New Socceroos boss Bert van Marwijk begins race against time to prepare for 2018 World Cup
THE whirlwind of publicity has blown over new Socceroos boss Bert van Marwijk and now the Dutchman must earn his salary in a race against time to prepare Australia for the World Cup.
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JETLAG can be a cruel companion, especially for those not used to the 24-hour flight from Europe.
But Bert van Marwijk has impressive levels of stamina it seems — if the Socceroos are to be reshaped in the image of their new head coach, they won’t lack for staying power.
It’s doubtful van Marwijk would have chosen to spend his first evening in Australia — barely 12 hours after landing — meeting and greeting football dignitaries, journalists and officials. But to his credit, the Dutchman seems to get the fact that this isn’t a European football environment; the commitments he must fulfil to earn his $1.25m salary will be many and varied.
There was nostalgic moment when he caught up with Brett Emerton, with whom he won the UEFA Cup with Feyenoord 15 years ago, and nostalgia of a different kind when he swapped coaching tales with his predecessor at the 1974 World Cup, Rale Rasic.
Most of all, though, van Marwijk wants to get on with his core responsibility, and get out on the training field with his new players.
Every minute that passes until he can is a minute closer to the World Cup without progress being made.
He is also keen to look players in the eye, and see if the dossier he and his staff compiled on them as opponents when he was coaching Saudi Arabia corresponds with how they are in person.
That analysis doesn’t just deconstruct the team, of course, but pinpoint what he saw as its weaknesses. Far too smart to be drawn on what they might be, to avoid being seen to criticise Ange Postecoglou, they will nevertheless be the first tactical adjustments made.
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As to who those players might be, any bolters intending to wow the new boss — especially in the A-League — will have to move fast.
After three games in three days, starting with Sydney FC v Wellington on Friday night, van Marwijk and his assistants will return to Europe, to scatter on a whistlestop scouting mission. With only four weekends until his first squad must be named, the priority will be on assessing the core group of established players.
Then he will finalise the design of a system that is easy to grasp and likely to maximise the talents of those players he chooses.
Van Marwijk seems fascinated by the idea that even the very best teams are vulnerable for a few moments in transition; we can expect his Australian side to target those moments in attack, rather than attacking for its own sake.
Unlike Postecoglou, it won’t be a method designed for years ahead, but the headlines about FFA effecting a change in philosophy in some ways miss the point.
Several of those on the panel of experts offering thoughts about the best way forward once Postecoglou resigned emphasised the pressures and the spotlight that coaching at a World Cup bring.
The strong suggestion was that the best way to allow another Australian coach space and time to succeed with the Socceroos — and yes, to continue to develop a long-term Australian brand of football — was to inoculate them against the damage that one bad result in Russia might cause.
Into the breach steps van Marwijk.
The canapés and small talk have finished; now he starts to earn that million-dollar salary.