World Cup: Five lessons England can learn from the Dutch
If you ain’t Dutch then you ain’t much so here’s five tips from the Netherlands on how England can improve on a disappointing World Cup.
Winning mentality: Its perhaps a little harsh on Robert Green to say that one blunder set the tone for England’s World Cup campaign. It must be remembered though that before his red card in Dnipropetrovsk we were on course to qualify unbeaten for South Africa.
Long before the John Terry scandal broke and the Capello Index was a mere pipe dream Green’s lunge at the feet of Artem Milevskiy put England on course for their first competitive defeat under the Italian. If the West Ham goalkeeper had stayed on his feet could we still be waiting for Capello’s first meaningful defeat as England boss?
On the other hand long before the Dutch found themselves one match away from their third World Cup final they won every single game of qualification. Winning is a nice habit to foster in football and getting past Uruguay will see the Dutch unbeaten in their last 25 games.
The belief garnered from stringing together this kind of run was in evidence as they came from behind to topple Brazil in Port Elizabeth. When things went against England in Bloemfontein just as they had in the Ukraine the fortitude needed to get back in the game was sadly lacking.
Tactical heritage: Comparing players from different eras is generally a thankless task due to football’s facelift in recent times. The tactics-board of most football teams has also been wiped clean many times over following disappointing campaigns, all except for the chalk-board in the Dutch dressing room.
Dutch football possesses a clear evolutionary curve, see the influence of Dennis Bergkamp on Robin Van Persie’s interpretation of Johan Cruyff. The wingers have Johnny Rep, the schemers have Johan Neeskens and the defenders have Ruud Krol.
Its a tragedy that an English commenter is far more likely to mention Alan Ball on account of footballer’s boots rather than as a compliment of box-to-box midfield play. Sir Alf Ramsey’s team and tactics could have served as the blueprint for the English national side, today its the Dutch playing 4-3-3. England meanwhile seem stuck on a 4-4-2 that is nothing more than a halfway point between everything and nothing?
Even though Total Football has never yet triumphed at a World Cup the positional philosophy put in place by the teams of Rinus Michels has never been doubted as “the way” to play the game. Failure to qualify in 1982 and 1986 only served to strengthen belief in the method and should the Dutch take home the trophy from South Africa it will be with sweet vindication of winning the right way.
Academy level: I expect the much touted idea of the English FA’s National Football Centre came back into the public conscious following the defeat in Bloemfontein. The last estimate I heard for completion of the St. George’s Park project in Burton-upon-Trent was 2012.
This is after the idea was first tabled after failure to reach the 1994 World Cup finals and the site was finally purchased in 2001. For all the money and hot air sloshing around Soho Square their actions on youth development in England amount to sweet FA.
While our brass buttons have been sitting on their hands the Dutch Football Association (KNVB) have opened their own academy in England. The principles of the famous Ajax youth system can be found at the Dutch Football Academy London (DFAL) which was opened earlier this year in West Wickham.
The DFAL’s motto reads “skills, vision and fun”, three words with about as much connection to youth football in England as “World, Cup and final” have in common with the national team. Will the Dutch opening an academy on English soil be enough to finally snap our own association out of their development dormancy?
Domestic matters: When Steve McClaren took his FC Twente team to NAC Breda on the final day of the Eredivisie the match featured 18 players eligible for the Dutch national team. Chelsea’s stuffing of Wigan saw only seven players get a game and one of them was 38-year-old goalkeeper Mike Pollitt.
A week later Chelsea’s FA Cup final win against Portsmouth saw an extra two Englishmen on the pitch. While Capello got to run the rule over nine players there were as many African born players contesting the match at Wembley.
The six-plus-five rule looks like the most obvious solution to ensuring more homegrown talent gets a chance at the highest level. The alternative is to wait until clubs become so financial unstable that they are forced to selected academy products.
It could take a while though, despite Portsmouth being the biggest financial balls-up in a while they still only to managed to field four Englishmen against Chelsea.
Squad discipline: Throughout the Dutch’s association with the World Cup they have appeared to be their own worst enemy. The party on the eve of the 1974 World Cup final, Cruyff refusing to travel in 1978 and Ruud Gullit doing the same in 1994 are just a few examples of the Dutch’s checkered history in the competition.
Even now I bet if you peeled back the cool exterior of the Clockwork Oranje there would be the odd rumble of a grumble. The best that can ever be said for the Dutch camp is so far, so good and it was encouraging to hear Wesley Sneijder lauding the unsung Bert van Marwijk after the Brazil win.
Temperamental stars such as Robin van Persie, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Arjen Robben are all singing from the same hymnsheet in a way could have given John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard success at international level if they had left their egos at home.
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