Solid foundations, ‘clarity’ and giving youth a chance… how the Netherlands became a force again

In a tech world where a company can be worth billions one week and bankrupt the next, there is a culture of imitating rivals in order to keep up with the rapidly inclining curve.

Twitter came out of nowhere with its continuously updating news feed, so Facebook duly changed the way it looked and worked. Instagram was growing fast, then Snapchat came along with its story mode – so Instagram simply introduced its own. Netflix rewrote the world of TV, so Amazon ripped off its subscription streaming idea.

It is not too far from what Ronald Koeman has done with the Netherlands national team. Since his debut defeat by England in a friendly last March – when Jesse Lingard scored the only goal, but England should have had four or five against limp opposition – Koeman has looked at the way Gareth Southgate transformed his country’s ailing team and followed suit.

Making big steps

“That was an example for the Dutch team, how they processed the squad, gave chances to young players,” Koeman said. “It’s all about the quality of the players. That’s what makes a national team strong.”

Since the Netherlands finished third at the 2014 World Cup under Louis van Gaal, they have been through four managers and failed to qualify for consecutive major tournaments. Rafael van der Vaart left a big hole when he retired, after 109 caps, six years ago and Wesley Sneijder – with 134 caps – made it deeper when he left last year.

England did not fare much better in 2014 and 2016: knocked out in the World Cup group stages in Brazil and by Iceland in the last 16 of the Euros. “It was a difficult period in that time, in 2014 and 2016,” Koeman said. “But when Gareth Southgate took over, he gave possibilities to young players and that had a big impact for the national team. If you watch them and look at their squad, it’s full of quality. A good balance in the team. They have physically strong players, fast players, a lot of players who can be selected.”

Defender Virgil van Dijk said: “England obviously made good steps. They grew as a team, but so did we. We made big steps from that game until now.”

Solid foundations

Koeman has talked about building a house from the downstairs – “you don’t start with the roof” – and it was with that in mind that he handed the captaincy to Van Dijk and paired him with Ajax teenager Matthijs de Ligt.

Since their defeat by England, each player has flourished: Van Dijk the imperious Champions League-winning defender with Liverpool (“Yes, I’m completely sober,” he confirmed yesterday), and De Ligt captaining his club at an astonishingly young age to the Champions League semi-finals.

The rapid development of De Ligt’s Ajax team-mates, Frankie de Jong and Donny van de Beek – both 22 years old – offers Koeman the option of a youthful core bred at their country’s most famous club.

For a short while in March and April, everyone was suddenly an expert on Ajax and the Dutch Eredivisie as that trio and their team-mates disrupted Europe’s established order like a venture-capital-backed new smartphone app. In their thrilling Champions League victories against Real Madrid and Juventus, they played the purest uncut blend of football the game had seen in years.

‘Keep playing, keep developing’

Yet their successes means they will go their separate ways. De Jong has already agreed a deal with Barcelona and De Ligt will follow. Koeman discussed the 19-year-old’s future with him last week and told him to ensure he goes somewhere where he will play.

“His big quality is he’s only 19,” Koeman said. “It looks like sometimes that he has the experience of a player of 25. That was great, that they had success in the Champions League, in the highest level competing against big clubs. That makes the development of young players.

“He’s a great professional, really clever. He’s doing extra training. He can improve, of course, because he’s not at the end of his qualities. That’s normal for someone of 19. He can develop his ball construction, but he’s a great player already at this age. He will be better in some years. Let’s hope he will choose a big, big club. He deserves that.

“I spoke to Matthijs one week ago about his future, and that’s a secret. What I told all the young players maybe thinking about making a step, the most important thing is to keep playing, keep getting minutes to develop your football.”

Koeman added: “We have moved to a set team, a fixed team. We have a lot of clarity in the way we play, there’s a good spirit and I’m happy there’s some substance on the table. That’s a significant difference to the game in which I started against England. We’ve been analysing them and we’ve seen some changes in the way their team play.”

Perhaps we will see the Dutch adopting them very soon.