difficult, he’s not replaceable. You can see it in England because every player is a little bit different.
“Every player has more strengths in a specific topic and that’s why it’s difficult to speak about replacements in general, especially with Kevin.”
Tedesco was poised to be out of contract with the Belgian national team come the end of Euro 2024. But he had his deal extended for two years up until the conclusion of the 2026 World Cup.
He previously had a public falling out with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois after Tedesco apparently did not give him the captain’s armband in the absence of Kevin De Bruyne. The Real Madrid goalkeeper, now 32, has not appeared for his country since June 2023.
He announced earlier this year that he would not be in the squad at Euro 2024. Courtois missed large swaths of last season with a serious knee injury but returned in the final few weeks of the campaign.
