Johan Cruyff has laid the Dutch national team’s failure to qualify for the European Championships in France firmly at the KNVB’s door.

  • By James Rowe

cruyff knvbWriting in his weekly column for the national newspaper De Telegraaf, Johan Cruyff did not hold back on the Dutch football federation, which is fronted by director Bert van Oostveen.

Cruyff wrote, “The problems we have are not from yesterday and the KNVB should have acted earlier. It’s not the result but the style of play that needs to be analysed. Almost everybody has the same problem.When you play against a strong team we have elements to surprise, but when teams have to take the initiative themselves that’s where problems arise.”

He cites PSV’s home draw against Excelsior Rotterdam from this past weekend as a fine example of this.

Cruyff continued, “We must train more to the high standards and on things of worth in football. The through ball is not good enough, general passes to fellow teammates are also often not good enough. The 3rd man is never reached and our counter attacking is far too slow. All these elements and parts of the game can be improved in training and the KNVB should ensure this.”

“I can only hope that the eyes of the KNVB are now opened. because not qualifying is a catastrophe, but on the other hand maybe it will wake everyone up. Because it is high time that happened.”




James Rowe (696 Posts)