I’m sure some of you will have seen the plethora of news items and social media postings from home and abroad about the disgraceful exit of the Dutch?
People like Ibrahimovic, Van der Vaart, Van Hooydonk, Van der Gijp and more are completely baffled about the Koeman tactics and Pieter Zwart, the best football analyst of the Netherlands posted a powerful clip on socials explaining how Koeman did exactly what Cruyff always said you shouldn’t do.
“Always aim to have a midfielder more than the opponent. The midfield act as the scales of a team.”
So where Koeman might have needed to play 4-4-2 and use a player like Timber instead of Brobbey, with Reijnders as false nine, Koeman decided to take a midfielder off and add a defender, rolling out the red carpet for the Atlas Lions. We gave them the midfield and essentially, we gave them the game.
As De Speld quipped: “The Dutch have successfully avoided playing France in the quarter finals”….
The idea was to allow Frenkie to be higher up the pitch, but the result was that we all saw Frenkie drown.
The man has left. He made (or his publicity team) a nice farewell post for socials and good riddance.
What bothers me though, even more than Koeman (because I am ok with one idiot), is that we also had assistant coaches with significant pedigree (Erwin Koeman, Wim Jonk, Ruud van Nistelrooy) and players with a lot of aura (Virgil, Frenkie, Denzel, Cody, Reijnders) who apparently all supported Koeman’s outlandish tactics??
How is that possible, right?
Who is going to be the new coach?
Anyway, the KNVB TD Nigel de Jong will have to scout a new team of coaches.
- Arne Slot – Highly regarded for his high-pressing, energetic style inspired by Klopp/Guardiola. Led Feyenoord to the Eredivisie title and deep European runs with a dynamic 4-2-3-1 or similar. Let Liverpool to to EPL title in his first season. Victim of dramatic season at LFC due to various reasons. Excellent man-manager, communicator and tactician—already linked to bigger jobs.
- Pascal Jansen – Highly respected coach, former youth coach at PSV. Ample international experience. Great communicator (English his first language), former AZ Alkmaar coach with a reputation for organized, attacking football and youth development. Tactical flexibility and good results against bigger sides make him a solid national team prospect. Pleasant personality. Currently at New York City (City Group).
- Kees van Wonderen – Former international, ex Go Ahead Eagles coach—pragmatic yet principled tactical approach, often punching above weight with disciplined setups. Stern and serious, highly regarded in the football world. Currently available.
- Dick Schreuder – Younger brother of Alfred, took the long way to coaching. Associated with aggressive attacking structures (sometimes called “Dickie-taka” for 3-4-2-1 or fluid systems at smaller clubs). Focus on rotation, fitness, and high-output attacking play. Introverted coach, not enjoying press events and known to be headstrong and unmovable. Currently at NEC and in high demand.
- Alex Pastoor – in his late 50s, former midfielder with experiences as coach at AZ, abroad and at Heerenveen. Loved by players for this direct communication, clarity and enjoyable training sessions. Great communicator and assisted Patrick Kluivert at the Indonesia National Team. Great tactician.
- Patrick Kluivert – former super striker, was considered a huge coaching talent at FC Twente, went to work in technical management roles at PSG and Barcelona and took NT coaching role for Indonesia.
- Clarence Seedorf – tremendous auro, Messi like fame across the globe. Did have a torrid relationship with the NT in the past. Had several coaching roles but has not demonstrated to be a good coach.
- Ruud van Nistelrooy – impressed at PSV as youth coach and head coach. Highly principled, good communicator, builds strong relationships with players. Impressed at Man United in a short stint but was unable to keep Leicester up. Is tainted by his recent stint as Koeman’s assistant at the 2026 WC.
- Mark van Bommel – hardheaded disciplinarian with amazing career, good relationship builder with players and can look back at good stint at PSV Eindhoven. Assisted Van Marwijk at NT role for Australia and Saudi Arabia. His Bundesliga gig didn’t end well, but in Belgium at Antwerp, the Van Marwijk son in law rehabilitated himself. A combi with Van Marwijk is an option.
- Robin van Persie – world class striker, impressed as youth coach at Feyenoord, had a mixed short career at Herenveen and a decent season with Feyenoord, securing CL football, but a change of management cut his coaching role short. Available, in other words.
- Michael Reiziger – former international, former Ajax 2 coach, current Young Oranje coach, widely respected as a more than decent people manager, tactician and good relationship with players.
- Hedwiges Maduro – former international, former assistant at Ajax and head coach at Almere. Long considered the crown prince of Dutch coaches. Failed at his first coaching job though. Good communicator and great analyst.
- Fred Rutten – seasoned club coach, highly regarded, good tactician and player favourite. Introverted and considered a less than mediocre public speaker (interviews, press conferences).
I think that a good combination of personalities might work. Kluivert/Seedorf? Van Bommel/Van Marwijk? Maduro/Pastoor? Jansen/Van Wonderen? Van Nistelrooy/Rutten?
What is your view? Any favourites? Or… do you want to get a coach from abroad ?
Pep? Rangnick? Glasner? Pocchetino? Zidane?
Pep, no one else if possible
Jan: Let’s be realistic here. You’ve left off the most obvious candidates for the job:
Louis van Gaal
Dick Advocaat
Frank de Boer
Ronald Koeman
🎠🎠🎠🎠
A lot of names on that list, but the ideal person will need to check off a lot of boxes. For me, where have you succeeded? What track record do you have? I am against fresh managers with no experience. Oranje regardless of our failures to win a WC or a Euro in a long time, is still a widely followed global high profile brand in international football. Same with being a manager for Brazil, or Argentina, England, Spain etc. It is not where you start your job, but be rewarded for achievement. All these other countries have at least won it at one point, but for us it’s always about ‘is this the year?’
Anyways, from the names above, there isn’t anyone that leaps out as the clear favorite for me. Arne Slot did well at Feyenoord and won the PL in his first season. Huge credit for that, but that was Klopp’s team. If he had survived that second season, we would have learned more about him. I wouldn’t be neutral if he was appointed. But my guess is that he will be looking to stay in club football. I’m sure he can find something somewhere. Not sure if any of the Top 6 in the PL need managers now. So it will have to be some mid table team if he stays in the PL.
Pep, Klopp, Zidane would be my dream coaches. Who knows Pep may do it for sentimentality reasons of his relations with Cryuff. Zidane most likely will take over that stacked French team after Deschamps. He’s won everything as a player and coach. Only thing left is a WC for him. Klopp would require a significant pay bump. Maybe he takes the German team after their recent poor showing
The US federation solicited billionaires like Ken Griffin and other large commercial sponsors to pay Pochettino millions beyond their budget. We may need to try something like that for a foreign high profile manager, assuming of course it is all legal.
I opened a petition on change.org for KNVB to hire Pep. Please sign a nd spread the word.
https://c.org/7DvCf5xCbh
done
I found the Dutch media to be very hypocritical. For 4 years everyone saw that Koeman wasn’t going anywhere with this team. The data was in our face but said anything until Monday night. Matter of fact the media used to call him a Dutch hero. Just because you were a good player doesn’t mean you could be a good coach.
Now everyone is talking about how bad he was. Very hypocritical!!!!
Oh Jan
I remembered you said that Win Jonk was this great tactician that was going to help Koeman figure it out
But they all sat there Monday night did nothing. All the substitution made no sense. What happened to Win Jonk? He was there.
What you said about the players and assistants supporting Koeman is spot on. Today, VVD even posted a long farewell message thanking Koeman for giving him his opportunity with the Netherlands and making him captain.
To me, that sums up the entire problem.
The KNVB keeps making poor decisions, the national team keeps recycling the same coaches, and the players continue to support them. Instead of seeing Koeman as someone who wasted the golden years of this generation, they see him as an upgrade over Blind and FDB. That says everything.
There is no drive to be the best. They are comfortable with where they are. It is a small-nation mentality. Being among the top 32 teams in the world seems good enough. That mentality also explains why they are so poor in penalty shootouts and why they keep conceding late goals. The longer the match goes and the more pressure builds, the more they shrink because they are simply not mentally prepared for those moments.
Robben, RVP, and Sneijder may not have always liked each other, but they constantly pushed one another because they wanted to be the best. That competitive edge is gone.
Who is unhappy with the current state of Dutch football? Mostly the former players. But even they have done little to change it. They complain, yet they keep producing the same ideas. Blind, FDB, Heitinga, RVP, Van Bommel, Cocu—the list goes on. They rarely develop into coaches who bring something genuinely new.
Out of all the Dutch candidates, I think Slot is the only one who would be a genuinely good appointment. Even then, I’m not convinced that is the right move. After 12 years of stagnation, I think this nation needs fresh ideas from the outside because it has shown it is no longer capable of innovating from within.