'If Weghorst had done what Tolu did, the whole of the Netherlands would have pounced on it'
Daan Rots defended Wout Weghorst on Sunday in Good Morning Eredivisie. The FC Twente winger believes the towering striker is far too often treated harshly by the media.
"Wout is really Wout. The whole of the Netherlands can see that," Rots begins in the morning programme on ESPN. "Everyone has a prejudice about him. Of course, there is always a bit of provoking the opposition in there. I think Wout feeds off that. I think he responds quite well to it."
Rots then offers a fitting example. "Against FC Groningen, the whole stadium was focused on him. But he goes and puts another one away. Wout has been in good form lately and is important for us." Weghorst also scored on Saturday against ADO Den Haag, who were beaten 2-0.
Not everyone likes the way Weghorst carries himself, Rots admits, but he feels people make far too much of it. The Twente forward drew a comparison with Tolu Arokodare, who was praying on the centre spot last week before the top match against PSV.
"That Tolu was also standing on the centre spot. And that was all accepted reasonably well in my view. If Wout had done that, the whole of the Netherlands would have come down on him over it. I sometimes think: live and let live, don't get so worked up about others," Rots says in defence of his fellow forward.
"There is always something going on with Wout. And if he then scores for us as well, we are the happiest about it. And he is too. That is great, isn't it?" Rots said.
On Saturday, Weghorst scored for Twente at De Grolsch Veste for the first time. "I couldn't really miss it," the clinical striker said afterwards in conversation with ESPN.