De Boer may number is up
SOMETIMES it is only hours after a manager’s press conference, with the help of a little bit of factchecking, that you realise that what you have been fed does not quite add up.
Bamboozled by talk of 3-4-3s really being 5-2-3s and certainly not being a 4-3-3 just yet, in the end it was one number that stuck in the mind at the end of nearly an hour in the company of Frank De Boer.
“Normally you have 10 games to think, ‘This is the way we like to play’,” he had said.
At Inter Milan, where his brief period in charge is generally considered an unmitigated disaster, De Boer actually won his very first game in charge, a friendly against Celtic.
In fact, he lost just two of his first eight games in the San Siro hot seat.
The reason he was sacked shortly after match No15, though, was that after the “settling-in period”, which he insisted yesterday was so necessary, De Boer’s side lost five of their next seven matches. Even at Ajax, when he first made his REPORTS name in management after replacing Martin Jol, De Boer won eight of his first 10 games in charge. Settling in not so important there, then.
In fact, contrary to the confident mantra De Boer was preaching at the Crystal Palace training ground, instead of him really producing his best stuff once he had those first 10 matches under his belt, the opposite occurred. Ajax won just two of their next six games.
To make matters worse, De Boer brought up the reputations of other managers to defend his decision to stick to his principles.
“I remember for example Louis van Gaal when he started at Bayern Munich he lost the first few games and then he was Champions League finalist,” the Palace boss said. “Giovanni van Bronckhorst lost seven games with Feyenoord. He won the cup that year and the next year, the title. It can change very quickly.
“Pep Guardiola lost his first two games when he started and everyone thought ‘What is he doing?’. Suddenly the players didn’t understand. “Then the puzzle fell together and they got good results. I’m convinced if we do what we can do, that I am going to be here a very long time.”
He had neglected, however, to mention that Van Gaal did not even survive a second season with German giants Bayern, sacked in April after consigning the side to finish outside the top two for the only time this decade. This in a league they usually win at a canter. Not quite the long-term success that was being suggested, then. Van Bronckhorst’s disastrous spell came seven months into his tenure after losing just two of his first 16 league games in charge. Guardiola has not lost his first two matches at any of his clubs.
The one genuine fact that does work in De Boer’s favour is that