Everton manager Ronald Koeman spoke to NOS’s Joep Schreuder about attributes to succeed in the Premier League, Tactics and the Dutch KNVB.
- By James Rowe
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The former Feyenoord and Ajax boss left Southampton for Everton this summer and has led the club to second with four wins and a draw so far.
On the differences between England and the Eredivisie, Koeman said, ”Of course the Premier League is in all aspects is better than the Eredivisie that is obvious . But I would say hypothetically that FC Barcelona , Real Madrid , Bayern Munich & Atletico Madrid would be fighting for the title if they played in England.
”In a general sense if you are not physically strong then your technical ability must be superb in order to have a chance to compete as a player in the Premier League. What we do here at Everton in training and in matches is that we play in a really intense way for example 5 against 5 with the will to win and not just to do the drill. The margins are small but our tempo is very high . We train for an hour and a half and not 2 hours but we train in a really concentrated and intensive way and players find that difficult. I was at Manchester City’s training yesterday and if you look at how many fit players that they have in relation to last season it is a massive difference and that is down to the way that they train.”
On tactics Koeman added, ”I am an advocate of retaining ball possession rather than chasing the ball and building from the back but in some cases if you are much more direct you can also be more dangerous and I believe that you have to find a balance between both styles of play and that does not always happen in the Netherlands. I also believe that it very naive to only play football one way . However It is important to stay true to your football idea’s ”.
On the issues that the KNVB are currently having, Koeman said, ” I know Hans van Breukelen as a man who has a lot of qualities outside of football in the management of organizations and knowing what is needed. The departures of the assistants of the Dutch national team is down to the leaders of the KNVB they have made a complete mess of things. In the case of the Dutch national team you work in a period of 2 years working towards a major tournament and together you either achieve qualification of not and therefore it is difficult to accept people just leaving when they want. There have been so many errors made by the KNVB it appears to me that there must be change ”.
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