Winning coaches aren’t always right – Johan Derksen

Johan Derksen’s column in the VI:

A few million football fans were confronted with a team manager who tried to make the bamboozled viewers believe that they just saw an impressive Oranje play. He was quick to hand out compliments and seemed pretty happy. It was pure contempt for the viewers. In fact, he said the sheople didn’t understand anything about football. Oranje played good against Albania. And don’t forget, for them it was the match of year! This arrogance makes me puke.

I do not understand our team manager. I have the utmost respect for his playing career, but if millions of people saw a different match he could well be the one who sees it wrong. But he doesn’t act like it’s even a slight chance. And yes, the tension in the dug out will affect him, but after he has seen the whole match on tv or even snippets, he also should accept the fact that he was talking like a headless chicken, overrun by emotions maybe. But no. And the seasoned media-tiger Kees Jansma, who manages the coaches on a daily basis and talks to them and keeps them grounded can’t stop Van Basten of again trying to prove he is right and the rest of us is wrong. And I understand he is happy with the victory over Albania. Every fan wants Van Basten to succeed and reach the EC. But, it would help if our team manager would do some self-analysis.

Because it’s him who is responsible for hustling our best players around, putting them in odd positions on the pitch and stopping them from achieving their usual level of play. Van Basten parasites on the results. Because despite his wrongdoings, Oranje does collect the points.

San Marco is surrounded with yes-men and is always surprised when people criticize him. But gifted left-footers need to play right winger and he keeps on treating top players without any respect. Mark van Bommel, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Clarence Seedorf perform on European top level every week but he keeps on questioning their value for the Dutch team. Is Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger stupid that he doesn’t let Van Persie play on the right wing? And nobody in Germany blames Huub Stevens for allowing Van der Vaart to play where he plays best. We have lethal strikers in Holland. Van Nistelrooy, Kuyt, Huntelaar and Vennegoor all perform well at their clubs but appear to be a liability once they play in the orange jersey, because they hrdly get any playable balls. Does the team manager think about that? Could it maybe be his fault and responsibility? No, he thinks it’s not and keeps on giving the nation a pep-talk about how good we play. “The players deserve a compliment after Albania because the worked hard, were disciplined and performed their tasks. They also kept on going looking for a goal until the last minute. Maybe not in spectacular way, but we made steps forward.”

As long as Van Basten keeps telling himself he is doing a great job and the results are still there, the future of Oranje is unsure. I love coaches with a football background, but Di Stefano, Stanley Matthews and Ferenc Puskas were horrible coaches. Every coach has his pro’s and con’s but Hiddink, Ten Cate, Van Marwijk, Van Hanegem, Van Gaal, Adriaanse, Jol, De Haan, Koeman, Beenhakker, De Mos, Advocaat and Rijkaard all do one thing right: they know to put the right players on the right spot. None of these coaches would opt to play Van der Vaart or Van Persie on the right wing. It’s stupid. But Van Basten comes away with it. Off the record, most club coaches in Holland think it’s outrageous but on the record the gentlemen support the team manager.

The winning coach is always right, is a famous saying, but I think this time it has gone too far!

I and do hope on better times, because if…if the coach suddenly decided to put the right players where they belong, this Oranje could very well win the European Championship.