Dutch have it all wrong, moans Frank
United striker prefers direct approach
FRANK van der Struijk may be Dutch to his fingertips (more of those later), just do not expect the Dundee United defender to start preaching Total Football to his team-mates. A member of the Netherlands Under-21 squad which won the European Championship in 2007, van der Struijk has been saddened by a decline in standards in the intervening years and blames his nation’s unwavering faith in a passing game.
Although Louis van Gaal steered the team in Oranje to the World Cup Final in 2014, his pragmatic style was criticised, and a return to more aesthetically pleasing methods resulted in failure to even qualify for the expanded 24-team Euro 2016 finals.
An Eridivisie veteran of more than 300 games before his move to Tannadice in the summer, van der Struijk knows how to pass and move, but admits he is revelling in the opportunity to compete in a less refined environment, one that will today pitch him into a battle of the Championship’s two biggest clubs as United visit Hibs.
‘It’s a little bit different here, more long balls and more fighting, but I like it,’ smiled the 31-year-old, who joined on a free from Willem II. ‘In Holland, they only want to play football, football, football. But you have to be able to do more.
‘There’s no Plan B. When Louis van Gaal was in charge, he played with five at the back and everyone in Holland said: “What the f*** is he doing?” But he knows his team and thinks about what’s best for them.
‘If you do anything different from 4-2-3-1, everyone’s first question is the same. But you have to change. Football is changing. In Holland, they only play one way — keep the ball, don’t lose it.
‘Sometimes you have to play long and put pressure on the opponent. You can see it in Germany and England. They’re at a much higher level because they can do both. In Holland, they only do one thing.’
If van der Struijk’s views sound strident then that is because he enjoys a dash of confrontation. While at Vitesse Arnhem and playing in a particularly fractious derby against NEC Nijmegen, his crowd-baiting antics earned him cult status among his team’s supporters, who bestowed a lasting moniker on him.
‘Yeah, Frankie Two Fingers!’ he exclaimed. ‘We won 1-0, so it was good. There was a lot of shouting and then I did this with my fingers (holds them up theatrically).
‘It stuck with me but, ach, it’s only a nickname. I was playing against Nick that day, actually.’
The man in question is his United team-mate Nick van der Velden, whose summer phone call helped convince him to switch countries for the first time in his career.
‘I played with Nick last season and he called me and said I should come here,’ he continued. ‘He told me this is a good club, so I should come.
‘I’ve read about Scottish football in the newspapers, so I knew how it goes. It’s fighting football. I play a little bit the same, so I like it.
‘The stadiums we’ve played in so far have been a little bit smaller but Hibs is a big club, and they’ll have a big crowd, so I’m looking forward to this game.
‘When stadiums are full, it gives me more energy to play the game — the more people, the better.’