Tag: Jan Wouters

by Jan

How do the Dutch coaches do?

In a week in which I had some pleasant Dutch football surprises and some Dutch football shocks, I think it is time to look at the future of Dutch football. Yet again :-).

But this time from the coaching angle.

But lets first pick up the little tidbits of the week.

In which Alexander Buttner impressed (last week), Arjen Robben started in the 9-2 HSV whipping and came on quick against Juve for Kroos. And Wes Sneijder underwhelmed vs Real Madrid and got subbed. While Van der Wiel didn’t even play (for PSG vs Barca).

Alex Buttner is seen as a “fresh” player, by Sir Alex, in the business end of the season. And the way he played last week makes it clear that Evra can rest assured he can be missed. Strong in defence, working hard, and always a factor going forward. Buttner even showed he had a good right foot as well.

A high. And Arjen Robben was impressive too. Although not always for the right reasons. He works hard, he is keen to show Heynckes he belongs in the starting line up and against HSV he clearly did.

Against Juve though, he could have two goals in the first half of the game, but the CL curse keeps on bugging the former PSV winger, as he two shots were not well placed. With Kroos injured, Robben might see more action this season but one does wonder whether he needs to use that to play himself in the picture for a lesser team (Galatasaray? Inter Milan?).

Wes Sneijder looked forward to meeting his old chums in the Bernabeu but was sadly subbed after a mediocre first half.

Truth be told, I don’t think Sneijder played that bad. I watched him intensely and he does a lot of good without the ball. He is constantly available for the quick pass. Which would allow him to turn and find space for the forwards. But the rest of the team isn’t equipped to play like that. The Altintops of Gala are all keen to run with the ball themselves, till the cows come home and then they look up. Leaving a sad sack figure – Sneijder – in midfield. Chance gone.

I am not sure if it is just the team or also the coach who don’t see how to utilise Sneijder. I do know that if Galatasaray wants some yield from the former Ajax midfielder, they will need to play the ball to him early and they need runners who will explore the space for the through ball.

I have yet to watch Benfica play Newcastle so I will refrain from commenting on John and Anita (if they played), but I did see Feyenoord this morning with their clumsy and doubtful win over a fresh VVV.

Koeman used some harsh words after the game (Pelle wasn’t working hard enough and Boetius was subbed “because he was rubbish”… When the interviewer asked him what Boetius said about it, Koeman bit: “Nothing of course! An 18 year old is supposed to keep his mouth shut against the coach…”…. Well, well, well….

So lets look at our coaches. We do know by now that in terms of playing talent, we need not worry.

But in terms of coaches, we do have a category of top coaches, but they are all getting on age-wise.

Cruyff and Van Hanegem don’t coach anymore. Co Adriaanse is also in semi-retirement. I can’t see him moving down the Austrian mountain for just any club. Guus Hiddink is most likely working on his last gig, while Louis van Gaal might have the ambition for one more big gig after the Dutch team.

I don’t rate Dick Advocaat, as you might know, but he does belong in some list of coaches, but he will not be active too much longer either. Martin Jol doesn’t “have” it either, while Henk ten Cate is also back at the Jupiler level of Sparta Rotterdam.

The 1988 generation has a couple of active coaches left. Van Tiggelen, Muhren, Witschge, Vanenburg all seem to work at youth level and enjoying it.

Van ‘t Schip had his adventures in Australia and Mexico and is currently in between jobs.

We won’t mention Ruud Gullit, I guess…

Marco van Basten is impressing with Heerenveen, this second season half, but the jury is still out on him, I guess. He had a good spell with Oranje – despite some personnel issues with RVN and MVB – but a not so good experience at Ajax.

Frank Rijkaard won the CL with Barca but is now relatively anonymous in the Middle East.

It leaves Jan Wouters (Utrecht), Ronald Koeman (Feyenoord) and non-1988 Oranje player Fred Rutten (FC Twente) at the (sub)top of the Eredivisie.

Rutten was an exciting up and coming coach at Twente, but he didn’t deliver at Schalke 04 and didn’t win big trophies at PSV either. He is making an impression as Vitesse coach though.

Jan Wouters, a similar trajectory. Was hailed as the next big thing. Took on Ajax in a dreadful period. His demise there was documented in the Ajax documentary “Daar hoorden zij Engelen zingen…” ( “And hark the angels sang…” ). He left Holland for a spell and went to work for Glasgow Rangers, as the assistant coach. And the players and staff at Rangers couldn’t say enough great things about him, just like his mentors Cruyff and Van Hanegem did. After 5 years in Scotland, he returned to work as assistant coach at PSV, before returning to his first club FC Utrecht. First as assistant, and from 2011 onwards as head coach.

And Wouters is doing exceptionally well at the moment.

Ronald Koeman likes to see himself as the crown prince of coaches, but after somewhat questionable tenures at Ajax (clash with Van Gaal), PSV (exit during the season to hop on the Valencia train), Valencia (fired after abysmal results and clashes with key players) and an explicable early exit at AZ (“I still don’t know what happened…”) he is back in the limelight.

Koeman is leading a young Feyenoord potentially to the first title in 14 years. And as he likes to say “One day Oranje, one day Barcelona…”.

But, in all honesty, Feyenoord is waivering the last weeks. Playing with fear. Playing slow. No confidence and certainly not enough goals…

In this stage of the competition, it is key to see how the coach is able to keep the team together, motivate and take pressure off players and make sure they keep playing football.

After the VVV win, yesterday, he said “I don’t get it. They play as if they afraid.”

Well Ronald, this is the problem. This is something you should get. It’s your job. In this particular stage, to take your team by the hand. To keep the pressure away. To talk to them. To understand what is going on… Saying “I don’t get it” sums it for me. Koeman is not of the same level as Van Gaal or Hiddink.

Then there is the 1998 generation.

The man who shines brighter than anyone else, is currently Frank de Boer. Cool, calm and collected. Passionate on the byline, like he was on the pitch. Always in control. Always there for his team. And non withstanding the pressure of an Ajax organisation out of control, he won the title twice now, and is likely to be the first Ajax coach to win it three times in a row!

Young coaches to watch, are Jaap Stam (assistant at Zwolle, but joining the Ajax staff next season), Phillip Cocu (most likely taking the reigns at PSV next season), Alex Pastoor ( now at NEC, most likely the new man at AZ next season), Patrick Kluivert (asisstant coach to Louis van Gaal), Ajax youth coach Alphons Groenendijk and John van de Brom (Anderlecht).

Alfred Schreuder has been named as potential top coach but he has yet to prove at Twente that he is actually better than the man he replaced ( McLaren).

Another name that comes up is Nebo Gudelj, the Bosnian ex-NAC player who currently is guiding NAC out of the danger zone.

Enough options for the Dutch, I suppose. With JP van Gastel at Feyenoord even, ready to take control once Koeman moves to Barcelona.

by Jan

Open Letter to the KNVB

Dear KNVB,

I am assuming you want our Dutch National Team to do really well…

That is the basis for this letter. If you don’t want this, please disregard.

I do believe good results by our national team can turned into euros, correct? Sponsor money? Trips? Merchandise? Ticket sales, etc?

And clearly, euros is what’s driving this. From what I understood, Mr Van Oostveen was quick to comment after our loss against Portugal that the financial ramifications for Oranje were tremendous.

So let’s put it all in perspective.

If Holland plays well, we gain standing. Opponents want to play us. And sponsors want us. If Holland plays according to the Dutch School ( you might have seen the Euros finals between Spain and Italy?), the Dutch football export product ( coaches, players, methods) will become more and more in demand.

Now, what is important is for you to accept responsibility for the fact that our football has deteriorated while a competitor has adopted our playing style and is kicking everybody’s arse.

You see, we had people like Michels, Cruyff, Van Hanegem introducing a new style of football.

We had the Gullits/Van Bastens/Rijkaards doing their magic in the 1980s, with true believers like Arrigo Sacchi following suit.

And Louis van Gaal and his Ajax and Ajax-crew ( Co Adriaanse, Blind, Mourinho, Frank de Boer) impressing even more in the 1990s.

We also had a tremendous coach like Wiel Coerver (winner of the UEFA Cup with Feyenoord) who developed a masterful method for skills-training and today one of his biggest followers is second in command at Man United (Rene Meulensteen). But like Johan Cruyff, Wiel Coerves was pushed out. “Too difficult to deal with”.

I can’t remember all the arguments and reasons you had for not allowing Johan Cruyff in the team manager’s role but it had to do with salary and the fact that Johan wanted to have his own staff… Man man, how pathetic and agricultural you guys were thinking back then. Look at today’s situation. No coach takes on a job without his own team or without at least 1 Mio euros as a yearly salary…

Shame on the KNVB, in other words!!

After Rijkaard, you gave the job to self-kicker and ego-centric Louis van Gaal. Who made a mess of things. Louis is a club coach. (And are you SERIOUSLY considering him AGAIN???).

You resorted back to easy-going Dick Advocaat, who went two steps back in time with his ugly result-football. But he didn’t bring the results. Neither did he in 1994, by the way, so why he was given the job in 2002…. no one knows.

Young, unproven Marco van Basten got the job in 2006 and he was allowed to insult and character-assassinate Seedorf, Davids, Van Nistelrooy and Van Bommel. He even told the media himself, recently: “I was much too young for that job. I didn’t know what happened to me.”

Poor Marco. Poor players. Poor fans. Poor Oranje.

Again, shame on you!

And now Bert had the job for 4 years. The results were great until the Euros 2012. But the quality of football deteriorated. The Dutch School of football evaporated. And slowly, the only aspects keeping this team together ( spirit, team, mentality, joy, desire, will) disappeared as well and as a result we were humiliated Ireland style.

Bert had nothing to fall back on. He hadn’t tested younger players. He didn’t have a Plan B ( which should have been Plan A in the first place: 4-3-3) and he simply failed.

Now the KNVB will have to make a smart move. As there is a lot at stake.

Not just “winning or losing”. But re-building our football culture.

Which means, defining our style of play. The characteristics of our football. And making sure we play like this with all our rep teams. From the 14 year olds to the pros.

Think in terms of: forward pressing, dominance, ball possession, pass & move, depth and width in possession, tight without possession, wingers and full backs using the space up front, defender with speed and build-up qualities, etc etc…

So we need a team manager for the big Oranje, that adheres to this playing style. Selects players for it.

Shouldn’t be too hard, as most players if not all can play in a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 system.

And works on getting these lads to play together as a unit. If we identify two or three young defenders that might have “it”, work with them. Talk to their club coaches. Make a development plan. Invite them for sessions.

So, our friend the team manager needs to focus on tactics, on mentality, attitude and desire.

And what he does, fits in perfectly within the football culture of the KNVB. In terms of practice material, supporting functions such as physiology, nutrition, video analysis and other supporting facilities.

I think the KNVB needs a “culture management team” of three of four wise men who protect the Dutch football culture. They oversee (like a Board of Directors) the management team: Team Coordinator ( the current Hans Jorritsma role), National Coach and the Head youth teams manager.

These wise men aren’t too hard to pick: I’d go for Cruyff, Van Hanegem (both 1974), Rijkaard, Wouters or Gullit (1988) and Frank de Boer or Philip Cocu (1998).

And instead of taking trips to South America, Asia, Australia in the off season, you forget about those $$ and you allow the coach to work on his team for a day or 10 in the peace and quiet of Hoenderloo. To build and create a winning team.

It is your job to select the best man for the challenge. Or best men for the challenges. It’s also your job to create the ideal circumstances for these men top operate in.

So, do your job!

Orange regards,

Jan of Jan’s Bleeding Orange Blog!