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Cruyff speaks…

June 9th, 2008 | By: Jan | 10 Comments »

In a NOS EC journal Johan Cruyff gives his opinion on tactics and Robben:

“I don’t like the 4-2-3-1 system. The two holding midfielders will be marked and won’t be enabled against Italy to build up. So, the build up will be through the full backs. And I don’t like to see that. The full backs you need to use in the offensive bit. When they find space, they move up and can cross the ball in. Build up needs to go through the middle. In my view, when you’re in possession, the field needs to be as big as possible, if you lose possession you need to make the field small. With two holding midfielders, you will automatically limit your “widening” abilities, they kind of block the back four, leaving too much space in front of those two to defend by our creative players. I do think Marco agrees with me but he wanted to give the players their way. And, it is possible to play like this, but you need to operate as a unit. And I’m not sure if they can. To me, the 4-2-3-1 is a solution to compensate for the lack of build up from the back. In my Barcelona team, I had two central defenders who were weak in defense: Guardiola and Koeman. But they could read the game and prevent the opponent from attacking by their positioning and my midfield was good in their defensive tasks. Marco should consider to play Engelaar as center back, but that is too late now.”

“With Robben out, this disadvantage should be turned into an advantage. Your deep penetration man is out. There is no alternative like him. So, you have to work with what you’ve got and Oranje has a lot of creative dribblers and passers. So, put Van Nistelrooy up front and let the creative players behind him run rampant. That could put a lot of opponents off. Be unpredictable.”

Tags: Cruyff, Euro 2008, Persie, Robben, Sneijder

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Comments

By Carlos | June 9th, 2008 at 1:21 am

Sorry JC I disagree in that the system right now 4-2-3-1 is absolutely perfect for the current squad. In the past 3 friendlies I have NEVER seen fullbacks such as Ooier and v Bronkhorst so free to run up the wings. In fact Ooier was constantly running past Sneijder like I have never seen him before and so did Melchiot and de Cler. Why is this so ?

Apart from Robben there were no natural wide players so most of the midfielders stayed central and this allows the 2 fullbacks to exploit the wings. Great system and whats more, the holding midfielders know their job so they defend well. Another bonus is that none of the opposition will know which midfielder will become an attacker and thus who to mark.
I do agree with putting Engelaar in the central defence though, wonder if it will still happen? Maybe against Romania when we are already through

Hmmmmmm 12 hours – my Orange shirt is Ready ! (98 version)

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | June 9th, 2008 at 1:37 am

I think JC also wants to see the full backs attack. He doesn’t want to see them as start point in the build up, but he fears that our holding midfielders won’t be able to due to marking. And the two center backs aren’t the strongest build up players, so… JC always put a strong player center back. He took Rijkaard and Koeman from midfield and positioned them in the back. I assume Guardiola was a midfielder too, before he moved to number 4. If the center backs build up, the full backs are able to move forward like wingers. We always had strong players in center defense, except for the last years. (Haan, Koeman, Blind, Krol, De Boer, Cocu played there too and Ajax used Davids and Litmanen on that spot if the regulars were injured or suspended)

Posted from Australia

By Stefan | June 9th, 2008 at 5:20 am

I saw it online as well, and (as usual) I didn’t understand most of it. Anyway, if you would want to see something much more interesting (a beautiful moment of Sneijder), you should visit the link and start the vid at 3:26.

PS: Why is this website giving me such a hard time leaving a reply? The messages I submit on my home computer never get posted… Marked as spam, or something.

Posted from Belgium

By Jan | June 9th, 2008 at 5:33 am

Stefan, I don’t have a clue. I will check…

Posted from Australia

By Jan | June 9th, 2008 at 5:34 am

No messages in my spam box Stefan. Maybe it’ssomething at your end? Like a spam filter on your office computer?

Posted from Australia

By Jan | June 9th, 2008 at 5:34 am

I mean your home computer?

Posted from Australia

By Stefan | June 9th, 2008 at 5:48 am

No, unlikely. My first posts were from the same computer, and I didn’t change any of the settings… It was really quite annoying, as I wrote quite an insightful analysis of everything (way better than Cruijff’s, haha), but all got lost. Oh well, as long as Oranje doesn’t lose!

Posted from Belgium

By Carlos | June 9th, 2008 at 5:55 am

Hi Stefan
I know the problem…
You’re in Belgium

Carlos

Posted from Singapore

By Matt C. | June 9th, 2008 at 8:16 am

Carlos – zing!

Stefan – contact the following person: daryl (at) theoffside.com

I had the exact same problem and they had to whitelist me in order to post.

By ish | June 9th, 2008 at 10:06 am

hmmm i understand why cruiff would prefer centre build up because that is classicly what europe does.
Lol in my personal opinion there are only two formations in europe. 442 and 451(433) basically hollands is just a 451 similar to liverpools(sry epl viewer). Having two good DM’s can allow the defense alot of slack and help holland with defensive duties. I think though if the FBs are too attacking they will get countered along the wings. Should be a great game and i think that italy will concentrate down the wings with camoranesi and maybe(doubtful) cassano providing the speed and flair needed to open up the dutch defense. That said if pirlo and gatuso aint on their games the dutch could easily go through the centre with cannavaro missing the pairing of barzagli and materrazi look a little lost.

Posted from Australia

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