Skip to content

What's wrong with Dutch football? Explaining the fall of a European power

Michael Kooren / Reuters

At a cursory glance, the Netherlands put together quite the run. Only two other European nations have reached more semi-finals at major tournaments than the Dutch since 1982, and even before then they were one of the greatest influencers in world football.

But that reign has come to a sad and sudden halt. The Netherlands, for so long a European power with the best playing and coaching talent, has devolved into an afterthought. Last weekend's 2-0 defeat to Bulgaria put the country that produced Johan Cruyff in serious jeopardy of missing a second major tournament in a row. Manager Danny Blind lost his job, with Holland three points behind a 2018 World Cup qualifying playoff spot and six points from France in first place.

It is a dramatic fall for a nation many people recognise as the pioneer of attractive attacking football, which has become a staple at clubs like Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

Even as Holland made its last hurrah, finishing third in the 2014 World Cup and as a finalist in 2010, it was done without being wholly Dutch.

The manager of the 2010 edition, Bert van Marwijk, was crucified in the press for pushing a more cynical agenda in South Africa, full of flying tackles and fouls, while Louis van Gaal was more subtle, willing to play on the counter-attack and use the long ball to great effect in Brazil.

Over that stretch, winning took precedence over pure aesthetics.

Now there is an absence of both. Dutch football lacks the identity of its early ancestors, and there are no apparent solutions in sight.

"Unless something great happens over the next couple of years, you'll be looking at them not qualifying this time and probably not qualifying for the next tournament either," David Winner, author of "Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football," told theScore. "All the advantages the Dutch used to have are gone. Everything that the Dutch used to do, everyone else is doing."

Product of a bygone era

Winner, an acclaimed writer and journalist who has immersed himself in Dutch culture, suggested Holland only has itself to blame. It may have developed innovative tactics, the 4-3-3, Total Football, and the use of inverted wingers, but they did nothing to adapt and evolve after sharing their ideas with the rest of the world over the past half century.

"I like to use an analogy. The British had the industrial revolution first. They invented railways, big iron production and all that, and were then thoroughly outstripped industrially," he said. "Other nations copied and improved on what the British had done."

Couple an aging generation and outdated coaching methods with a dearth of compelling young talent - or even capable ancillary players like Dirk Kuyt - and there is every reason to fret over the state of the game in the Netherlands.

The Dutch FA (KNVB) recently commissioned a report to investigate ways to improve the football program in the country - a "disappointing document," according to Winner.

Indeed it was. The overwhelming verdict was that the Netherlands had been missing a "winning mentality."

Winner added: "From a German or Italian point of view, that's the most banal thing you can say. Anybody in the world can come up with that. It's completely uninteresting."

Back to the future

What's also holding back the Netherlands is a complete and almost blind devotion to Cruyff's philosophy and the 4-3-3, which, according to Ballon d'Or winner and former AC Milan star Ruud Gullit, is no longer feasible for Holland's current crop of players.

"For (Cruyff) it was the only way," Gullit told the Guardian's Donald McRae. "But I said, 'Look, at AC Milan we won year after year with 4-4-2.' He would say, 'Yeah, but that's because ...' But there was no because.

"As we say in Holland, there are different ways to reach Rome. I would tell Johan, 'You can only play your system with very good players.' He could do it with Barcelona, but not when he was at Levante (in 1981)."

The Dutch do have some quality players in their ranks - Georginio Wijnaldum and Kevin Strootman are solid midfielders, and Arjen Robben is still a devastating winger - as well as a few promising students in the lab. Seventeen-year-old Matthijs de Ligt may have endured a horrendous debut on the weekend, making mistakes on both of Bulgaria's goals, but he is still considered a gem of Ajax.

The Dutch school is broken

Combing the pitches of Amsterdam and nearby cities has always been the preferred way of building teams at Ajax, but it is no longer the beacon of talent or the bastion of power it once was. And when it does produce a player of note, he is gone in his late teens or early 20s, as a prospect and not a fully formed athlete. When Gullit, Dennis Bergkamp, and Marco van Basten all headed to Italy, they were 24 years old.

"Their development still went on a bit but they were complete," Winner said.

Ajax is a pretty good team, but it's now sitting on the second or third rung of European football, financially outmuscled by every Premier League club and several of its German, Spanish, and Italian counterparts. It often cannot afford to keep its young players for too long.

There are fewer Dutch players starring for Ajax, which is not a problem for the club but a big one for the national team. Considering a strong Ajax often meant a strong Oranje, with the Amsterdam giant treated as a centre of excellence for decades, a disconnect has existed for a while.

What Ajax and the national team are doing is no longer a surprise. The innovators are trailing behind the competition. Take the 2010 World Cup final: If anyone was playing with true Dutch spirit, it was Spain.

"If you looked at the Dutch national team 20 years ago, against almost any opponent they were playing a technical and tactical way that was different from everybody else. Now it's totally normal to have defenders come into the attack, full-backs playing as wingers, switching into midfield with ease," Winner said.

"When the Dutch were doing it at first it was extraordinary, and it used to give them a great advantage. The Germans and Spanish have learned directly from the Dutch - the Germans especially have this extraordinary system now whereby innovation and development are encouraged everywhere."

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox