retired_manragh

retired_sibel

Epic opening post, and I laughed at the word play there. I'm gonna follow this thread as well.

retired_manragh

Day one

It’s always good to see the fans on board early and with Rob’s write-up on the clubs website there wasn’t going to be to many doubter’s now I would of thought, not that it really matters anyway, I can worry about what the fans think a few months into the job.

Sitting back in my office, looking out the window over the city, I remember back to my origins, it’s the one thing that gives me comfort and it has all my life, I’ve worked hard to get here, bloody hard in fact, and that’s what I’ll do again, it’s never failed me before and I’m sure it won’t know.

I was brought out of my little daydream by a knock on the door and then Danny Blind entered with a smile on his face, Danny was technical director here and a man I needed to work closely with, if I needed something he would do his best to get it done, and judging by the smile on his face he had some good news.

As it turned out he had a few loan possibilities for me to go over, all of them forwards and it’s what we definitely needed, but not one of them were over 22 which wasn’t ideal, I wanted some experience to rely on up front, we needed someone who could hit targets, show so composure up there, something that the youngest players didn’t quite have in abundance. Going over the reports though I picked out three with an order of preference Ipswich 19 year old Danny Haynes was number one then Rogier Krohne and Marko Arnautovic from a couple local Dutch sides.

We chatted for a bit and when Danny left it was back down to business going over the squad strengths and weakness, along with possible line-ups, all of this was only penciled in of course, it would be pretty foolish to pick a side without actually seeing them train and that first session wasn’t until tomorrow.

The thing I did have soon was the staff meeting, time to get ready for that, I already have a fair idea of who is who and what they do from one of the many dossiers that I received upon taking the post.

The Staff

All the staffing profiles were compiled by the various board members, but mostly they were either from Danny Blind who was a director or Charles who was the general manager.

Fred Grim was going to be my assistant this year, he had been a player up until last year with Ajax as their goalkeeper, it was his first time as an assistant obviously, but he was a talented coach all the same

Adri van Tiggelen The 50 year old represented Holland 56 times in his career and is a favourite around the ‘Castle’ he played here back in the 80’s and even was temporary manager here back in 2005, a valuable asset around the club, great technical and attacking mind.

Chris de Jong Goalkeeping coach, not as good as Fred in that area but has been here since 2005, Fred can’t always help out in the area as he was hired as an assistant manager so Chris was kept on, definitely knows his stuff though!

Jos van Eck Youth coach at the academy – specialises in fitness

Marcel van der Net Youth coach – good technical and attacking coach

Arjan van der Laan Youth coach – club legend of sorts, great tactical coach, disciplined and good technical.

Orland Trustfull Youth coach

Marco de Ruiter Youth coach – was a regular coach, but moved back to the academy last year, great defensive coach amongst other attributes.

So there we had it that was the coaching staff I had to play with, it was great to Arjan here, me and him had played together back in the 90’s and were pretty good mates back then, one thing I did notice though is that we had too many Youth coaches, so I think offering both Arjan and Marco moves to the first squad would be beneficial.

The club had 3 physio’s who were all pretty new to the set up, Ed van Venrooy was the head of the department though so that’s whom I presume I would see the most, hopefully not a real lot though.

We only had one scout and that was Richard Grootscholten, seeing as I was to go to Danny anyway about transfers there wasn’t any great need to have a lot of scouts.

retired_manragh

The Squad

The first thing really to do is get some familiarity with the squad, reports were a good indicator, but in the end that’s all they were, I had to make up my own mind when the time come, but these were a good enough for the moment.

First up was a team report of our best team with a 442 formation in mind, it was supplied by assistant the board and there was a few familiar names on there, including Sander Westerveld and Nourdin Boukhari who was here as a youngster when I left, not sure what real good the team report is when I have no real idea of the quality were up against, but the general consensus was it was a decent enough squad with good depth but a bit more attacking fire power would come in handy.

Time to go through the individual reports

First Team Squad

Keepers
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Cor Varkevisser:25 yoDutchDecent young keeper brought in this year from VVV, has had experience at Excelsior, quality technical skills, great handling and reflexes, need to work on communication and his command of area, can be suspect to the high ones, #2.Sander Westerveld32 yoDutch 6 intsIn from Spain after a decent season in the 2nd division there, before that he hasn’t played a lot of first team games, pretty good across the board in all respects and will be the #1 this year</pre>
Defence
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Kim Jaggy:24 yoSwiss u21 capped – Left backQuick, great stamina and strength, fantastic tackler and marking, works hard all day running up and down the pitch, horrendous passer of the ball only draw back but should be there abouts as a starter, in from Swiss side GrasshopperOlaf Lindenbergh33 yoDutch – Left back /Def MidfielderQuick and agile, good stamina, hard worker, fantastic player technically and easily our best left back although would be more valuable in the midfield, in from Ajax.Sjaak Polak:31 yo Dutch – Left back/wingback or midfieldVersatile player, decent pace, hard worker and team player, not as defensive minded as Jaggy but attacking skills are along way above, fantastic dead ball player, 3rd season with Sparta, regular last two years.Inderlindo M – Freire22 yoDutch – Right back/wing back/midfield – Central Def.Decent young player, average speed and technical skills, better on the right as lacks a little height and the technical aspects needed for a good centre back, 5th year at the club – rotational last year.Sepp De Roover 22 yoBelgian – right back/wingback u21 cappedA bit better than Inderlindo in all areas and a better choice at right back, good getting forward and a decent delivery from wide, 2nd season at club first team regular last yearWouter Gudde: 22 yo Dutch – Centre backHard working centre back good tackler and heading, great leadership qualities for one so young, a little inconsistent but should be there abouts for first team selection, 4th season at club, rotational last yearJerold Promes:23 yo Dutch – Centre backVery similar to Wouter, but lacks in a few areas, good backup though, first year here from AZ.Danny Schenkel 29 yo Dutch – Centre backAnother good hard working sort of player, excellent tackler and header, rarely caught out of position and leads by example down back, our number 1 defender, a regular here since the 02/03 season.Nathan Rutjes23 yoDutch- Centre back / def midfieldGood young player, good technical defender lacks a little pace and strength, hard working team player, rotational, solid in the hole infront of the back 4 as well, 3 year at club played 2 games so far.Edwin van Bueren27 yo Dutch – Centre back/ def mid / central or right midVersatile player with great mental strength, not the most gifted technically but a good work ethic makes up for it as much as possible – contract not renewed as yet, been here since 02/03 regular first team player</pre>
Midfield
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Marvin Emnes: 19 yoDutch – Att Mid R/L/C – StrikerQuick and agile and versatile player who can slot in anywhere around the front third, lacks composure and finishing in front of goals and can be lazy at times, played here last two years 27 games 1 goal.Nourdin Boukhari:27 yo Moroccan – Att Mid Centre/Left – 7 caps 1 goalOur best player in the squad, quick and agile, with great stamina and strength, works hard, delightful technical abilities, key in our success this year, great playmaker, first season back since 01/02Edouard Duplan24 yo French – right winfer – StrikerQuick with good technical skills, creative player, better winger than striker, lacks a little polish on his finishing, in from RBC.Charles Dissels22 yo Dutch – central att midQuick sort of player but lacks a little stamina, fantastic passer of ball and works hard, loves to take on players and doesn’t mind a goal or two, in from Volendam where he played 37 games last year scoring 12 goals.Arne Slot:28 yoDutch – central att midQuickish, good stamina, works hard, similar to Dissels just more polished in all areas, from Breda where had been regular, can be inconsistent at times, but should be good value for a start.Yuri Rose:28 yo Dutch – central att mid / StrikerGood without excelling, lacks polish on his finishing, good back up rotational sort of player.</pre>
Striker
<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Darryl Roberts23 yo Trin & Tob – Striker 2 capsOur only out and out striker, pacey type with a decent finish, can lack composure at times in front of goal but great in the air, good aerial threat around the box.</pre>

Report
A quality clinical finisher is a priority, other positions have good depth and should be competitive with most teams, but if we can’t score we won’t win.

Reserves

Going through all the reserve squad players seemed they were mostly all pretty much back up types, all were pretty young lacking experience but there were good signs for the future, Jeffrey Vlug was one in particular, a good quality attacking midfielder, Sani Kaita was another the Nigerian had already played 3 games for his country and was still improving in his defensive midfield role