Why the Oranje are falling to pieces
JOHAN CRUYFF. Marco van Basten. Dennis Bergkamp. There are few footballing nations that have inspired as much beautiful football over the decades as the Netherlands.
Right now, they could not be further from their glorious past. The Dutch are suffering a slow death, at risk of missing out on a second major tournament on the bounce and parted company with manager Danny Blind after losing to Bulgaria on Saturday.
Here we look at the state of play for them, what has happened and what comes next...
What’s been going on?
On Saturday, the Netherlands suffered humiliation, losing 2-0 against Bulgaria in Sofia. That left them fourth in Group A after five games. There is a serious chance that they could miss out on a place in Russia. Sweden, in second, are three points ahead, while first-placed France look unreachable.
Missing out on Russia would be a blow but, combined with the fact that they also failed to qualify for Euro 2016, suggests there is an underlying problem with the nation.
Hang on, weren’t they in a World Cup final seven years ago? And in the last-four three years ago?
Bert van Marwijk – not the best manager of all time – did something very sensible with the Netherlands in 2010. He realised that there were flaws among the players and opted to play more defensively. Yes, that may have led to Nigel de Jong attempting to decapitate Xabi Alonso, but it also saw them reach the final against Spain and nearly emerge as victors.
In Brazil, Louis van Gaal also realised the limitations of his side and created a system to deal with it. His 3-5-2 formation, which many assumed he would bring to Manchester United, was innovative and allowed players to flourish.
There is an outlook in the country, best encapsulated by Ruud Gullit’s insistence on “sexy football” at Chelsea, that footballing philosophy comes above everything else.
What they are suddenly learning is that their innovations have been taken and improved upon by everyone else. Total football is de rigueur (fashionable).
Who is to blame?
It’s tough to say. The reality is that the last two appointments as manager have not been up to scratch. Guus Hiddink is a brilliant man-manager, capable of lifting a team at a low ebb, but he is naive tactically. Blind was bumped up from assistant to manage.
Realistically it might have been a bit of an error to give someone the national team job after just a year as a full-time manager, a full decade after his last spell in a dugout, but conceptually... well, conceptually it also was not a good plan.
Who are the potential replacements for Blind?
You’ll enjoy this – Blind has temporarily been replaced by his assistant Fred Grim, the former Ajax goalkeeper. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
There have been no names mentioned. On Sunday, KNVB (the Dutch FA) commercial director Jean-Paul Decossaux said, as translated by Football Oranje: “We have ideas and contingency plans in place in terms of finding a replacement manager for the national team. We want to resolve the manager position as quickly as possible.”
And it seems as though the Netherlands might be taking a different approach this time around. They have not had a foreign manager since Ernst Happel in 1978 but that may change. Asked about the possibility of a boss from overseas, Decossaux said: “All options are options.”
A new manager should be in place for the game against Luxembourg in June.
What comes next?
Things seem bad but the Netherlands have reasons to be positive – at least on paper. The Ajax academy still churns out talent like it always has. The only problem is that the Dutch have had a habit of throwing players in too young.
On Friday they may have done that again with Matthijs de Ligt, a 17-year-old central defender.
He had made just 13 senior appearances before Blind decided he was the solution to his defensive woes. That did not pan out – De Ligt misjudged Simeon Slavchev’s long ball, allowing Spas Delev to sneak in and put Bulgaria into the lead. It could be a killer blow for his nascent career.
But there are others coming through. Daley Sinkgraven, for example, is a talented young midfielder who offers hope for the future. Memphis Depay is slowly returning to the player everyone assumed he would be.
The most important thing is the next appointment. – Daily Mail