green winger

Chapter 363 Opportunity
"Mr. Van Gaal? I think he is a very good coach. The failure of the Dutch national team cannot cover up his ability!"

Hearing Mendez's inquiry, Kenny vaguely guessed what his agent meant, but he did not pursue the question, but expressed his opinion objectively.

As one of the outstanding coaches in world football today, the Dutchman Van Gaal served as a midfielder in the player era and played for clubs such as Ajax. However, he officially retired in 1987 after he did not achieve much in his player career. Started a new chapter in my life.

Van Gaal has been teaching at the Ajax Youth School since 1988, and has cultivated a group of outstanding players, including Kluivert, Seedorf and others who became famous all over the world. In Van Gaal's autobiography, he also mentioned When he was still the head coach of the Ajax second team and the youth team, he noticed Davis and Reziger who were still playing in the youth second team at that time, and strongly demanded that they be transferred to the youth first team .

Then shortly after returning to Ajax, Van Gaal was hired by the club as an assistant coach of the first team. Gerkamp served as No. 10, with Cohen's consent, and of course the change was a huge success.

In 1992, after the resignation of the then coach Ben Hack, Van Gaal was promoted to become the head coach of Ajax. Given that Ajax's performance was not as good as that of Eindhoven at that time, Van Gaal hoped to change this situation through some transformations of his own. situation.

However, in the early days, his tactical thinking and disciplinary requirements were opposed by many players, but Van Gaal vigorously used Winter, Bergkamp, ​​Jonker, De Boer, etc. to understand his tactical thinking and obey his tactics. Instruct young players, and also uncompromisingly retreat to the veterans of the team.

The most memorable thing is that Waters, the main full-back of the Dutch national team at that time, was transferred to Bayern in the winter of the 1991-92 season after being excluded from the main lineup by Van Gaal. The main goalkeeper Menzo performed poorly, and Van Gaal resolutely replaced him with the 22-year-old Van der Sar.

Through these changes, after Van Gaal led these enterprising young people to win the UEFA Cup in 1992, another Ajax dynasty was born.

他们连续3次获得荷甲冠军和超级杯，其中在94-95赛季荷甲更是以27胜7平进106失28球的不败成绩夺冠，之后创造了连续52场联赛不败的纪录。

At the same time, in the European arena, after Ajax won the UEFA Cup, Ajax performed particularly well in the Champions League in the 1994-95 season. In the semi-finals, Lecco Bayern defeated AC Milan three times in the group stage and the final. Without conceding a goal, while suppressing Milan coached by Capello at the time, it also ended the glorious Milan dynasty and finally won the Champions League.

In the same year, Ajax defeated Brazil's Gremio team and won the Toyota Cup. In 96, Ajax entered the Champions League final for the second consecutive year after double-beating Real Madrid in the group stage and Dortmund in the quarter-finals. Once they lost to Juventus on penalties and finished second.

In 97, he led Ajax, whose strength was seriously damaged under the influence of the Bosman Act, to break into the semi-finals of the Champions League again. Garr vigorously tapped the potential of young players. He adjusted De Boer's position to the winger, let Litmanen, who originally played on the right, wear the No. 19 jersey to replace Bergkamp, ​​and transferred the little-known from the training camp. Finidi George brought to the first team to play the main full-back.

And even though the old players kept leaving, Rijkaard and other veterans still gained the trust and reliance of Van Gaal and became the pinnacle of the team's defense.

Through these changes, Van Gaal made Ajax stronger and established his own coaching characteristics in the highly competitive Eredivisie, that is, boldly promoting and trusting young players, admiring offensive football, and having strict requirements for team discipline .At the same time, in terms of tactical thinking, it follows the tradition of Dutch football, adopts 433 and 343 oppressive styles of play, attaches great importance to wing attack and the maintenance of the overall team shape, and the team's offense is smooth, active and highly entertaining.

It can be said that Kluivert, Seedorf, Overmars, De Boer, Van der Sar, Reziger and other Dutch internationals, as well as Litmanen and Kanu, joined Aja in this period. The excellent foreign players who were only around 20 years old at the time were able to break through the ground only after Van Gaal's successive training and promotion.

Such a top champion coach in world football at the time was of course favored by many giants, so Van Gaal, who had achieved great success at Ajax in 1997, accepted Nunez's invitation to Spain to coach La Liga giants Barcelona.In the first season in Catalonia, Van Gaal led his team to win the "double crown" of La Liga and Copa del Rey, and double-killed Real Madrid under the command of Heynckes in the league.

In the 98-99 season, although Barcelona had a bad start, they quickly introduced the De Boer brothers in the winter transfer. At the same time, the captain and playmaker Guardiola returned from injury in time. A point reversal to win the championship.

In the 99-00 season, Barcelona won the runner-up in La Liga and entered the semi-finals of the Champions League, failing to complete the scheduled goals for the season.Compared with Ajax's style of play, Barcelona led by Van Gaal is more aggressive. Generally, only 2 or 3 people are left in the backcourt to defend, and the space for passing the ball is small. Strong, but encountered teams with strong midfield interception and quick and concise counterattacks. For example, Dynamo Kiev and Valencia defeated Barcelona more than once with a score of at least 3 goals.

In addition, although he has achieved good results in two consecutive La Liga titles, due to his strong personality, the relationship between the Dutchman and the club management, players and fans has always been poor, especially the journalists who often criticize him.After the end of the 99-00 season, Nunes, the club chairman who supported Van Gaal, stepped down, so Van Gaal also resigned immediately. However, during this period, the young players such as Harvey and Puyol he promoted still became famous players. The backbone of Barcelona.

After leaving Barcelona, ​​Van Gaal served as the head coach of the Dutch national team in 2000, but compared with the club, coaching the national team is undoubtedly very difficult.After being eliminated by Italy in the European Cup, and in the recent 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup qualifiers, the Dutch national team was even more surprising and missed the final round, so Van Gaal took the blame and resigned.

But even so, Kenny still believes that Van Gaal is one of the top coaches in the world. The failure of the national team does not mean anything. Although the strength of the Dutch team has always been at the forefront of Europe, it has to be said that the Dutch are dead His ability is also few people can match.A national team with no more than [-] members has various intricate relationships, Ajax faction and PSV faction, returnee faction and left-behind faction, white faction and Suriname faction. Discrimination is even more notorious.

Since the Netherlands is a multi-ethnic and multi-faith immigrant country, their national team also has such problems.Historically, the internal strife in the Dutch team was mostly the contradiction between the black people in Suriname and the local white people. In the 1996 European Championship, the black players headed by Davis and Seedorf had internal strife with white players such as De Boer. The black players complained about their treatment. Unfair, less paid than white players, and Davis was kicked out of the national team for insulting coach Guus Hiddink.

Therefore, Van Gaal himself cannot be denied because of the current failure of the Dutch national team.

"Ha, Loris, you think the same as I do. Luiz is indeed a very good coach! I talked to him about you yesterday. Luis thinks you will be the top player in the future. He is very optimistic about you. At the same time You are also in line with his tactical system and requirements!"

"Oh?" Hearing this, Kenny was also shocked. Just as Mendes said, Van Gaal's tactical thinking fits well with Kenny's characteristics, so Van Gaal's favor is not aimless.

You must know that in the Barcelona team, Overmars is the only authentic winger, which can suit Van Gaal's tactical thinking of emphasizing wing attack. He once asked Riquelme and other players to try to play on the wing, although they did not achieve good results. effect, but it can be seen that it relies heavily on wing tactics.

"That's it! I don't think you know Lloris yet. After quitting the national team, Luis was invited by Barcelona again. Now he is considering it. If possible, Luis hopes to go to Barcelona with you. It’s a good opportunity! You should know that Barcelona have contacted me many times, especially when they are empty this season.”

When Mendes saw Kenny’s interest, he talked on the other side of the phone endlessly. As Kenny is now his most potential client, Mendes is naturally very concerned. At first, when Barcelona was the first The first time he gave him a message, he refused at all without bothering Kenny, because in his opinion, Barcelona is already a mess, and it is not a good place for Kenny at all.

But after his comprehensive analysis during this period of time, Mendes found that Barcelona now has the determination and intention to overthrow and rebuild. If Van Gaal really agrees to return to Barcelona at this time, then he has always relied more on the side. The current Dutch coach will definitely list Kenny, who is different from the past, as an important fulcrum of tactics. If Kenny's performance in this World Cup is still dazzling, then even the core of tactics is very likely!
Therefore, this is undoubtedly a good opportunity for Kenny to meet the weathered dragon! !

(End of this chapter)