He played for Paris Saint-Germain with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. Nevertheless, coach Ruud van Nistelrooij managed to convince the talented Xavi Simons to choose PSV last year. “I like the way he sees football, the way he wants to work,” said Simons in the press last summer. “It really is a project. That is why I chose to come here.”
But by the end of this season, it’s unclear exactly what that project entails. For the fifth season in a row, PSV is in danger of missing out on the national title. It is joint second, with eight points on leader Feyenoord. On Sunday, PSV-Ajax is all about that second place, which entitles them to the preliminary round of the Champions League. The lucrative tournament in which PSV was last active in 2018.
It is a confrontation between two top clubs that have to rethink technically after a disappointing season – although the cup final between PSV and Ajax is still waiting next week. Both face a new period, with a new technical director – Earnest Stewart at PSV, Sven Mislintat at Ajax. At PSV in particular, the question is what the football-technical plan will be for the coming years.
Where the identity at Ajax is clearly defined, ‘offensive and creative football, with bravura and technical ingenuity’, it is more fluid at PSV. With which football does the club want to distinguish itself? What is the playing style with which coach Van Nistelrooij wants to make a name for himself? And what type of players should be sought?
There were clear answers under Van Nistelrooij’s predecessor, the German trainer Roger Schmidt. Schmidt’s appointment in the summer of 2020 marked a break in the trend for PSV. Unlike Ajax, the club has a tradition of coaches who advocate pragmatic football, devoid of compelling ideals about how the game should be played. The available player material and the opponent on duty usually largely determined PSV’s way of playing, not the club’s historically developed self-image or the coach’s articles of faith.
The arrival of Schmidt changed that. For the first time, PSV opted for a coach with a modern and outspoken approach to the game. Simply summarized: collective and high pressure, extremely direct, reactive. With attacking backs instead of classic wingers, wandering midfielders and two strikers.
This had a major impact on the purchasing policy, which focused on players who were considered suitable to excel within this system. Mario Götze, but also Ibrahim Sangaré, Philipp Max and Eran Zahavi. In addition, Schmidt used what the public saw as a rigid and inimitable substitution policy, largely based on the physical data of his players.
Planned approach
More clubs are now opting for an uncompromising, planned approach in which they try to put together the squad in such a way that it optimally suits a predetermined style of play. Toulouse FC, Brighton & Hove Albion, Brentford, Liverpool and Bodo Glimt are internationally renowned examples of this. They all make intensive use of data analysis for their scouting and transfer policy, which makes it possible to search for a specific profile worldwide and to compare players with each other. This often leads to success, in the sense that the said clubs, with the exception of Liverpool this season, perform better than you might expect based on their budget.
In a sense, Feyenoord also fits in that list. With limited financial resources, the selection was put together last summer, deliberately in line with the principles of coach Arne Slot: direct, offensive play with a lot of depth and a high intensity with which the opponent is chased. With this way of playing, the competition in the Eredivisie has been trumped to the surprise of many: Feyenoord is on its way to the title. What makes it even more interesting is that the arrival of Slot, in 2021, represented a major change of course compared to his conservative predecessor Dick Advocaat.
Making a clear plan and sticking to it: it sounds simple, but the practice is unruly. Look at Ajax, which has traditionally been praised for its recognizable playing style and purchasing policy aimed at young talents, but without a technical director made a few expensive bad purchases last summer that do not fit within the club philosophy. The best-known example is rental player Lucas Ocampos, but the technically limited defenders Calvin Bassey and Jorge Sánchez are also disappointing for the time being.
In addition: reforming a selection takes time, football players have long-term contracts. At the same time, financial resources in the Netherlands are limited and competition is fierce. The Schmidt period at PSV also showed: you can still work in such a focused way that it does not necessarily lead to short-term success. Schmidt left after two years without a major prize (he did win the KNVB Cup), which means that the pressure on Van Nistelrooij to perform is only greater.
Van Nistelrooij has not yet been able to build a clear profile in his first season. He uses a different style of play than his predecessor – more realistic, more control-oriented, in line with former PSV coach Phillip Cocu. Van Nistelrooij also lets his team collapse further than Schmidt did. He plays with attacking wingers, but is still looking for the right balance in midfield.
„The first thing Roger Schmidt said to me was: ‘As a trainer you have to show your colors’. By that he meant that you should be able to make it immediately clear what your football vision is,” Van Nistelrooij said earlier VI. “A little bit of everything is nothing.” Last winter, after his first six months as PSV coach, he indicated in the same magazine that many players had become accustomed to Schmidt’s tactical principles. “They are a bit conditioned. A transformation to a different way of playing then takes time.”
Another extenuating circumstance is that Van Nistelrooij lost key players along the way. Attackers Cody Gakpo and Noni Madueke left last winter for a combined sum of around 90 million euros in order to get the club’s finances in order – a major blow to the sporting ambitions of the young coach. Only next summer can the selection be fully adapted to Van Nistelrooij’s wishes.
A transfer period for which PSV has created room to invest due to the winter sale. It will be the first test for technical director Stewart, who started in March this year, who previously worked in that position at NAC, AZ and the Philadelphia Union.
Working from a strategy
What can be expected from Stewart? For the past five years he worked at the American Football Association, first as general manager and since 2019 as technical director. The most important thing he left there is a comprehensive technical plan for all national teams, says Rick Cost, who worked with Stewart as director of high performance.
The document describes in detail how coaches from the under fourteen to those of the national teams work according to the same battle plan, including profiles by position. “That was his main goal, to make sure everyone knows how US Soccer plays,” says Cost. That playing style is: attractive, offensive, ‘high’ on the field. There are about 30 teams in all.
Stewart works best from a strategy, Cost noted. “He would like the rules to be very tight and clear and that everyone follows the same plan and the same rules.” Cost is curious how the former American international operates in negotiations about players. “Suppose he has 1 euro to spend, then he will not give you 1.10 euros. Then it is probably: take it or leave it.” That rigid arrangement can sometimes be “complicated” in football, says Cost.
An important file on his plate is the detention of key player Simons. He has a clause in his contract that stipulates that he can return to his previous club, Paris Saint-Germain, for an amount of between 10 and 12 million euros next summer. Stewart will have to convince him with a good plan to stay in Eindhoven for at least another year.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of April 22, 2023.