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Johan Derksen: Support ex-players as coach

January 5th, 2008 | By: Jan | 28 Comments »

JD’s column in the VI:

“I will always be a supporter of former players becoming coaches. The so-called “practice coaches”. If you want to be a piano teacher, you need to be able to play the piano. But, as football coach, there is more to it. You need to be able to create the best team, to motivate your players and to handle people (players, club-management, sponsors, press).
A coach needs to be a psychologist. He needs to stimulate, motivate, be tough or be soft depending on the situation and player. He needs to be able to deploy an individual approach without forgetting the group dynamics. He needs to get the optimum out of his material. You need life experience for that. This will not come to you simply because you were a great striker or a good golfer. You learn by doing. By making mistakes, by learning from others. And, if you don’t have certain skills, you need to pick an assistant coach who brings that missing piece to the table. You want a staff that adds value.

Van Basten totally misjudged his job. He figured that with a group of mates he could do the job. And can you really blame him? Let’s face it. He was a phenomenon as a player. He is an extremely talented golfer. His whole life people told him how good he is and was almost declared a saint by friends, fans and the media. One would start to believe that that is all true.

Van Basten was convinced he’d do much better than his predecessors. That was a mistake, although the KNVB should take the blame for that. You can’t appoint a national team manager on the basis of his credentials as a player. That has nothing to do with policy, that was a huge leap of faith and it didn’t pay off. After four years on the job, Oranje hasn’t progressed.

Marco used a lot of players and didn’t treat players like Van Nistelrooy, Van Bommel, Davids and Seedorf with the respect they deserve. He kept on trying his holy system, used players on weird positions and ignored the fans who demanded to know his vision. The result? We still don’t have a “team”, Oranje is a loosely coupled group of players.
People think I don’t like Van Basten. Not true. I was very happy with his appointment. Like Platini belongs to France, Pele to Brazil and Beckenbauer to Germany, Van Basten is the ideal man to represent Holland. But, in my humble opinion, if he fails, you need to be able to express that. Any team manager should respect that.

Johan Cruijff once told me a typical Spanish expression: he who warns, is never a traitor. Van Basten presented himself as an untouchable. He knew what the nation needed, he only needed his buddies Schip and Witschge and what the other 16 million Dutch fans and amateur team managers thought about is was not relevant.
He shielded his insecurities behind a mask of arrogance and he never tried to explain in detail what he was trying to do when he took unfathomable decisions. He forgot Oranje is for and of the people instead of a private toy for a couple of ex-Ajax players.
I can’t see anything change in the run up to the EC. The last four years were wasted. There are not “automatics” in the team, it took 3,5 years for Van Basten to switch to 4-4-2, players are still put on strange positions… I am afraid he will be responsible for two wasted tournaments.
I feel Henk Kesler is happy with Marco’s decision to stop after the EC. But, if he decides to work in the same way in the next months towards the EC, I feel the KNVB needs to place an interim coach in front of the group. Someone who will treat the important players with respect. Van Basten will continue to use Van der Vaart and Van Persie in the wrong way, he will not be able to allow the strikers to produce and we will have to leave the EC2008 early without any kudos.

We let Van Basten prove himself for four years and he didn’t pass the test. Coaches like Bert van Marwijk, Louis van Gaal, Martin Jol, Henk ten Cate, Willem van Hanegem or Co Adriaanse are able to use players in the right way, pick the right system and manage the players’ egos. If Van Basten had any self-criticism he would quit now. Van Basten’s mission is useless. And maybe Ajax chairman Jaakke will take the leap of faith with Marco. Again, that would be a risk, because as club coach, again, Van Basten hasn’t really proven himself. But who knows… I hope for Ajax and for Marco that that will work out, because at the end of the day, I will still be a supporter of ex-players as coach.”

Tags: Group C, Johan Derksen, marco van basten, Mark van Bommel, Oranje, The Netherlands

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 28 comments.

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By Ramy | January 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm

i think Schuster would be my only german exception..

im looking foward to a narrowed down list of possible future Oranje managers published by the KNVB. i wonder when will that start taking place.

in other news, although they played a not so nice match, real won 2-0 against zaragoza. ruud scored the opener, he played decent i think, his tally so far this season is 9 goals..
im worried about him though, wondering if he’ll be able to maintain his form till june/july.. obviously playing each 90mins of every liga match, maybe a few advanced cup matches, and the champions league will not make things any easier. i guess we’ll see.

Posted from Canada

By Miguel Rosado | January 6th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

GREAT ARTICLE.
I have the same dream as Derksen. I want Marco out and a new coach for the EC.
I think Marco can be a good coach in the future but if he fails again it will be 2 major tournaments thrown to the garbage, 2 tournaments everyone will want to forget. That would be a disgrace.

By ferenc | January 6th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

actually ruud hasn’t done too much today - he scored once as usual and tat was it:-) sneijder did a very poor performance he was subbed by guti. (i would have prefered sneijder staying because he was really useless:-)) casillas savrd madrid,this guy is amazing (the only one from real i would like to see at barca). i have a very bad feeling about la liga: i think soon (in 1 year or 2) the same kind of scandal will happen as in italy with juve. today the referee was exceptionally correct but it’s obvious that spanish refereees work for real.

@goose: wenger would be a great idea. but unfortunately he’s feeling really well at arsenal. but honestly i cannot imagine a foreigner coach at oranje. there are too many really good dutch coaches.

Posted from Hungary

By Miguel Rosado | January 7th, 2008 at 12:14 am

Ruud doesn’t have to do much, his job is scoring.

By Dr.Mansur | January 7th, 2008 at 4:24 am

Alongwith the coach Holland needs to have some change in their football authority,the KNVB.They need to have some real leader at the top of the helm who will resurrect not only the team and coach but also try to improve the quality of the Eridivise.Without having a strong league it will not be possible to be the European( let alone World) football powerhouse again.

Posted from Australia

By goose | January 7th, 2008 at 4:39 am

@dr.; not sure if you need a strong home leguea to have a good national team… maybe its even a positive thing cause now young dutch players can learn their trade in the dutch competition at a young age…few good foreigners to keep them out of the first team..they can learn their trade in Holland and then leave for a big european team when theyre in their early 20’s (not like in England where its almost impossible for young players to break into the first team at EPL level), so in the end it may be a positive thing to not have a real strong home competition….

things are never gonna change at the top of the KNVB…it will always be the same…and remember; they dont have to answer anything to anybody…and they wont!!! Kessler is just happy to be there and he will do anything to stay in power!

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Finnster01 | January 7th, 2008 at 5:27 am

Goose has an excellent point. I dont think you need a strong domestic league to have an exceptional NT either. Look at Brasil, Argentina, Holland and even France (Lyon winning every year etc, even Bundesliga is not what it used to be)). Each of those countries have world class teams, yet the league is so-so . But they do indeed develop excellent talents. The exception to the rule is Italy and arguably Spain which have excellent leagues, although Spain always seems to fail in the tournaments on NT level.

England is the prime example of not being able to develop domestic talent. A very good (and scary) case in point is Arsenal which so far in the season have only started one English player in EPL, Theo Walcott. And he has only a handful of starts on top of that. The other point of the English game is what happened to the English coaches? 10 years ago there were English coaches all over Europe, just like you have Dutch these days. Look at the big four in EPL, Ferguson is Scottish and the rest plus Spurs, Man City, Everton, Blackburn, Aston Villa, Birmingham, Sunderland etc. just to name a few, all have non-English coaches. The top English manged team is portsmouth (lying in 8th spot) with Redknapp as the boss. That is clearly going to affect the ability to develop a long term development of the domestic game.

Even the Norwegian game now has become infested with the same problem. Our league isn’t very strong in European terms, but probably still highest quality in Scandinavian. However on the better teams there are 50% foreigners, mostly from Africa (as they are cheaper than domestic talent). Guess what, our youth squads and under 21’s are really hurting, not to mention the NT. So this is a real problem for the future.

As I said before, good news for Holland is that you seem to have found the best middle way of evolving and developing talent both on the player and coaching side, which is remarkable given the size of the country.

Posted from United States

By Jan | January 7th, 2008 at 9:40 pm

Hi all, goose: the title in Dutch (can’t remember exactly) was something like: ik blijf een voorvechter voor praktijk coaches…

That was a tough one to translate considering the limited space I have for titles :-).

As for foreign coaches: I think the Dutch football elite (think De Kromme, Cruyff, Van Gaal, Hiddink) will always stress the specific Dutch football culture and therefore a lot of successful fpreign coaches will be off the list. There are many coaches left though, the likes of Sacchi, Wenger, Schuster to name a few. Mourinho I think will not make the shortlist.

Furthermore, we as a people always feel we are special (in particular with football) and with our language and all… You can expect a French or Brazilian coach to know some basic English (or in Scolari’s case: portuguese) but Dutch is a tough language to master and communication for a coach is crucial. I’m not sure Kesler would risk appointing a foreign coach, because it will be an extra risk factor. Apart from the paycheck-factor even. The KNVB doesn’t pay what England, Germany, Russia or even Korea is prepared to pay for a coach. The Wengers of this world woulnd’t consider coaching Holland for that reason alone.

And, as stated earlier, we do have many good coaches in Holland who are eager to take the job (maybe not today, but in the next years): Stevens, Van Marwijk, Jol, Adriaanse to name a few. Maybe later on Rutten, Jans…

I like the tradition of having Dutch coaches, personally. I don’t think Klinsmann or Ericsson or Benitez would fair much better than Van Marwijk or Jol…

Posted from Australia

By Miguel Rosado | January 8th, 2008 at 2:05 am

@Jan: I totally agree with you. We have good Dutch coaches who can cope with the pressure and establish a real “team”.

By goose | January 8th, 2008 at 11:09 am

latest; Foppe deHaan told the press he thinks that vanGaal would be a good choice as next Bondscoach… vanGaal, well, those happy memories!! hahaha.. the arrogance v Portugal where we f up a 2-0 lead; those beautiful games v Ireland!!… i dont know; any ideas??

gzt

Posted from Netherlands

By Igor | January 8th, 2008 at 11:45 am

I’ve noticed that wenger’s name keeps being mentioned as one of those foreign coaches the dutch would be ok with, but the truth is that wenger is as much a fan of the tradition of having dutch coaches for the dutch elftal as Jan is. He has stated on a number of occassions that he believes a national team should always be coaches by someone from that same country because the identity of the team, footballing culture, language and the relationship of the team with the fans is intricately tied together in a way only a non-foreigner would understand.

Posted from Canada

By Prabal Rakshit | January 9th, 2008 at 1:55 am

Igor, very nice observation about the strong link between the coach and the national team. And particularly true of the Dutch team mindset wherein a consensual decision making does not go down well with say a Fabio Capello or an Alex Ferguson. However when a significantly talented team (read a team with three lions on a white shirt) chronically flatters to deceive, a full scale catharsis may not be too bad an idea. Hiddink’s success in S. Korea was to a large extent due to the outsider’s perspective he brought to the team and that helped challenge the conventional team structure etc.
Wondering why can’t some of these be true for Der Oraanje as well.
HOwever I have always been sceptical of big club coaches being successful at the national level. Their overflowing coffers can buy almost any player on the planet. They do not have to bear with rookie joinees, superstars in other clubs etc.
VAn Gaal…..probably the most pedigreed Dutch coach of recent years. Unfortunately he somehow misses the final killer punch. WOuld be very very interesting if what Goose says turns out to be true.

Posted from United States

By Finnster01 | January 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

Actually I heard today that Cristiano Ronaldo evidently will be going to the Beijing Olympics as an official spokesman for the Portugese Diving Team…

Posted from United States

By Bob | January 9th, 2008 at 8:47 pm

Happy New Year to all. My computer has been disabled for a few days, so I was pleased to see a new entry from our friend Jan. It was humorous to see some of the comments regarding the title of the article–as if that mattered! The content is what matters, and the responses have been well considered.

I very much support the idea that the Dutch national team has a Dutch coach. As Goose and others have said, there is a great deal of talent in the Dutch coaching ranks–what matters, however, is whether or not the KNVB appoints the best coach available. As we have said previously, coaching a national team is one difficult job and subjects the coach to second, third, fourth and more guessing about everything the coach says or does. Why, if he cares so much about Netherlands football, would Cruijff not take the job? Because he does not want to put up with all the criticisms from football fans, writers and everyone else that believes he or she knows best. Because you have limited control of national team players, and see them on a limited basis. Because training time is so limited. Because in the Netherlands, expectations are very high, higher than reasonable expectations should allow for a comparatively small country.

So, if you accept the above premises, and no quality Dutch coach is interested in the position, then certainly it is acceptable to seek a coach from outside the Netherlands. It appears to me that there are quality coaches yet available who would say yes, if asked, and so the Dutch coaching tradition should continue.

Posted from United States

By Miguel Rosado | January 9th, 2008 at 11:35 pm

Ruud is a Madrid player till 2010. Great news.

By FlyingDutch | January 10th, 2008 at 10:45 am

Robben just got a new injury.

Posted from United States

By Igor | January 10th, 2008 at 12:24 pm

van persie played the first half of arsenal’s carling cup semi-final tie yesterday. he had a few nice touches and passes but failed to make much of an impact on the game and obviously needs to more playing time to sharpen up his game. but its good news to see him getting over his injuries.

Posted from Canada

By goose | January 10th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

@finnster; hahaha .. always nice to have a go at little Ronnie

Good points made by all of you on the foreign manager thing… but we already had a foreign Bondscoach; George Knobel(Austrian) i think, and also Fadronsh (?) some hungarian guy (ferenc help!!!), both in the 70’s….Jan, some help please

i really hadnt tought of the financial aspect of it all .. Rijkaard / vanBasten; what kind of money would they make??? its very dutch to NOT discuss wages etc., you never ask a person how much money he makes and its a non-issue when its about Bondscoaches..

Ericson for me is the example of hell, he made millions, f his p.a., didnt make an impact on the big stages and i think the FA is still paying him now…(hes doing well at City tough),

actually heard that vanMarwijk is very high on the KNVB list…well just have to wait and see

Robben; well, think you all know im not quit his biggest fan but i feel kinda sorry for him now… looks like hes just not built for pro football (or maybe he started too young, he played Eredivisie in the strarting line-up when he was 16 (came to the training by bike i rememeber). i had given up on him already for the EC…read he makes 10 mln euros bruto (dont know the english word) a year!! think theyre not to happy at Real now

Great to see Ruud sign a new contract…hats off, he has really proved me wrong..i thought he wouldnt succeed at Real, i was pretty wrong

vanPersie should take it very slowly…no risks please..we need vanPersie, hope Wenger goes easy on him…good thing is that Arsenal are doing fine so i dont think Wengers in a hurry

and Bob; happy NewYear mate!! hope 2008 will bring us glory!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Igor | January 10th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

goose, i just read that wenger is not going to play van persie in the epl this weekend…the excuse given was that he came down with the flu, but my guess is that they are being cautious with his injury.

Posted from Canada

By goose | January 10th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

@Igor; thats great to hear… you know; i actually think it would be perfect if he would start playing just 2 months before the WC, nice and rested but with enough playingtime to get in the grove,

i remember vanBasten at the EC88 who was injured all season long and was just about fit on time… he than played a rather good EC88, that kind of scenario would suit me just fine!

vanPersie is VITAL for any hopes we might have (and hopes are not high, at least not here in Holland, thats the first time people have been so negative about dutch changes for glory in my lifetime)

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Bart | January 10th, 2008 at 4:44 pm

What the hell is wrong with Arjen, he gets an injury doesn’t play for several months. He then plays one or two games, and he gets injured again. Isn’t he supposed to get stronger after an injury?

Posted from Canada

By Miguel Rosado | January 10th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

I am a huge fan of Robben but I think I haven’t seen another player who gets injured as often as he does.

By Ramy | January 10th, 2008 at 6:23 pm

I feel sorry for him too.. it looks like his condition and proneness to injury is just going from bad to worse.

And Real just lost to Mallorca at the Copa Del Rey.. Sneijder is in a slump, he is in a bad form in my opinion.. always being subbed, not making an impact.. he needs to get back to the top of his game soon.

By Jerome | January 10th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

I agree that at the moment there are enough quality Dutch coaches around to not warrant appointing a foreign manager. However the concept itself is not foreign (bad pun?). Fadhronc (a Czech I think) coached Oranje to the 1974 WK, the first since 1938, before Michels took over. Ernst Happel from Austria was in charge of the 1978 WK side. And at club level Stefan Kovacs coached Ajax to back to back European Cup wins in the ’70s. Those European Cup wins were paved in large part by Vic Buckingham, an English coach

I’m sure that if you went back to the days before and just after WWII when the approach Dutch football took(especially the national team) remained amateurish there would be many more foreign coaches in charge of Oranje … maybe even English coaches!!

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | January 11th, 2008 at 4:54 am

@goose: frantisek fadrhonc (?) was Tcheck. Stefan Kovacs (ajax 71-73) was a Roumanian who belonged to the Hungarian minority in Roumania.

Posted from Hungary

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