Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk and Manchester City's Nathan Ake have today united to try and protect Netherlands teammate Joey Veerman after recent criticism of his performances.

Voetbal Primeur cover comments from the Liverpool and Manchester City defenders today at a press conference, in which recent press criticism was a hot topic.

Ronald Koeman's side have been facing stern criticism after something of a slow start to Euro 2024 and their disappointing performance in the 3-2 loss to Austria in their final group game.

Veerman was undoubtedly the worst performer in that game, enduring a disastrous first 34 minutes before being taken off by Ronald Koeman.

The criticism after the game was naturally widespread, with journalists, pundits and former players all vocal about the Netherlands' performance and Veerman's disastrous display. That's something of a new experience for the PSV Eindhoven midfielder, who is relatively new on the international stage after only making his debut for the Netherlands in June 2023.

This is his first major tournament with his country, and it seems the veterans from Liverpool and Manchester City now want to try and protect him from some of the criticism coming his way.

"Everyone knows that it is part of it, everyone has had a match like that," said Ake.

"And the group is with him, everyone knows how good he is. But I have to say that I thought some of the comments from the media were a shame. They went a bit too far for me."

"Especially towards Joey, that it is the end of the story, and (they said) that he can never play for the Dutch team again. That is very painful for him," added Van Dijk.

"We can all have a bad game, it's not just peaks. Of course, he didn't play well, but one game doesn't define the rest of his career."