‘De Week van de ondernermer’ – The Week of the Businessman –
On arrogance and his coaching vision
'The national coach (me) sees opportunities because he believes in vision and structure. When I say that, I mean MY vision, and my structure. Yes, that is arrogant. I bet you hear that more, that people find me arrogant. It does not bother me. I am NOT arrogant. But I do believe in my vision. So the people who work in my organization have something to hold on to. That is what I believe in.'
On the importance of preparation – a lesson from his mum!
'I see chances because I believe in preparation. That is half the job. My mum used to say that. And she only went to primary school. But she knew that! You don’t think I would be standing here without preparing? Training. In football that is normal. Is it normal in a company. You recruit people and do you train them to create the best product? I do that! I train them every day. I go over certain things every day. I do training, analysis and evaluation. That is what I believe in.'
On his backroom staff
'I can’t do it on my own. Because I don’t know everything, do I? I know you start laughing, because I am portrayed continuously that I do know everything. I listen to specialists? Do you listen to your employees? They produce your stuff.
'Look here: The coaches, these are my staff. If I go back to what I believe in: Preparation, training, analysis, evaluation, than it all comes down to the use of my organisation! I have 12 members of staff who are working for me, who are preparing, training, analysing and evaluating for me. But I am the one who has to guide them, steer them in the right direction.
'We have two assistant coaches and a goalkeeper coach. So, including me as head coach, that is a group of four staff members who are just focusing on skills and tactics. And I have a total of 12, including all the others, physiologists, video analysts, etc. This is how important it is to work in my organisation so I can get the best product possible on the pitch. All together, there are 37 people in my staff.
'When I became national coach, the whole world thought I was going to pick the players who had to get us to the World Cup. No! First the staff! I always first pick my staff! I have to surround myself with good staff. We have to surround the players with quality staff. Why? It does not matter whether is a product, a tool, a machine, or knowledge you want to pass on to a big public, I always make sure that I have specialists in every department who advise me.'
On ‘being the boss’
'Almost always I follow the advice of the specialists in my organisation. Almost always, as I am still the boss and I take the decisions. When you look at all the figures, my staff, and you add the number of players in the squad, than it comes usually to 60 people I am working with on a daily basis. By vision on the football process.
'Vision is not just about the game. My vision also stands for my vision on each person, on society, on the way I speak. My tone of voice, If I leave gaps in between my sentences. There is always a reason for that. It always comes back to my football team.'
On the Spanish inspiration behind his tactics
'A team with tactics with a triangle shape midfield, with the point in the direction of the defence. When I saw the Dutch squad players for the first time two years ago, I showed them something. And why? Because it was something that could bind us.
'We are all in this for the same reason, we are engaged with the game. So I showed them Barcelona, who play with the triangle midfield with the point directing to the defence, one controlling midfielder, that is how they play. But they don’t have a real striker. They have a different kind of striker. Well, OK, that is (Lionel) Messi, indeed, a very different striker.
'But I had something to say about that to my players. I prefer to have a real striker in my team. Not a false No 9, which is Messi (crowd laughs, Van Gaal smiles): "I don’t mean anything with that…". So I also showed the players Spain. Otherwise the players would say: "Yes boss, but how can we adapt to a new system when we only meet up 8 times a season for a couple of days?" Well they’d be right saying that.
'So I showed them the Spanish national team, they play like that. The boys in my squad knew from day one what the vision of Van Gaal stood for. That was very important. I was clear to them. I made sure there was transparency. You always have to be transparent!'
The manager on why he hasn't had a holiday. "When there is a challenge like this, I never let them go. This is also a holiday for me. I like the way I can work." He adds that fourth place is never a target for him, only first place but stresses he needs to click with the players.
“I am very proud to be here, I hope I fulfil your expectations. I hope you support your team always not only when we are winning but when we are losing, because we are not only winning together but losing together.”