NAC Breda decided to bench Uroš Matić since the club’s manager has not been happy with his recent play.

The news about Uroš Matić’s benching was revealed on Friday, one day before the team’s league clash versus Vitesse. Speaking to Dutch newspapers, NAC Breda manager Robert Maaskant said the following about opting to start Joeri de Kamps over Matić, “Uroš has been insufficient the past two games, while Joeri has picked up his play. It also has to do with lack of aggressiveness.”

NAC Breda would lose Saturday’s game to Vitesse 1:0. Like it was reported on Friday, Matić (a regular on the team over the past two years) was indeed on the bench at the start of the game. However, he did make an appearance in the 70th minute to play the final 20 minutes.

The Serbia-born Matić is expected to debut for the Macedonian national team in next month’s qualifier against Belarus. FFM is confident that Uroš will receive clearance from FIFA, while obtaining a Macedonian passport should be no problem given his grandpa’s connection to the country.

Maaskant, the NAC Breda manager, may have been looking to send Matić a message, but it’s certainly not good news for Macedonia if Uroš loses his starting spot permanently.

As for Aleksandar Damchevski, he was not included in the matchday squad for NAC Breda on Saturday. Aleksandar is out of the rotation as he was not able to secure a transfer prior to the close of the winter transfer window in the Netherlands.