Feyenoord’s choice for the inexperienced coach Robin van Persie is a big gamble

Robin van Persie, a 41-year-old trainer in development, must take care of peace, structure and entertainment at Feyenoord. His appointment, deemed unthinkable until recently, can be seen as a risky and at the same time pragmatic choice. Risky because Van Persie has not yet proven himself as a trainer at the highest level. Pragmatic because as a former top striker of Feyenoord, among others, he has a lot of credit.

On Sunday morning, Feyenoord announced that it immediately made Persie contracted as a new head coach, as the successor to the fired Brian Priske. He signs until mid -2027 and starts on Monday. The 41-year-old Van Persie is switching from SC Heerenveen, where he started eight months ago. The idea was that he would mature there as a coach in professional football, after three seasons as a youth trainer at Feyenoord. Last spring the Feyenoord-Top did not find him ready for the head coach, after the departure of Arne Slot. Yet the leadership has now been released with him. Feyenoord pays SC Heerenveen a transfer fee to purchase the contract.

Four years ago, the appointment of Slot coincided with a change of course. As a young, progressive trainer, he also had to manage a culture change within the conservative and difficult -functioning football organization. There had to be more room for an innovative, partly on data -driven method. Guidelines became a progressive attacking playing method. By developing talent, (transfer) value had to be created.

That football technical strategy is now more diffuse. And by extension the choice for Van Persie: on which it is exactly based, remains unclear. Sentiment unmistakably plays along. Van Persie played in the youth of Feyenoord, started his professional career and ended in De Kuip in 2019.

That background is an advantage – within the whimsical field of Feyenoord he can operate reasonably sovereign. Giovanni van Bronckhorst, also ‘child of the club’, showed that: he continued to keep confidence in a difficult period and eventually won five prizes.

Dominant playing method

What argues for Van Persie is that, like Slot, he stands for an attacking, dominant playing method. But whether Van Persie also has the verbal and tactical talent to grind his spelfilosophy is still to be seen. Heerenveen was particularly changeable among him-a handsome 1-0 win over PSV was followed a week later by a sensitive 3-0 defeat at Almere City.

His ideas about football come over naive and dogmatic – not strange to a starting trainer. He consistently wants to put pressure on ‘high’, with the result that the defense plays with a lot of space in the back. He makes few concessions in this. Van Persie is convinced that if his team continues to do the same every time, it will yield more than that he switches back to a conservative spare view under pressure.

The reality of top football is different. The defensive structure is often the basis of a successful team. In September Heerenveen remained carefree attacks against AZ, meanwhile gave large spaces away and lost 9-1. Yet Van Persie said he was ‘proud’ of his players – because they had held on to the plan. The shaky defense is apparent from the statistics – 42 goals in 23 league matches.

‘Hard to work together’

If Heerenveen has proven something for a short time, it is that Van Persie is not yet ready for the top. That is also the image that looms up a reconstruction this weekend in the Leeuwarder Courantthat spoke with sixteen stakeholders. This shows that it is ‘extremely difficult to collaborate’ with Van Persie. Tensions arose in the trainers’ staff, players missed ‘personal attention’ and ‘connection’ with the coach and director Ferry de Haan got into a ‘hefty argument’ with Van Persie about the quality of the selection.

Although charismatic, his way of communicating causes resentment. Team discussions would take a long time and the moral and self -confidence of players would not do well. And if the emotions prevail, Van Persie can, according to insiders who have the Leeuwarder Courant Speaked with doors or running away in discussions and pointing to his authority: he is the trainer, so he determines. According to the newspaper, ‘many’ at SC Heerenveen are ‘relieved’ that Van Persie leaves.

It raises the question of whether Feyenoord did his homework: Were the internal problems in Heerenveen around Van Persie known at the club management in Rotterdam when they entered into conversation with him? It is a fact that managing Feyenoord is considerably more complex than SC Heerenveen. Not only in terms of pressure and dynamics, but also the staff (around twenty people at Feyenoord) and selection (thirty players) are larger.

With René Hake he gets an experienced assistant as a right hand who must ensure structure in tactics and in the field training. Hake previously worked at FC Twente and Manchester United. And he must prevent Van Persie from making mistakes such as the much-discussed goalkeeper change against Quick Boys last month in the KNVB Cup-the introduction of Andries Noppert briefly led an unnecessary defeat.

The choice of Feyenoord for the inexperienced of Persie is a big gamble. The entry time is unfavorable, in the middle of the season, with hardly any training time to build in a playing method. Many basic players are injured. And there are still heavy league matches, out against FC Twente and AZ, at home against PSV. And the eighth final of the Champions League against Internazionale. It is also a daring step for Van Persie. Because he also knows: in principle you can only board your first love once.

To share





Mail the editors