Johan Cruyff: Clarence Seedorf as the benchmark

Just like most, I have really enjoyed Seedorf’s performance against Manchester United. And I enjoyed the whole of AC Milan. And I have seen a noteworthy development in Clarence’s play. That he excells in a very strong playing team, overpowering Man United is in itself not so remarkable. What is, is that he kept playing “within his tasks”, in a match between two teams who are equally strong. I have seldom seen Seedorf play that many one-touch touches and almost all of it was functional.

I don’t think I am saying anything new here, if I say that playing simple was Seedorf’s biggest problem in the past. And that’s why I thought Seedorf’s performance in Manchester was even better than the one in the San Siro.

The big question for us is, if he can take that task-conscious play with him when he plays for Oranje. With players around him, who do not – in comparison to his AC Milan teammates – always make the right decisions. In Italy, where he is confronted with the tough Italian pro-mentality on a daily basis, Clarence has grown into a player who first takes care of his basic tasks before he starts to add something extra to it.
But can he do it, when he is surrounded by less professional players? If he can be the Milan-Seedorf in Oranje, he will surely have enormous added value to the team. But if he is dragged along with the rest, he’ll be just another part of the current problems the Dutch are facing.
We have seen it well during the last WC in Germany. Players who can’t deliver in Oranje what they can deliver at their respective European clubs.
In the last weeks, we witnessed how big our problem is. Two major aspects in top football are: how does a player act individually and as a team-player with regards to the score and the clock. In other words, knowing what is needed what is needed in the here and now of the match. First the self, then in relation to the team.

If you project this to the last match-day of the Dutch competition, tears spring into your eyes. Add to that the crisis at Feyenoord and you can only conclude that top football in Holland is in serious trouble. We used to have a tactical advantage. That advantage is gone.
At PSV they like to apologize and claim that the number of foreign players is the reason for the un-Dutch-like way of playing. But Ajax and Feyenoord really need to assess where the youth systems went wrong. And Feyenoord’s problems specifically are not born on one day or caused by one person, of course.

We have to make a step back. Because we can’t seem to see and accept what we are doing wrong. Everybody talks and talks but not a lot of people seem to realize where the real problem lies. And if all that talk is taken too seriously, no one really does anything and by doing nothing, we are taking even more steps back…