Verbeek: coach in extremis

Masseur Meijer welcomes Gert Jan Verbeek at Feyenoord

When Heracles player Hoogeveen couldn’t take it anymore in the break of a competition game and put his head in between his knees, coach Gert Jan Verbeek was sick of the player’s negative attitude and picked him up at the neck and threw him out of the dressing room.

And that wasn’t the first time the former amateur boxer made his point with his hands. Heracles player Demirel once taunted his coach on his boxing career and challenged him. Verbeek grabbed his gloves and punched the player out. In one hit. Later he said that Demirel needed a better defense.

“He didn’t like it when you fooled around with him,” says Jansen, another ex-Heracles player. “He was always very present in the trainers’ area along the side line. When I got sick of him coaching, I waved at him. Not much later he took me off the pitch.”

But all these players don’t have any negative to say about their ex-coach. “He was straight as a door and always kept you on your toes. I think he was very advanced already in those days. He was always looking for new ways. Whether it was vitamins, nutrition, fitness, tactics, he always invited specialists to come and hold talks.”

“He always wanted to be in on every aspect of the game,” says former Heracles midfielder Buikema. “Even with the administration. Which was needed at Heracles. He was at the club, day and night.”

He was one of the first to employ a mental coach. “He is an innovator,” confirms Buikema. “And first he used the mental coach for himself, to see if it did something. He was always vulnerable like that. If we needed to do something, anything, he’d do it too.”

Physically, Verbeek’s team are always fit. “I was never stronger as then,” says Buikema. “We balked at his regime. The training sessions were very tough. But in the long run, we were able to win games on that basis. He was right.”

Verbeek has a reputation to uphold as master preparation-coach. “But he never overdid it,” Heerenveen striker Gerald Sibon said. “I never feel totally wasted after a training. Verbeek has a plan for everything. And when you’re having fun, you don’t even notice that you’re training at the max. I am 34 years old and I played all the games this season.”

Sibon doesn’t mind the high expectations of his coach. “He wants us to talk about football, think about football. I’m fine with that. But we have a young group, so you need to make most players aware of what it takes to play top. Verbeek wants his players to think for themselves.”

Former Feyenoord and Oranje player Paul Bosvelt worked with Verbeek for two years at Heerenveen. “He is very clear in what he wants. And I never thought we trained harder than we did at Feyenoord, but there was a lot of structure to it. Their was always an idea behind the intensity of the training. Heerenveen uses a year planning, with a lot of focus on strength and fitness-training.”

That was Verbeek’s speciality in Almelo as well. Jansen: “If the did fitness training, he always trained along. And no one was able to keep up with him.”

Feyenoord chose a driven and headstrung man as coach, who is committed to progression and development. For himself and his players.

Feyenoord’s director Peter Bosz: “We looked at numerous aspects and in particular the training of the physical and mental. Gert Jan is a specialist in the field. Both Heracles and Heerenveen were teams that were incredibly fit. They always had a lot of power.”

Bosz already mentioned the fact that Feyenoord plays too slow with a lack of duelling power in an earlier interview. Verbeek’s signing has a lot to do with those aspects.

The move from Heerenveen to Feyenoord is almost lateral in terms of results this season, but in terms of grandness, Feyenoord is Big and Heerenveen is provincial. A crowd of photographers and media made this clear to the new man in charge. “I’ll have to experience it all for the first time,” Verbeek said after his presentation in Rotterdam. “But pressure is something you put upon yourself. I want to give the full 100% always. And don’t forget, the expectations at Heerenveen were huge as well.”

His experience made Verbeek more relaxed. As a young coach, he regularly looked for the confrontation. “When your reference field is bigger, it’s easier to be confident. That makes me more at peace. I could be too agressive when I was younger. And not every one can handle that. Sometimes you’d achieve the exact opposite of what you wanted to achieve.But I developed myself. I think I am ready for this job.”