Danny Blind is the National Team Manager but his assistant Marco van Basten will always turn more heads. No matter how good Danny was, San Marco is sacred. He has a good vision on football too. Here, he goes into 14 (!) topics.
Personality of the Year
MvB: “For me, Phillip Cocu. He won the title with PSV and manages to remain in the Champions League through winter for the first time since 2006. Frank de Boer is a personality as well. Cocu is different, but they’re both special. We should be proud of both. In other competitions, we have Louis van Gaal and Ronald Koeman as trailblazers but that is it. We do have more good coaches in Holland, though. Don’t get me wrong. Some good young coaches coming through. Cocu did have some setbacks, his first season he copped a lot of criticism and then he had this tumor in his back. But he remain standing upright and that is pure class. Cocu does have players at his disposal that need less management. The Ajax players are a bit younger and need coaching. Cocu has Moreno. He simply defends. Luuk de Jong knows what he can and can’t do. Guardado puts in a shift, always. Cocu turned it into a good mix. PSV has a firm game plan but they do mix it up. Guardado plays it short and then suddenly long. Sometimes the inside foot, sometimes the outside. He is the main man. And the PSV defenders are more manly than the Ajax players. Less “football”, more defending. Football is more than just tiki taka, you know?”
Biggest disappointment
“Missing the Euros obviously. When you drop points against the Czechs, Iceland, Turkey…you simply aren’t good enough. Hiddink was replaced by Blind and I came in to assist Danny. For me, a good challenge. I loved my work at AZ. The level is a bit less and there is more time to work with them. With Oranje, better quality but less time to work on things. You only have the lads a couple of days to get them prepped. The only way to really work on a game plan is when you prep for a tournament, like Van Gaal did. We can do a lot of work in the background though. Our scouting and preparing our tactical briefs etc. Our challenge is that we have a number of top top players who are reaching the autumn or winter of their career and a number of young, inexperienced talents. We lack players in that mid category. The cement of the team, usually. They’re either not good enough or injured, like Strootman and Vlaar. We had a similar problem between 1982 and 1988. It’s all cycles I think. But time and time again, we produce talents. We need to take the talent, the experience and add focus and mental strength. This is a massive wake-up call and we can’t just think “ah well, it will all come good again.”
Superfluous rule
“Three rules come to mind. The one that annoys me if when play is stopped for off-side when a player jogs back from offside position, back on-side to get back into the game. No one gets that. There is no threat and he usually doesn’t even get the ball mostly. Let the play go on! There are too many whistles and stops. Another thing, when the ball is on its way to the byline or touch, the defenders are allowed to use everything they can to stop the forward to get to the ball. They push, put their butt out, use their arms and push. The forward wants to play football and the defender doesn’t. But 9 out of 10 times, the forward gets the decision against him. Weird. And then this silly rule that a goal kick needs to be out of the box before play is allowed to resume. Why? If the defender is put under pressure, why not just allow play to go. Allow forwards to put pressure on. And if the ball is touched in the box, the goalie gets to take the goal kick again! So there is a mistake being made and the goalie gets a second chance? Good way to steal seconds. The only logical thing would be to give the attacking team the free kick or just do away with the rule.”
Tip for KNVB’s competition management
“Do away with silly play offs for European football qualifications. The supporters don’t want it. The box office is a disappointment. Every year clubs get into trouble with their planning and prep for the new season. It is useless. And unfair. You have 34 competition games and you end up 3rd. Then you deserve that spot. Why would the number 6 get a chance to become 3rd after all? Confuses me….”
Dutch School
“Dutch clubs tend to have 70% possession. But on their own half! It doesn’t work. The fans and the tv viewers pull their hair out. The point in football is: how many chances do you create and how many goals do you make vs how many do you concede. In Italy, Spain, Brazil and other big nations, they laugh at us. The Dutch School? We are being too arrogant. We never won a trophy with the Dutch School. In 1988 we were fully focused on doing everything we can to beat our opponent. We played West Germany with fight football. Obviously, you want to put your mark on the game with attacking, adventurous football. Taking the initiative. But you can’t play high pressure all the time. You need to pick your moments and sometime go for the turnaround. You need to be able to do all of it, these days.”
Oranje playing Uruguay in 1974
Scaling the Eredivisie up
“I am not negative about the future. But, we do lose ground. When I played, Holland still have a position in Europe. But in the last fifteen years, countries like Russia, Turkey, Portugal and Ukraine have surpassed us. Even Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium are competitors now. We need to think bigger. Make our competition tougher. This is why I love the idea of the Low Lands League. The LLL. It means tougher teams to play against, better players to play against. The distances are not that great and nowadays most teams have international players, so the language is never a problem. We shouldn’t focus on beating England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France in terms of competition strength but we do need to focus on competing with the second tier.”
Kluivert not happy with Lowland Competition plans
Impact of Van Basten’s opinion on the Cruyff Plan (MvB wrote a column saying that Ajax hadn’t progressed after the so-called Cruyff Revolution at Ajax)
“I think Johan understood what I meant. He was the one who never really agitated against the article I wrote. The Amsterdam newspaper De Telegraaf was the only one attacking me for it. They don’t like it if people have a different opinion about Ajax than them. It’s all a bit subjective, it’s getting embarrassing. I can imagine the man in the street can’t follow it all anymore. This Plan Cruyff, or the Plan Telegraaf as I call it, it is one big wet fart. First they needed 4 yours to make it happen, then they said the execution was wrong, all this politics… If you need so much publicity to sell your product, your product is not good enough. And if it all is working so well, why is Johan walking out, why are people being axed, why are people resigning?”
Marco admires…
“Guys like Messi, C Ronaldo and Zlatan. These guys are at the top level for so long and so dominant too. These guys play 60 games per year and sure, they play in top teams with amazing team mates and it’s easier to score goals for Madrid than it is for, say, Cambuur or De Graafschap. But if I see how focused and hungry C Ronaldo still is against weaker opponents or when Real Madrid is 4-0 up already… He is sooo eager, year in year out. And he is hardly ever injured too. And they constantly seek new challenges. I totally respect that. Ibrahimovic, it’s like he has been around for ages. And everywhere he plays, he wins titles. Now, he helps Sweden to the Euros. C Ronaldo and Zlatan and Arjen Robben are incredible players, but…Messi… Messi is phenomenal.”
Biggest Dutch talent
“I’d have to say Quincy Promes. He is one of the key players at Spartak Moscow. He plays left, sometimes right, then centrally upfront, leading the line. He has no issues being a key player in a competition that is much stronger than the Eredivisie. He scored 10 in 18 games. He’s actually not really a talent anymore. He turns 24 in 2016 but he is now breaking internationally. Big future.”
Defending in the Eredivisie
“We are slowly turning into clowns. A ful back needs to attack. And if he can defend too, that is wonderful. It’s the world upside down. Kenny Tete is a positive exception. Most players from Ajax’ Academy have this, but Tete is a real defender. He is the youngest of the new batch. He does need to improve in his attacking play so he can make the difference on the ball too. Players need to learn timing. When do I go, when do I not. He said in an interview recently “I just do what comes up” and that means he plays on 100% intuition. He plays 100% on his talent. Now he needs to improve and make progress. His speed and his tough duel power combined with vision…he will turn into an international top defender. But, we should never forget, first and foremost he needs to defend.”
We need to get rid of this, as quickly as possible:
“The FIFA mafia. The way you make your career in that organisation…it is just wrong. They are all tainted, for me. They should all make way. Maybe a new batch, people like Luis Figo, Gary Lineker, myself…maybe we should do it. I mean, I’m not keen and I am not a diplomat, really, hahahaha and I don’t have the ambition for such a role but come on! They arrested around 30 people. How many more will they arrest? Is there anyone there with clean hands?”
State of Dutch Football
“We are in the middle of discussing and finding solutions. We develop great skillfull players but there are not enough players with vision. Players who can keep track of their mates, of space on the pitch or who can control the ball and keep track of their opponents. It is hard, but it is the difference between good players and very good players. It does start with technical skills of course. Once you are the boss over the ball, the rest kicks in. Running, shooting, passing, physical development, dealing with losing, dealing with winning…. And becoming boss over the situation. Knowing what is going on behind you, next to you. Technical skills is one, tactical vision is another. This order is key. The Iniesta’s and Xavi’s developed this to the max. They are hardly ever surprised by situations. They know where the threats are, they know where to move the ball. And these two are not strong physically, They can’t tackle well, they are not made of concrete but they can hold their own. These are processes our players need to go through. And most of our players haven’t. Players like Memphis and Wijnaldum were top notch in the Eredivisie but need a lot of time in a tougher environment to remain on their feet. Maybe it’s because we don’t play street football anymore? Maybe kids spent too much time behind the computer? Or maybe all that panna football is the culprit? We played to win and that means you play forward. You need to be able to play the ball forward, instead of nutmegging a player when you move backwards. In those panna cages, it’s the world upside down. It’s not effective.”
Technique and dynamics
“Johan said in his latest columns that we run too much. I do agree, but not fully. Football is much tougher now than when I played. Some teams park 10 men in the box. What you need is dynamics. You can’t dribble amongst them anymore. Movement is key. Defences are well organised, much better than 15 years ago. All defenders developed skills now as well. The space is getting more limited by the year. So, you do need to run more and smart to find the space and open up defences. A couple of years ago, Barcelona was playing the ball around while standing still. Nothing happened. 80% possession but no chances. You need the Messi’s and Neymar’s to be making runs to allow for something to happen. Johan says he doesn’t see players like Ronald Koeman anymore who can open up a game with a long ball. But these players do still exist, but there is simply no more space for them. That deep opportunity to pass the ball is getting rare. It is all about the turnaround moment and the killer pass. Ajax is playing the ball ad infinitum as they can’t find the killer pass. It’s not about what you can do with the ball, but knowing where and when to run when you don’t have it. You need a surplus of technical skills these days,as a forward, but also the vision to find the space. Some players have it, some need to learn it. You need to recognise the one-two or the third man situation. And that starts at the back. Johan says: we still play eleven vs eleven and the pitch is still the same size but it’s not that simple. In the 1970s you’d have 7 seconds to decide what to do, in my time maybe 5 or 4 seconds and now you have 2 seconds. You need to decide within 2 seconds what you are going to do and a lot of players have skills up the gazoo but lack the intelligence and insights to do something useful.”
Artificial pitches
“This is purely a financial issue. I don’t think it’s good for football. You do lose the connection with the bigger competition even more. Nowhere else, not in Germany, not even in Belgium do they use these artificial pitches. It has nothing to do with the climate, as it can get colder in Germany than in Holland. In Germany, no club will make that decision. Our way of playing will change as a result. Sliding tackles are part of football and I think we need to draw a line in the sand: we only play on real grass. The hard pitches are not ideal in winter, but artificial pitches are dramatic in summer. Maybe you should allow it for amateur clubs for financial reasons but as a pro club you need to be able to maintain a grass pitch. If you can’t, you are not equipped to play pro football. End of story.”
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