Everyone has an opinion on what a good NT manager should bring to the table.
The KNVB seems to think the best coach is he who either 1) coached many years and clubs already ( Advocaat, Van Gaal) or 2) he who has won a the EK1988 or CL 1995 ( Blind, Koeman, Rijkaard, Van Basten, Van ‘t Schip).
A look at the best NT coaches (defined as reaching the last 16 of the World Cup) teaches us this:
Argentina – Lionel Scaloni – Argentinian
- Modest career as player: midfielder at Estudiantes
- Startest as assistant coach at Argentina, took over in 2018 and won the 2022 World Cup. First coaching role
Brazil – Carlo Ancelotti – Italian
- As player, legend for AC Milan. Won multiple scudettos and European Cups.
- As coach, iconic career for Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea and won 5 CL cups
France – Didier Deschamps- French
- As player: captained France to WC1998 win
- as coach, long tenure for France, winning multiple tournaments
Germany – Julian Nagelsmann – German
- As player: career ended due to injury
- As coach: rapid rise, Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig, Bayern
Spain – Luis de La Fuente – Spanish
- As player: defender, modest career
- As coach: Youth coach for Spain U19 and U21
England – Tomas Tuchel – German
- As player: Limited career as defender due to injuries
- As coach: Came up through Augsburg, Mainz, Dortmund, PSG, Chelsea, Bayern
Portugal – Roberto Martinez – Spanish
- As player: defender, modest career
- As coach: won FA Cup with modest Wigan, Everton, Belgium
Morocco – Walid Regragui – Moroccan
- As player: modest career as defender
- As coach: Wydad Casablancam coached NT to Semis in 2022
Paraguay – Gustavo Alfaro – Argentina
- As player: Midfielder in Argentina league teams
- As coach: long club career in Argentina and former NT manager for Ecuador and Costa Rica
Canada – Jesse March – American
- As player: Decent career as midfielder in MLS
- As coach: Clubs in Canada, USA, RB Leipzig, Leeds United
Switzerland – Murat Yakin – Swiss
- As player: Central defender in Switzerland, Bundesliga and Turkish League
- As coach: Multiple clubs in Switzerland, Spartak Moscow
Belgium – Rudi Garcia – French
- As player: Midfielder in French Ligue 1
- As coach: Several French clubs, Lille, Roma, Lyon, Napoli
Colombia – Nestor Lorenzo – Argentina
- As player: Defender in Argentina, Italy, Championship, Argentina
- As coach: Assistant at Argentina U20, assistant at several South American clubs, head coach Melgar
Egypt – Hossam Hassan – Egypt
- As player: Legendary striker for Egypt
- As coach: Domestic/Egyptian success coach
Norway – Stale Solbakken – Norwegian
- As player: midfielder in Norwegian league
- As coach: Succesful in Norway and Denmark, short stint at Wolves.
So 7 out of the 15 NTs here are from a different country.
Only Ancelotti and Deschamps have had a massive international playing career.
Hossam Hassan has legendary status in his own country as striker. All other coaches had mediocre or worse playing careers.
The Spanish and Argentinian head coaches got promoted from a youth rep team ( like Michael Reiziger at the KNVB).
None of the coaches were individual stars (Van Basten, Koeman, Cruyff), The two world class players were both midfielders, known for their grit and tactical nous ( Van Bommel for instance).
I hope this will open up the discussion a bit.
For me, coaches like Van Bommel, Pastoor, Bosz or Pascal Jansen should be in the mix for our NT manager role.
If Pep Guardiola decides he doesn’t want to do it, of course….
But it looks like it will be Arne Slot. Liverpool FC has already confirmed Arne will get to keep his pay out in the next season, even if he manages the NT. This would be different if he would have selected an EPL club to work for….
i like and prefer U21 winner and inexperienced coach like Peter van der Veen…at least he has experience of beating top teams with optimal use of limited talents..
i feel he just like sceloni and la fuente.
looks like KNVB will end up with arnie slot..who was pathetic at lioverpool last season..but still a 1000 times better choice than koeman..
Pathetic? Based on what? Because he subbed Salah? Because he didn’t win the title? Because he lost against PSG? Please, explain
I don’t see Pep taking the job. If he ever decides to coach a national team, it’ll likely be one with a realistic chance of winning the World Cup. Right now, we simply don’t have that level of talent.
The only scenario where I could see him considering the Netherlands is if he were given a much broader project—rebuilding Dutch football from the ground up, reshaping the footballing philosophy, and influencing the entire talent pipeline. Otherwise, I don’t see it happening.
Among Dutch coaches, Arne Slot is probably the best realistic option. He’s one of the few who has recently proven himself at the Premier League level.
That said, there are a couple of areas I’d like to see him improve. First, he rotates his squad very little. That leaves the fringe players without chemistry with the first team, so when they’re suddenly needed, their performances naturally suffer.
Second, I’d like to see a stronger emphasis on mentality. Liverpool’s form toward the end of last season dipped significantly, and they conceded far too many late goals. Those are two issues we’ve also seen repeatedly under Koeman, so I’d want to know how Slot plans to address them.
Agree. I don’t see Pep taking over unless he has some deep sense of responsibility to Cryuff that he believes he need to do this. Multiple reports say that Slot is in advance negotiations with the KNVB, so he looks the most likely appointment
I love Pep as a coach/manager. He is one of the greatest. But the only knock on him is that has been blessed with taking over teams stacked with talent. That Barca team was built by Rijkaard who integrated a young Messi with Ronaldinho, Deco, Eto, Xavi, Iniesta etc and won multiple Liga titles and the CL in 2005. He did make changes that made them even better, but the foundation was there.
He took over a Bayern team that won the treble with the CL. Another slight knock on him is that he didn’t with the CL with Bayern. Bayern winning the Bundesliga is almost a given. Also inherited a stacked Man City team with Aguero, De Bruyne, Yaya Toure, Silva, Kompany etc. He won 1 CL in 10 years.
So from a talent standpoint, I don’t see this current Dutch team is a superstar team that fits Pep’s liking. The team has very good GK options, defense, and the midfield is above average. But lacks a top talented forward line and deeper bench. Based on his track record of taking teams that are very good on paper to a championship, and not building or working with limited talents or budgets… I don’t see this as a good fit for him.
I am ok if it is Slot. He did mess up his last season for a number of reasons. Bad transfer policy letting good players like Diaz leave and replacing him with overrated Wirtz (at least so far). Key injuries to Isak, Ekitike, and others. Friction with key players like Salah etc. So we really didn’t see how good he was at Liverpool. He has a chance to redeem himself now if he can take this team to perform and win something. Nations league, Euro 28 await. We shall see
Arne Slot is still very young, with just 47 years old. Lets see where are his ambitions, if it feels like the right step for him. Last season is not a reference for me, as it was loaded with bad luck, and in a big team like Liverpool this brings a lot of pressure.
He did great at Feyenoord and also his first year at Liverpool, we will be blessed with a success coach like him. Hopefully he is allowed to pick a good supportive team to help him, maybe with van Nistelrooy as his sidekick. Not sure if Wim Jonk is a good fit?!
Arne Slot was coach at Liverpool. Not the TD. He didn’t sell Diaz. He wanted to keep him. Liverpool has stringent rules which they only break for backstabbing Salah.
The injuries and Jota’s death were not Slot’s fault. I even think Salah’s behaviour was below par, using the media and the fan base to stick a knife in Slot’s back.
I didn’t mean he was personally responsible for letting Diaz go. I meant to say he failed for a combination of things both under his control like tactics, players he chose to play, and also things outside of his control like transfers. Not sure how much influence he had in transfers. You’re right he probably didn’t have an outright veto, but they may have allayed him saying we will bring in Wirtz, who was highly rated prior to his arrival. But the end result was that the team underachieved and he took a lot of heat from the fanbase and certain players in his dressing room co-signing Salah’s social media protest.
Salah is now at the tail end of his career. A lot of wingers eventually shift centrally or the forward positions when they start to lose their explosiveness. He chose to stay there and it was clear for all to see that he wasn’t what he was. It was obvious even when he was playing for Egypt in this WC. That’s the problem for managers when iconic and legendary players like him start to slow down or even become a drag on the team. Most managers can’t really touch them. Same with Ronaldo and Portugal who was clearly way past his prime even in Qatar but is still the first man on the starting sheet. Pep to his credit saw Ronaldinho becoming less effective and problematic around the time he took over. He shipped him out to Milan. Very controversial at the time, but he backed it up with results.
Why is it that players for the NT need to be citizens of the nation they rep, but coaches can come from anywhere? Come to think of it, there should be the same rule for coaches. A country has to be coached by a person who is a citizen of that country.
Interesting final so far. Plenty of action in the midfield but not many goal-scoring chances for either team. We’ll see how the second half goes, but the longer Argentina hangs around, the more chance they’ll pull off something special at the end!
Spain has utterly dominated this match. Zero pressing by Argentina has just allowed Spain to comfortably pick passes and create opportunities. And now Argentina has gone a man down heading into extra time. They still have not even registered a shot and have only two touches in Spain’s box. Spain has fresh legs with almost a whole new set of quality midfielders. Can Argentina survive to get to penalties?
Congrats to Spain. They stunned France with team football, and totally outclassed Messi and Argentina today. It wasn’t a great entertaining match, but it was an absolute deserved win. Argentina didn’t register a shot on goal for 80+ mins? That’s was crazy. They were clearly playing for penalties. They just couldn’t keep up. They looked tired, disorganized, didn’t see any of those marauding attacks, fouling unnecessarily, getting reduced to 10 men.
I was just thinking if we were playing Spain, how would we have fared? Knowing Koeman, I wouldn’t have been confident. We still have to rebuild and have a some ways to go before we can control and dominate teams and defend with focus. Anyways, Spain get their 2nd star. And this squad is deep, good mix of youth and experience, and looks fearsome for the foreseeable future.
Cubarsi is my man of the match. What a player.
However bad people think Paraguay’s tactics were against France, Argentina’s was worse today, and then they hit a new bottom with their behavior after the match…So glad Spain won.
It was unbelievable. Paredes came into the game angry and was overly physical in all his tackles. They wanted to rile up the Spanish players. Olmo was being targeted, but credit to them for staying cool. If that breakthrough goal never happened, Argentina could still have somehow made to penalties and won the game after being dominated the entire game. And even after the game he and others provoked a fight. It would have been worse if Scaloni and his assistant hadn’t stepped in. If you’re this talented, there is no need to do this.
Players quickly understand how a referee intends to manage the game from the first few fouls. If they see clear fouls being waived off, they take advantage of that and sets the tone. FIFA’s performance officiating this particular WC was an “F” in my opinion. With all the high tech and cameras available, it was totally erratic and made worse by subpar referees. They should have instructed refs to penalize players and run a clean game. Instead what we got was the complete opposite.
For example, that Egypt goal being rescinded for a supposed foot step way back to the end of the other goal was a blatant abuse of VAR. FIFA would never in a million years do that to a Messi goal if the scenario was reversed. Even the 2nd goal yesterday looking at a slight foot step to cancel a goal was crazy. VAR should only be used to catch a clear and obvious foul missed by a referee. Not to micromanage and look for the tiniest of infractions. Something needs to be done. It actually now makes it even worse to artificially enable whoever is biased and decide outcomes. And with the proliferation global sports betting it just opens up the game for easier influence and manipulation.
I was curious as to how Argentina could go so long with no shots during the final vs Spain. So I checked how other teams had fared vs Spain during this WC:
Cape Verde: 6 shots, 1 on target, 0-0
Saudi Arabia: 3 shots, 1 on target 4-0
Uruguay: 5 shots, 1 on target, 1-0
Austria: 5 shots, 0 on target, 3-0
Portugal: 10 shots, 2 on target, 1-0
Belgium: 5 shots, 2 on target, 2-1
France: 10 shots, 3 on target, 2-0
Argentina: 2 shots, 0 on target, 1-0
Spain gave up only 10 shots on target during 8 matches in the whole tournament and only 1 goal!
“If you have the ball, the other team can’t score”
Spain executed Cruyff’s philosophy better than the Dutch: “the best defense is offense.”
They may not have the biggest collection of individual stars, but as a team they controlled virtually every match. Yamal is the most hyped player, and while he had a good tournament, he wasn’t the driving force. The players who impressed me the most were their midfielders and defenders—Cubarsí, Cucurella, and Rodri.
Their coach deserves huge credit as well. He wasn’t afraid to make difficult decisions for the sake of the team, such as benching Pedri to improve balance and even leaving Huijsen out of the squad despite him playing for Real Madrid.
Right now, Spanish coaches are on another level. Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, Luis Enrique, and Luis de la Fuente all share a clear footballing vision and build teams around that identity instead of relying on individual talent.
Kevin: I generally agree with all of this. Spain has taken advantage of the the traditional characteristics of their players and created a style that really works well for them. It is probably less dynamic and attack-oriented than our original formulation, but it definitely gets the job done and really reinforces the value of possession in soccer for all teams.
I really wish that more teams would try to compete for possession and attempt to control the game themselves when facing a team that plays that way, rather than playing it safe and looking to defend and counter. I always prefer to play proactively and make the other team adjust to your style rather than vice versa. But sometimes easier said than done…
Also, despite the defensive success that Spain showed throughout the tournament (primarily through their possession-dominating style), they often struggled to score themselves, particularly when Yamal and Williams weren’t providing width and 1v1 ability on the wings. Plus, keeping the ball all the time can be a double-edged sword. A team totally out of possession is really only able to defend and thus tends to hang back and deny space near their own goal.
When considering our own future prospects, we traditionally field a bigger, stronger, faster and more individually skilled set of players than Spain, but sadly we can’t yet figure out who we want to be. There are obviously lessons to be learned, and as Spain consistently demonstrates, those lessons are best learned at the youngest ages who then organically develop into first team talents.
Spot on, JB!
Spain took Cruyff’s philosophy and evolved it. They didn’t abandon attacking football—they made it more controlled.
I remember Ajax under Erik ten Hag playing a much more naive version. Even when they were ahead, games often stayed open, giving opponents opportunities to come back. And when they fell behind, disciplined teams could slow the tempo, defend deep, and hit them on the counter.
Spain’s biggest innovation was combining attacking football with tempo control. By controlling the rhythm of the game, they dictate where and how it’s played, reduce unnecessary risks, and make winning far more sustainable—all while staying true to an attractive, possession-based style.
When it comes to youth development, Spain has something we no longer have: Barcelona.
A club like Barça provides a clear pathway for elite young talent to develop and break into the first team. We simply can’t retain and nurture our best prospects the way we once did—not even Ajax can consistently do that anymore.
That said, my takeaway is that we should not copy Spain. We should learn from them, not imitate them.
Every country and every football culture is different. Spain didn’t create a carbon copy of the Dutch model either. They took our ideas, adapted them to their own strengths, and evolved them into something even better. That’s exactly what we should be doing now.
Congrats to Koeman, the Netherlands, Nigel de Jong, and the KNVB on winning the FIFA World Cup Fair Play Award. Quite a remarkable achievement, considering how much time they spent defending, both on and off the pitch.
@ Jan
I still don’t understand how come Cruyff and maybe other Dutch men went to Spain and Showed the Spaniards how to play this beautiful game, now look at them and look at us?
Can someone please explain that to me?
Thanks
In short, Cruyff went to Spain because he felt his time at Ajax was over, trusted Rinus Michels/coach at Barcelona- architect of total football, believed in Barcelona’s sporting project, and was drawn to the club’s cultural significance.
Cruyff wasn’t interested in moving just anywhere—he wanted a club where he could shape the team’s style of play.
Also life/culture/climate in Spain is so much better then in Holland, you have to be Dutch to understand that 😉
The Dutch needs to follow what Spain did.
Spain didn’t just build a team. Spain build a long term project starting from a 9 year old all the way a 28 year old. As you all know a national team coach never has the time to prep the team but in regards to Spain, that isn’t even an handicap because the players have been together at every level since 9 years old. They all went through the same mold, learning the same tactics, same everything since at youth level. The Dutch needs to built a project.
@Kevin: “When it comes to youth development, Spain has something we no longer have: Barcelona.” Spot on. Maybe more importantly, they have La Masia, of which Cruyff’s fingerprints are all over.
Thankfully Summerville should be able to continue his meteoric development in Saudi Arabia 🤯