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Can’t fly without wings…

October 16th, 2006 | By: Jan | 6 Comments »

AZ Alkmaar tested the 17 year old left winger Miralem Sulejmani. Remember that name. More Dutch clubs were after this talented Serbian but he wants to go to Alkmaar. At a first glance, it’s an ordinary news item, about a ambitious club scouting for extra-ordinary talent.
But the history behind this news fact is a bit disturbing.

AZ has been scouting for a good left winger for months and months. They want to play 4-3-3 at AZ (Louis van Gaal is manager there) but need the right type of players. The last months, van Gaal played 4-4-2 because he did not have the right material for his fave gameplan.

Most clubs are after wingers, but most clubs are not succesful in finding them. Most clubs change the preferred system, or buy mediocre foreign (inexpensive) players and hope to be lucky or simply plant a right footed player on the open position.

In the Dutch Eredivisie, we only find three real left wingers: Excelsior’s Steur, Willem II’s Kevin Bobson (former Ajax player and once tested by Marco van Basten for Oranje) and Vitesse’s Brian Pinas (former Feyenoord player).

Four teams (including PSV and Feyenoord) use a foreign alternative on the left wing and five teams play 4-4-2. Six teams play with a right footed alternative on the left wing, the best known player being Ryan Babel at Ajax.

Coaches tend to position this solution as a smart tactical move, but it’s not. It’s born from the fact that there is no real left footed alternative, and you do need someone to play the left of the pitch. We, in Holland, are simply not able anymore to train and prepare left wingers for the top. In Oranje, this trend is somewhat obscured by Robben and van Persie, although it’s clear that van Persie is actually a player for the ax of the team and Robben plays left midfielder in a 4-4-2 system at Chelsea. But behind these two very able wingers, there’s nothing. The Young Orange team that won the European title last summer, three right-footed players (Castelen, Gerritsen, de Ridder) played on the left wing and took turns. The only real left winger in the youth selections of Oranje is Ajax talent John Goossens.

We brag about our football history and vision, we pump millions in our football schools and youth development programs but at the end of the day, no one in Holland is able to nurture and develop a left footed winger good enough to play in the Dutch Eredivisie. So what does this mean?
It means our youth programs fail and that we are losing an important aspect of our football identity.

(In the past, Holland brought forward the likes of Coen Moulijn, Piet Keizer, Bert van Marwijk, Rob Rensenbrink, Geert Meijer, Robbie de Wit, Brian Roy, Peter Hoekstra, Ron Jans, Pierre Vermeulen, Rene Eijer, Pier Tol, Jan Monster, Marc Overmars….and who did I forget??)

Our Eredivisie coaches will try to creatively work around this big void, but at the end of the day we will be sucked in to the grey mediocre swamp of result-football. And we will be just like the rest. And we won’t have anything signigicantly different or better. And this small nation will become a small football nation, to be compared with Belgium, Austria, Scotland, Norway, Poland…

In this country, we talk and talk and talk on tv about two big name players who do not want to play for Oranje for now. And we all neglect the real issues in Dutch football, just like our youth program coordinators and the Dutch Federation in Zeist.

Good night KNVB, sleep well…

Based on Petter Wekking’s column in VI

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Comments

By Bills Fan | October 16th, 2006 at 7:26 pm

Nice column Jan. I watched on NOS that Seedorf may be returning to Oranje. MVB and him have spoken and the door is open. Is MVB using Seedorf to counter media critisism concerning his mistreatment of veteran players?

Bills fan in Toronto

By Samuel Knight (Oudegeest) | October 17th, 2006 at 8:44 am

Great insight. But one word of caution, lefties tend to be about 15% of the population, so the number available almost always is subject to more wild swings than most other slots.

But I like your emphasis on Nederland looking to train certain skill sets for the future. Who’s the next goalie? Who’s the next central defender? Where are the left footed midfielders, wingers, and defenders? We all tend to overglory the goal-scorers over the people who stop the ball from going into the goal, or who get the ball up to the strikers.

For example, it would be huge for Nederland to give extra plaudits for assists – both direct and secondary assists (guy who passes to the goal scorer, and the guy who passed to the guy who passed to the goal scorer.)

Posted from United States

By Rami | October 17th, 2006 at 5:12 pm

I hear you, and share the same fear concerning the possibility of dutch football falling back to the likes of austria and poland and belgium.

During his tenure as manager in the past couple of years, van basten occasionally reiterated the importance of joining the Dutch Eredivisie and the belgian league together into one big league. I always found this a great idea. We could get rid of many of those underperforming squads that we have so many of and replace them with the best from belgium.

Jan, however alongside the rising problem of ineffective youth development programs, I believe dutch football and the dutch league are suffering also from something muh worse.. Lack Of Competition; underperformance. Let’s be honest, half of the squads in the dutch league are the equals of stoke city and luton and other crappy 2nd division english teams.

Neways.. Just watched milan ac – anderlecht, and seedorf was impressive once again. Been keeping an eye on him lately with all the fiasco going on in the dutch squad midfield, and he most definitely deserves a spot in the first 23, and in my opinion in the first 11 even.
He has always a firm grip on the ball and has amazing ball control and passing abilities, he’s powerful and well built, unlike the injury-prone vdv, and is always commanding the build-up for the attack.. All in all defenitely deserves the no.10 jersey milan awards him with. Of course, he has his flaws (can be slow like a turtle sometimes – u may even see him walking on the pitch during an offensive hehe); but i really do not understand why Van basten does not give him a chance at the center of the pitch in mitdfield alongside sneijder/vdv and de jong/landzaat. He’s the commander, bulldozer, technique and experience Oranje needs in midfield.
What do you think ? How about sneider – seedorf – de jong/lanzaat (van bommel optinally) for a change???

Posted from Russian Federation

By Dr.Mansur | October 17th, 2006 at 10:56 pm

Perhaps ur midfield lineup is ok,though i am not too sure about Landzaat,never seen the Wigan Atheletic player play anything extraordinary.But i definitely feel that Seedorf deserves a call from MVB,specially when Van Bommel has said not to play for orange under MVB.I reckon the best time to test Clarence Seedorf once more is the upcoming friendly against England in Nov.15.Come on Marco,give the guy a chance.

Posted from Bangladesh

By misha | October 17th, 2006 at 11:16 pm

Well Rami, if u ask me, I would say that I have never been very impressed with Seedorf while wearing an Oranje jersey in the past. In a mid field loaded with talent the likes of Davids, Zenden, Marc Overmars and Cocu, Seedorf was always the weakest link. He was slow, held on to the ball too much, and was constantly frustrated, which is why he was mostly held in reserve and brought on in substitution.
I will admit that the last 4-5 years have been his best, he seems to have matured and settled into a vital role with AC Milan who I hate! However, he has never struck me as a natural leader, in my opinion he has always played in the shadow of Davids, who is a naturally strong personality. And has tried to emilate him, from his hairstyle, to his playing style. So I question his leadership abilities even on such a young team. In my opinion Van Bommel is a far more valuable and important player, but is too individualistic to ever bother taking on an inspirational leadership role in the team. However, I don’t believe Seedorf is a leader either and I do believe Van Bommel is simply a better and more effective player, so given the choice I would go with Van Bommel, but that is no longer an option for MVB, and bringing back Seedorf is not a solution for the situation MVB has backed himself into or the cure for the teams lack of leadership. Just my opinion.

By misha | October 17th, 2006 at 11:28 pm

Also, even if he was selected and we beat England, that would’nt prove anything, because England is mediocre at best, so I expect we will win with or without Seedorf but this result would not convince me that the team is capable of beating tough competition, which England currently are not. These are dark days for Oranje fans and the Seedorf of Oranje teams from the past is equivelent to todays Landzaat.

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