Why Dutch managers struggle in Premier League – but Arne Slot can buck trend at Liverpool
When Arne Slot is officially unveiled as Liverpool’s new manager there will already be doubts about his ability to maintain the success of Jurgen Klopp given the mediocre record of Dutch managers in the Premier League.
Slot has done a wonderful job at Feyenoord, winning the Eredivisie last season and the Dutch Cup this time around. There is a good reason he was Tottenham Hotspur’s first choice to replace Antonio Conte last summer. He is much admired.
But his Feyenoord side are going to finish second this season behind PSV Eindhoven in a year where the biggest and most successful club in the Netherlands, Ajax, have had a disastrous campaign.
It is too simplistic to write off a manager on the basis of their nationality, of course, but there is a pattern that emerges if you look at how Dutch managers have fared in the Premier League.
Even those coaches who have had some success, have not had longevity. Only the former Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham manager, Martin Jol, has managed more than 200 Premier League games.
Indeed, history has shown us that Dutch managers have found it tricky to bend and shape English football culture to their will, despite some giants of the game having the chance to shine on these shores.
All were different personalities, all had their various strengths and weaknesses, some have had a positive impact, at least initially, but Guus Hiddink, Louis van Gaal, Ronald Koeman, Dick Advocaat, Ruud Gullit and, of course, Erik ten Hag have, to varying degrees, all failed to replicate their previous success abroad while managing in England
It is not just Ten Hag, having built a reputation as one of Europe’s finest head coaches during five successful years in charge of Ajax, who has struggled to execute his vision and implement his ideas.
Ten Hag did a good job in his first season at Manchester United, qualifying for the Champions League and winning the Carabao Cup, but he is fighting to save it in his second despite reaching the FA Cup final for a second successive year.
Some of the criticism of Ten Hag has been over the top. He does not have a squad that is good enough to win the league and the competition for a top-four finish is arguably more intense now than it has ever been.
To reach three domestic cup finals in the space of two years is, when you strip away everything else thrown at him as Manchester United manager, in terms of the character of his players, motivation and defensive vulnerability, a more than decent achievement.
But, given the size of the shoes Slot is stepping into, would a similar record go down well for him at Liverpool? It is unlikely to be perceived as success if he only wins the League Cup in two years at Anfield given everything Klopp has achieved and the quality of the squad he will inherit.
To be fair to Ten Hag, he has already won one trophy and still has a shot of a second, albeit against the silverware-scooping juggernaut that is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Only Jose Mourinho has won two trophies for Manchester United in the 11 years since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
But this is the same environment that Slot will have to survive and, hopefully, thrive in and Ten Hag won more in the Netherlands than the new Liverpool manager.
Even the Dutch managers who have been perceived to do well, such as Hiddink in two caretaker stints in charge of Chelsea, or Koeman who finished sixth with Southampton or Gullit who won the FA Cup at Chelsea and reached the final with Newcastle United, and Van Gaal who won the same trophy with Manchester United and finished fourth in the league – they have not sustained it over a prolonged period of time.
Straight-talking Dutch can create tension with players
What makes the lack of success so strange is that, on the face of things, the Dutch are possibly the most receptive to British culture in Europe. The language barrier is less severe, given the prevalence of English speakers in the Netherlands, and none of the managers mentioned above have needed interpreters to communicate with the dressing room.
Yet there is a bluntness about the Dutch that perhaps does not sit well with some. They are very direct and to the point in the way they talk. When you combine that with a traditionally stern, disciplinarian approach in management styles, it will cause friction.
Newcastle players who played for him say it was Gullit’s arrogance and lack of man-management skills that condemned him to fail on Tyneside, not his tactics or football knowledge. The less said about Frank de Boer’s disastrously brief stint at Crystal Palace the better.
But as a wider point, maybe Dutch managers have not tended to last long in the Premier League because the players find it hard to enjoy playing for them when the months start to be measured in years.
There is also a very different sense of humour in the Netherlands to the UK. Which might seem like a small thing, but in a dressing room and on the training ground, humour is important for team morale.
It is difficult to imagine any of the managers mentioned in this piece having a laugh and joke with their players and staff to alleviate tension. Could it be that you can create a working environment that is too intense and demanding for players in this country to thrive?
Perhaps it is also to do with the way football is coached in the Netherlands. For a country with a population of just 17.7 million, the Dutch have always punched above their weight in terms of the quality of players they produce.
Much of that is down to the way they develop players from a young age, focusing on technical ability, rather than physicality and athleticism. Training methods are similar with senior players too. Not all enjoy being told where to stand, where to pass, where to run in such miniscule detail.
There is a subtle, but crucial difference between imposing your ideas and introducing them. The Dutch have a tendency to believe their way is the only way; that there is the right way to play the game and it their ideas and methods that laid the foundations for modern football. To be fair, they make a decent point too given Johan Cruyff and Ajax’s legacies and enduring influence on how the game is played.
Possibly, and this is admittedly a bold, sweeping statement, the players who have grown up here or adapted to it, find it hard to embrace the Dutch style of management and coaching over a long period of time.
Interestingly, perhaps it is also a macho, male thing. After all, Sarina Wiegman, the Dutch manager of the English women’s team is the most successful international manager in the history of English football, winning the Euros in 2022 and reaching a World Cup final in 2023.
Her approach is far more holistic. She nurtures her players, building strong personal relationships, caring about the person as well as the player. She instructs rather than dictates. Her players like her. Slot would do well to listen to what she has to say about her experience working in English football.
These are all things Slot will have to overcome. He is a highly rated manager who will be bequeathed with a wonderful pool of players when he arrives at Liverpool.
Rather than try to bend English football to his will, maybe he will enjoy more success if he adapts to it a little more freely than some of his countrymen. Sometimes it is more than just football knowledge that leads to success.
