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Bert van Marwijk and the end of the Dutch School

April 9th, 2009 | By: Jan | 21 Comments »

Mr Totall Football

AZ was the last remaining stronghold of flashy, dominant and 4-3-3 football. Last season, that is. This season, the soon-to-be-crowned-champs play more counter-football Oranje-style. What about the rest of the Dutch clubs? Do we still use a libero who moves up to midfield? Do we play with wingers? Do we press the opponent on their own halff and create a man-more situation?

1 Do we try to create a man-more situation on midfield with a Danny Blind-style libero?

Ajax, yes…that Ajax, only played one game this season with Jan Vertonghen as libero moving up the pitch. And Sparta was crushed with 5-2. Remarkably enough, Ajax hasn’t tried it since. With Rob Wielaert playing for Ajax, this may change in the future. AZ had Niklas Moisander on the Blind position, continuously moving up, but since his heavy injury Kew Jaliens takes his spot but he’s glued to his position. Feyenoord’s build up from the back is even pretty horrible this season, where De Cler is sorely missed. FC Groningen tries to commit defenders up front and all four have the capacity to do so. Sankoh is the man of the long pass. Granquist is the passer-mover moving up to midfield. Heerenveen conceded lots of goals this season and is now clearly focusing on…not conceding so many goals. NEC’s Peter Wisgerhof moved to Twente this winter, to replace Wielaert who left for Ajax. Since Wisgerhof’s exit, build up in NEC has suffered dramatically. At PSV, the build up from the back is inspiration-less and comparable to Feyenoord’s. FC Twente tried to play the ol’ Ajax style, but with new man Wisgerhof on board, it remains to be seen if McClaren will expect his team to keep on doing this, or whether the results are getting more important.

2. Do we still play with wingers on both flanks?

On paper, Ajax plays 4-3-3 but in reality, it’s 4-4-2. Emanuelson is the left winger on paper, but he plays like a midfielder. Luis Suarez is no Van ‘t Schip either, the latter being glued to the touchline. The only real wingers in Ajax group were Rommedahl and Leonardo. The first is transfered to NEC and the second is a benchwarmer. AZ plays 4-4-1-1 these days. Martens and Da Silva play on the flanks but are more midfielders. The only winger on AZ’s payroll is Julian Jenner who’s on loan at Willem II.
At Feyenoord, Diego Biseswar and Andy Slory currently play on the wings, but they’re “modern” wingers, meaning that they drift inwards. Biseswar plays on the left, but is right footed. The only real winger in Feyenoord’s group is Tim Vincken, but he’s been injured for more than one season. Groningen plays 4-4-2. Heerenveen plays 4-3-3 with Beerens on the right. A classic winger, constantly looking for the 1-to-1 situation. Pranjic plays on the left wing, but has a free role and wanders all over the place. NEC plays 4-3-3 with real wingers (Rommedahl and Bouaouzan). NEC also has John Goossens of Ajax on loan, a traditional left winger. PSV plays 4-4-2. They have a real winger in Nordin Amrabat, but he’s not a regular starter. FC Twente plays a true 4-3-3 with Elia and Arnautovic on the flanks. Creating man-more situations and crossing the ball in. Twente means business, because it didn’t want to sell sub Denneboom when Southampton rattled a sack of pounds for the winger.

3. Do we pressure the opponent back and dominate? What’s the gameplan at 0-0?

Ajax has tried to play the old housestyle but new players like Cvitanich and Sulejmani aren’t comfortable doing it. And then it doesn’t work. So, Ajax hardly pressures the opponent these days. AZ has totally changed it’s style from dominating to counter-attack football. In the game against De Graafschap, the latter had more possession! But still they lost 2-0 against a lethal AZ. Feyenoord wants to play Dutch School football but can’t. Roy Makaay is not the hardest worker and the slow defense of Feyenoord is easily outplayed when they move up to far. Groningen playes Ajax’s style football at home, with a hardworking midfield chasing the opponent all across the park. Away from home, Groningen plays more realistic. Heerenveen plays like AZ, absorbing pressure and applying it when the opponent makes a mistake. Wonderful to watch, I have to say that. NEC plays passive football these days, counter-attacking style. PSV never demonstrates their will to dominate. There’s no intention to repossess the ball in midfield. Twente pressures the opponent from the first second onwards, at home and on the road. Every player commits and McClaren coaches actively from his technical area. Twente wants to dominate every game.

4 So, what’s left of the Dutch School?

Is there a differentiator still, or are we similar to the Belgium, Danish, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish Liga or the Bundesliga? Can we still make a difference using our playing style? Well, the Dutch School has disappeared. The wingers are all gone, it seems. The positioning play is not good enough anymore to dominate opponents and it seems the will to do so isn’t there anymore either. It was always so that lesser teams would play for survival, but now the big name teams like PSV, Feyenoord and Ajax have lost all the characteristics of a Dutch team. The neo-realism at AZ is telling. So, what does this mean? Oranje was successful with counter-attacking turn around play, and now AZ is adopting that style too… Is this the new Dutch School? There are still clubs, however, who adhere to our Dutch style. Groningen may play without wingers, but they do pressure the opponent and aim to dominate. Heerenveen as well. But the new kid on the block in terms of Dutch School football is FC Twente! Fred Rutten has laid the foundation for this, but Steve McClaren has developed the sub top team into a top team. It must be weird for an Englishman to come to Holland, expecting to arrive in the paradise of totall football only to realize that that is a myth from the past and now he is one of the last men standing to keep our Dutch School alive…

Bert van Marwijk:

“The disappearance of Dutch School football is inevitable, I think. And that has to do with the evolution of football. Space is getting scarcer and the players are all over the board much better physically, stronger and faster. And today’s football teams are very well organized and disciplined. Wingers get double marking for instance. They have to take on two defenders now to cross the ball in and there’s hardly time for a dribble or a one-to-one action. Putting pressure on defense is tougher too. The opponents now know what they can expect when they play, say, Ajax. And 20 or 30 years ago, full backs were the lesser players of the team. Nowadays, there are no weak links anymore. With national teams, it’s even harder since you don’t get time to gel a good solid team together. Pressuring is not the same as running forward with 7 players. It’s suicide. Your defense has to play one-on-one with heaps of space behind them. At Oranje under Marco, the team put pressure on when the full back of the opponent has the ball. I decided to postpone that. I want the team to pressure when he has played the ball in. We did that against Russia away for the first time. That’s because Russia’s left back is a crack player. One of the reasons why Oranje lost at the EC against Russia. If you put pressure on him, he’ll outsmart you and he’ll run past you. Van Persie couldn’t contain him. Simple as that. You basically invite him to take you on when you run at him. So, we allowed him space and time and as a result he stayed at the back, so he could pass the ball in. When he did, we would put pressure on the next man. Robin never had to chase him in the away game. And we kept control in midfield and could play our own game because of that. I’ve learned a lot from AC Milan, over the years. They step back when they lose possession, but they won’t huddle up in their own box. They play compact but still put pressure on, by keeping the spaces tight. You can still dominate, even without the ball! It was a process though. For four years, they tried to do it differently. So, first we talked about it extensively, than we trained on it and in the match it seemed our players were able to demonstrate it. When we got the results, the players made it their own. They need to experience that it works and they need to be able to recognize the situations in the game and make their own decisions. That’s going very well.”

“And that’s a problem in football nowadays. You need players who can read the game. At Oranje, we had Koeman, Wouters, Blind, Cocu, De Boer… They could all do it. Even further back, we had Cruyff, Van Hanegem, Jansen, Krol… If Willem would pace the game, everybody complied. You learn that on the street. Today, players who can do this are immediately called brilliant players. Liverpool has only one player who can do it: Gerrard. Chelsea has Lampard. AC Milan has Pirlo. Xavi does it for Barca. Players nowadays learn how to play at clubs, as youngsters. And there they’re confronted with youth coaches telling them what to do. The harsh learning curve they had in the streets is gone. If you want leaders, you need them to learn it the hard way. One way to deal with this, is to instruct youth coaches to change their ways. Give the lads a ball and let them sort it out for half an hour. Four against four is an excellent format. I’d also would want better salaries for youth coaches. Seasoned ex-players have many options to choose from. If youth coach pays peanuts, they’ll do something else. PR, or sales or whatever… We need to invest in youth coaches… In today’s Oranje, I think typical street-players like Van Bommel, Sneijder and Van Persie still have that leadership. And I can still see them in the youth. Affelay, Wijnaldum, Daley Blind, Siem de Jong… They have the skills. Now they need to be forced to sort their own problems out. That will make them smarter…”

Thanks to VI magazine…

Tags: Cruyff. De Boer, Dutch School, Group C, Holland, Huntelaar, McClaren, Oranje, Van Basten, Van Marwijk, van Persie, Wielaert, Wisgerhof

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Comments

By Michel-Olivier | April 9th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

Euro 2012
—————-Stekelenburg———
van der Wiel-Marcellis-Heitinga-Braafheid
—de Jong—–Schaars—–Sneijder—-
—-Wijnaldum—-Huntelaar—-Babel—-

team 2
—————Vermeer————-
Zuiverloon–Donk-Boulahrouz-Pieters
———-Fer——-Maduro———
Beerens—van der Vaart—–Amrabat
———van Wolfswinkel———-

Posted from United States

By alaa | April 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

i don’t want to hear this or believe it!!!! the dutch style is gone:( . what are we talking about here? it is not that easy and simple just to say this word and run away. a lot of us loved football because of the dutch style. i dont wanna believe that. maybe now we’re lacking some players in the buildup area like f.de boer but some players will come out soon and be the new build up players.
i dont want to see the dutch team just another european team like italy england, and germany. we loved holland because of the attractive football.

the major threat for the dutch style is the poor quality now of the erdivisie. we always had ajax one of the top european teams. a team that had talents all over the pitch. if ajax now had davids, overmars, litmanen, blind, frank de boer, seedorf and van der sar and others like it had in the 1994 then you will see total football with pressing and all players attacking and defending at the same time, and showing the world how you beat bayern 5-2 in the semi final, milan 2-0 home and away, realmadrid 2-0 the year after at the bernabeu. But with these poor teams in holland now and with this quality of players that is much lower than what the rich european leagues have(spain, england, germany), how can you expect teams to play total football. total football is doable when you have on the pitch 8 or 9 players with very high skills.

now for the oranje, the problem i say it again and again is the back line, mathijsen oijer and van bronckhorst who is getting very old now. how can you press and can you do build up with these players. in the 1998 we had stam and f.deboer in the heart of the defense two players who played in barca and man united at that time. so they are players that played at a very high level against tough opponents. now where do mathijsen play?? hamburg?? come on is a player in hamburg the same as a player in barcelona or man united?
and van bommel our defensive midfielder!!!! lets face it man, is he a high level player? no he is not!! did you see toure’ yesetrday?? please just for one second jan and all the other guys who read this blog and love the oranje as i do! please do it for me, close your eyes for one second and imagine we had toure’ infront of our backline instead of van bommel and de jong, and then the rest of the team is the same so it is

stek
back line defense
toure’
sneijder van der vaart
van persie huntelaar robben

believe me just having toure’ will make all the difference we want and we will see so much spectacular orange. because he will be recovering every ball lost from the artists we have up front.
i know we cant have toure’ because he is not dutch, i am not that stupid:) but the point i want to show you is that we have in some areas lack of quality which is preventing us from dominating and showing how total football is, and all of that because after the 2000 euro team we dont have a perfect team in all the areas as we used to have and all of that because of the lack of good players in our erdivisie.
so with all respect to Mr. van marwijk what he is saying that dutch style is gone, that is not true!!! yesterday we see the perfect dutch style with barca , talented players up front doing wonders with the passes and the shots and then lost balls were recovered immediately because of toure’.

so van marwijk don’t say dutch style cant be played now because opponents are stronger and more prepared, thats not true!!!!!

By Alex | April 9th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

I remember reading this particular article in Voetbal International magazine. They do have good journalism, articles and stories.
@Bart, yup i ment that article on VI.nl

But i was browsing and came across a Scotland forum and read a discussion that happened sometime before the game.
they laughed at the preselection of Vennegoor of Hesselink, although so do I .
But the complete ignorance, lack of knowledge or misinformation really shocked me. they didn’t seem to think very highly of any of them, they claimed this squad(with Huntelaar,Robben, V.Persie, Kuyt, Babel, Afellay, Sneijder, V.d.Vaart, De Jong, V.Bommel ..etc) was nowhere near the squad with Davids, Stam etc they played against in 2003, remarkable since our players(like Sneijder) have developed very strongly, and the team didn’t exactly run to smoothly those days with the oldies. I could give it to them that we no longer have a real international star or symbol like Davids was. However Madrid guys, V.Persie, De Jong all have that potential and together make a very strong, yet highly underrated team. And of course when it’s not Premier league, British people and many others don’t care, so everyone underestimates the quality of Eredivisie players like De Zeeuw, Afellay, Braafheid, Schaars, Marcellis, V.d.Wiel etc.
Just wanted that of my chest, cause it looks to me like everyone abroad(especially british) seem to have forgotten our national team and overlook the quality and potential, it’s like since the departure of Davids, Stam, De Boer and others they just assumed there was no real team left. I blame V.Basten with his confusing policies, selections of unknown{crap} players and. constant invites for pretty much every talent around, plus that embarrasing finals against Portugal (twice ) and Russia . It’s about time we win something, final against Spain, first half 1-1, second half 5-1 for us, good scenario don’t you think.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | April 9th, 2009 at 2:25 pm

but the dutch style isn’t gone, in fact were just starting to see more of that style in our play. Only problem is a vulnarable axis. >> so i mean central duo and leftback, Ooijer and Gio are obviously not fit for the style we want to see. Mathijsen is looking decent recently, but it something better comes along, no one will regret him being left out.

Everyone screams for mercy in despair, by the “lack” of quality at the back. LB doesn’t have to be a weak point, Bouma and (2nd choice)Braafheid can fill that in easily for several years, and Heitinga, Boulahrouz, Mathijsen are good defenders(first two have more potential than they’re showing, Mathijsen reached his peak)

I say we do have good potential. Also for the typical Dutch school, apart from obvious talents Marcellis and rightback gem V.d.Wiel, Zuiverloon is a candidate to be reckoned with, at his best, he matches V.d.Wiel in every way.
But to play dominating with a strong centre is possible as well, either with 1/2 of the current CB i mentioned or none. A strong centre is just an inch away.
Ron Vlaar and Gijs Luirink>> yet again. As Ryan Donk is’nowhere near where he should be in his development, Loovens just stopped his’, Luijckx’ CB skills are questionable, i turn to 2 defenders that highly impressed me. Marcellis is good at CB, but these two hold the advantage.
Vlaar and Luirink are two skilled, tall, strong centerbacks. They’re very athletic players. They played together a few times, which left a permanent mark in my mind. When I saw them it was like seeing someone walk over water. Refreshing yet shocked. Luirink was a true leader for the U-21 in portugal. an impressive sight with his posture(1.88), he did his duty, mostly kept his cool, continuing the game by sending either Tiendalli or Emanuelson on their way to the other side of the pitch, making it possible for them to excell. Ron Vlaar is another one of those, yet had an unfortunate encounter with Luca Toni at age 20, was slaughtered in the press. But recovered very well, was one of the pillars of Feyenoord(it all collapsed without him), but keeps struggling with injurie.

I say with a strong duo in centre and De Jong-Schaars-De Zeeuw-V.Bommel in front, almost every LB or RB would succeed. I would bet if V.Marwijk can create a strong centre(at least without Ooijer), everyone from Zuiverloon, V.d.Wiel, Drenthe, Emanuelson, Braafheid, Pieters to Tiendalli, Janmaat and 19 year old Patrick van Aanholt would do well in our national team.
I do agree the problem remains in the back, but not with the lack of potential, only the lack of guts to put Ooijer and Gio aside.

I say these are the ones that stand the most chance and have most option of making the WC

Zuiverloon/V.d.Wiel/Heitinga/Boulahrouz/Mathijsen/Luirink/Vlaar/Marcellis/
Bouma/Braafheid/Emanuelson(if we could get dominating CB’s)

then Loovens, Donk, Pieters, Tiendalli, Janmaat, Luijckx, Kruiswijk, Verhaegh, and some more decent reserve options.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 7:11 pm

I don’t think Bert meant to say the Dutch school is gone. It’s more that it’s very hard to execute and coaches have to decide to become more mediocre and controlled. Hell, even Louis, the coach of the Ajax 1995 team (and the architect) decided to change his tactics at AZ!! What does that tell us.

Bert also said that to use the Dutch School in Oranje would be hard due to the lack of time.

And don’t forget: Oranje in 1994 / 1996 didn’t play Total Football. We played 4-4-2. Same in WC1998! Ajax had Litmanen and Finidi as crucial players in that system.

So, with wingers, without wingers…total football is more than that. It’s a high paced passing game, putting forward pressure on the team and the mentality to take opponents apart (in terms of score-line).

Bommel can play the passing game. He didn’t do too bad at Barca did he?

And Twente executes it well, too. So, there’s hope.

@Alex: as for foreign forums and all. I believe foreign fans may not appreciate the quality of our players, but foreign press does. I listened to the ESPN commentators on Oranje and to the SBS commentators and 1) they know their history, 2) they appreciate everything Dutch in that respect and 3) they realize fully that Oranje will be a contender for the title.

On Setanta, Frank Stapleton – ex Ajax – is co commentator and he has contact with Ajax regularly and knows all about their youthful talents and all…

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 7:13 pm

Klinsi is told to leave Bayern in the Summer… Maybe Schuster? Van Gaal? Adriaanse? Jol? Advocaat?

By Jan | April 9th, 2009 at 7:16 pm

Joris Mathijsen was instrumental in HSV’s win over Man City (3-1). Joris scored the equalizer for Hamburg and his back kick (?) was stopped by a hand in the box: penalty. Jol won 3-1 and seems to go to the semis.

By Michel-Olivier | April 9th, 2009 at 8:35 pm

“Klinsi is told to leave Bayern in the Summer”
is it true?

Posted from United States

By Jan | April 10th, 2009 at 3:13 am

I think so. I read it in the Dutch media…

By Carlos | April 10th, 2009 at 3:41 am

Great debate… Dutch style is not really gone, as was said here, Barca plays it and Arsenal still do at times. No one can play like Oranje ‘74 but everyone still tries to copy Ajax 94/95. The latter style is often criticised by the same sentence. “They try to pass the ball into the goal.” Well Bara’s goals were all “passed” into the goal right?
The Scottish press has nothing but praise for Holland’s style and players a most of us read recently. Even well before the game.

Posted from Singapore

By Alex | April 10th, 2009 at 5:44 am

Newsflash
AZ, FC Twente and HSV are all interested in 19 year old Vitesse leftback Nicky Kuiper, which i mentioned here before. Always nice to have my opinion confirmed by scouts.

Posted from Netherlands

By Alex | April 10th, 2009 at 5:55 am

+ just came across an old article in VI which pretty much said Michel Platini is waiting for the head of KNVB to come up to him and say, we want a combined league with either Belgium or others. He’s even willing to change and bend some rules to make it happen if the federations come up with a good plan! This says to me once in a lifetime opportunity, if he resignes, almost no chance his successor will be that open minded.
I knew there was some support but never thought UEFA would be this open for such developments.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | April 10th, 2009 at 6:38 am

Platini is not that bad. Kesler and Co axed the plan, I believe.

By Jan | April 10th, 2009 at 6:40 am

Did you know that between them, Michel Platini and Henk Kesler played 72 international games for their respective countries?

By ferenc | April 10th, 2009 at 7:53 am

http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/04/10/1201826/arjen-robben-to-head-real-madrid-dutch-sale-under-florentino-pere

be cautious with this article because it’s based on marca…

Posted from Hungary

By Marc | April 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am

THis team will revive Total Football! mark my words. I think We ll have a good world cup in 2010. We wont win it, but possibly the semi final this time?

Posted from Switzerland

By sonneveld | April 10th, 2009 at 9:50 am

also Van Der Wiel is being looked at by Juventus according to goal.com

By Michel-Olivier | April 10th, 2009 at 10:45 am

@ Marc
we have to win it

Posted from United States

By Bob | April 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am

Jan, one of your best blogs ever. The analysis was comprehensive and extremely interesting. It seems to me that the original Dutch style worked because of the extraordinary athletes present at the time. Styles change, training and teaching methods change, expectations change. Great coaches change to fit the talent available, and do not try to fit everyone into a single pre-determined setup and strategy. That is the “genius” of Hiddink–the ability to use talent to best advantage. van Gaal is another coach who can make adjustments, as is de Haan (remember when he changed the U21 setup from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2?). The Netherlands will always play in the “Dutch style”–great passing, use of side channels to set up central strikers, gifted skills with the ball, etc. Change and adjustment is the kep to football success– and to life itself! Thanks again for another great blog.

Posted from United States

By Bob | April 10th, 2009 at 11:26 am

Sorry, I misspelled “key” and “kep” in the previous blog.

Posted from United States

By Jan | April 10th, 2009 at 5:53 pm

Thanks Bob, i think this is a marvelous piece too. Mind you, I didn’t write the piece. 90% is VI and some of it is me. But it goes to show, that football is evolving and coaches need to adapt to this and apply the skills available to gel the team together. We were all cheering for Oranje against Italy and France, although in those games we played more “turn around” football than anything else.

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