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Frank de Boer

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King Binny

King Binny

Part of the Furniture
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Out of boredom, decided to read up on him...

Ajax coach Frank de Boer has led the club to their 31st Eredivisie title, his second championship triumph in just 16 months at the Dutch giants.

Ajax clinched the title with a 2-0 win over VVV Venlo last night with Siem de Jong scoring a brace.

De Boer has overcome a number of obstacles including injuries (he has used 27 players during the campaign) to key players such as Kolbeinn Sigþórsson, Derk Boerrigter and Gregory van der Wiel this season. The former Dutch international has guided his young team to a second successive league title despite his efforts being undermined by a bitter boardroom dispute involving club icon Johan Cruyff during the season.

Cruyff rejoined the board last February after starting his 'technical revolution' by criticising his former club on a number of occasions in his weekly newspaper column for De Telegraaf, culminating in a piece headlined "This is not Ajax anymore."

The internal power struggle intensified in February when Cruyff won a court battle overturning the appointments of Louis van Gaal and Martin Sturkenboom against his wishes. The supervisory board quit after losing the case, and Cruyff eventually also resigned with a new board coming in to implement his revolution.

The entire supervisory board - Edgar Davids, Steven ten Have, Paul Romer and Marjan Olfers - had already resigned from the club before Cruyff, following a Dutch appeals court decision to uphold an original ruling in December that prevented Van Gaal and Sturkenboom from being appointed directors at Ajax.

"That was not a pleasant period as the club was divided into two groups and several people acted strangely and were avoiding their rivals," De Boer was quoted as saying in Voetbal International.

"For me, it felt like I had to choose between a son and a daughter in opting to take the side of either Cruyff or Van Gaal."

"I supported Cruyff publicly as he had asked me to and I also agree with his technical and tactical blueprint for the club."

"I was also disappointed in Louis van Gaal as he had kept Cruyff in the dark when he was appointed," De Boer added.

Ajax put together a run of 13 straight wins and lifted the championship with a match to spare with arch-rivals Feyenoord currently in second place. Ajax had been in fifth place in the league, trailing leaders AZ by 11 points after the first 12 games.

De Boer has won the title playing a brand of football loyal to the ideals of Cruyff and Van Gaal. Ajax have been starting 10 players from their youth academy towards the end of the season with only Theo Janssen (a product of the Vitesse youth team) stopping De Boer fielding an entirely home-grown line-up. Youngsters Lorenzo Ebecilio, Jody Lukoki, Aras Özbiliz, Dico Koppers, Ruben Ligeon, Ricardo van Rhijn and Daley Blind have all played their part this season. Ajax tend to play two touchline-hugging wingers in a possession based 4-3-3 formation.

De Boer also led Ajax to last season's title after taking over from the sacked Martin Jol in 2010.

De Boer expects skipper Jan Vertonghen to leave the club this summer with a number of European clubs interested in the Belgian international.
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When Frank de Boer took over the managerial reigns at Ajax, the club had not won the league for six years and the brand of football they played was despised by idealists such a Johan Cruyff. Board room power struggles and mismanagement had seen them slide from Europe’s elite to a feeder club for European giants. Even with court room battles constantly hovering over the club, De Boer has managed to lead them to two successive titles. But more importantly, he has restored Ajax’s identity; playing attractive and attacking football. The next step now is to regain lost glory at the European level.

De Boer was brought in to replace Martin Jol after a slew of poor results. His problems were compounded as key players like Suarez, left the club. De Boer though immediately set about reshaping the team, playing a fluid 4-3-3 with only one holding midfielder. He effectively steered the club through troubled times and led them to their first league title in six years.

However, new season brought little change and de Boer faced a barrage of on-field and off-field problems. Cruyff’s feud with supervisory board members escalated and in February, he won a court battle overturning the appointments of Louis van Gaal and Martin Sturkenboom. All members of the supervisory board quit after losing the case, and Cruyff eventually resigned in April, with an agreement in place for choosing a new board. De Boer later stated that the boardroom confrontation was “not a pleasant period” and for him it was as though he had to “choose between a son and a daughter”; with both Cruyff and van Gaal being major influences on his career.

Injuries too hampered a young Ajax team in the early period. Key players such as Derk Boerrigter and Gregory van der Wiel missed long periods of the season. De Boer had to use as many as 27 players during the season. A horrendous start to the season due to poor form and injuries meant that Ajax found themselves placed 6th in the league after 20 games.

Ajax showed terrific determination in troubled times and marched to a 13 match winning streak leaving title challengers in their wake. However, victory was only possible because their league rivals faltered. In early February, Ajax’s 4-2 loss at a Feyenoord was followed by a 2-0 loss to Utrecht in consecutive weeks, which left them 8 points behind leaders PSV.

However, PSV capitulated after conceding six goals in a home game against FC Twente and a subsequent change of manager. AZ and Twente both had momentum with them in February but the team lost steam and their title charge fizzled out towards the closing stages of the season. Feyenoord and Heerenveen were always in contention but their inconsistency cost them a shot at league glory. In February, the race for Eredivisie was a six team title race but an extraordinary 13 match winning streak saw Ajax clinch it at the end.

Ajax, under de Boer in the past year and a half have set up in a fluid 4-3-3 formation. The forward Siem de Jong plays as a false 9, while Danish ‘Wonderkid’ Christian Eriksen is the most attacking of the midfield three, often overlapping de Jong. The two full backs are deployed very high, especially when Gregory van der Wiel is operating at right back. One of, Anita or Enoh, usually plays as the deepest of the three midfielders and often drop between the centre backs who spread out to cover wide positions. Captain and star centre back Jan Vertonghen has had a stellar season and is wanted by several big clubs.

A major problem for de Boer has been to maintain a high percentage of possession percentage. Being wasteful in possession would mean that the players have to work harder to regain it, and are often too drained out to use it effectively. This season Ajax have conceded 8 goals in the last 15 minutes of matches, more than in any other period. On the other hand when they are too cautious in possession, it allows the opposition the time to settle into a solid defensive formation; which was seen in the 4-2 loss against Feyenoord when they dominated possession but had most of it in their own half.

It all fell into place in the 2-0 victory over PSV in March. Ajax maintained a very high intensity of pressure throughout the 90 minutes and dominated possession too. “For 94 minutes we had them by the throat” said de Boer, who could hardly hide his pleasure after the game. Despite 6 regulars being unavailable, Ajax comfortably beat their title rivals.

De Boer from the very beginning had made his intentions, of going back to Cruyff’s philosophy of football and training, very clear. He often spoke of the importance of Ajax returning to their roots and believed Martin Jol’s defensive and rigid formation was partly responsible for the stagnation of the players. He immediately switched to a much more fluid 4-3-3 from a 4-2-3-1, using two wide players and only one holding midfielder as compared to two under Jol. In his second season, de Boer showed more glimpses of Cruyff’s proposed ‘technical revolution‘; as he set the team up in a 3-3-1-3 formation, on a few occasions.

The club seems to be moving in the direction that Cruyff wants them to, and restructuring is on at every level of the club to implement his philosophy, one that today sees Barcelona at the pinnacle of the footballing pyramid. He has often criticised Luis van Gaal for degrading Ajax’s youth academy by shifting focus from an individualized training to more collective training; a short term approach in his view. Individualized training and character building have been reintroduced at the youth level and is already paying dividends. De Boer has been able to constantly switch formations this season as his players can intelligently adjust. He handed professional debuts to nine players from the youth academy.

Cruyff who assembled Barcelona’s ‘Dream Team’ in the early 90’s has now created a dream team of sorts as far as the coaching staff is concerned. Their manager Frank de Boer is Holland’s highest capped outfield player. The former Barcelona and Ajax player won the Champions League with Ajax under van Gaal in 1996. Dennis Bergkamp is the head of the youth academy and Wim Jonk the Director of Football Affairs. Both played for Ajax in the early 90’s and form the ‘technical heart’ of the coaching team. Other coaches include former players like Jaap Stam, Ronald de Boer, Bryan Roy and Marc Overmars.

Losing players to bigger European clubs has been a problem for Ajax for a long time now. In recent years Wesley Sneijder, Luis Suarez and Thomas Vermaelen have all left for bigger clubs. After losing Maarten Stekelenburg last summer, it looks like de Boer will lose his captain for the second season running as Vertonghen is almost certain to leave the club. Other star like Eriksen, van der wiel and Siem de Jong are also being looked at by other clubs. Having assembled a winning team, de Boer will now have to cope with loss of big players in the summer transfer window and find suitable replacements. Ajax however, do not have the financial resources to make marquee signings. They will yet again have to depend on their youth academy; but it has hardly ever let them down.
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He shot up my list after reading up on him.

His title wins might get underestimated cos of Ajax's stature and the league they're in but with the trouble in the club off the field, the lack of money, injury issues etc. it shouldn't be taken for granted.

Ajax have won their second consecutive Dutch title, which is significant because you have to go back to the mid-1990s for the last time the Amsterdam giants won two in a row.
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I went to Amsterdam on the day they beat Twente and pretty much won the title, they all adore him so it might be hard for us to prise him away.
 
I've got a semi 'bout Frank.

Ooh ! Maybe him and Dagger could convince Eriksen to come.

We could do cash plus Downing.

Send Stewart on a private plane to Amsterdam (after contracts are sorted).

Mysteriously, the plane goes down over The North Sea.....

Ajax shrug.

Everybody wins !
 
themn said:
I've got a semi 'bout Frank.

Ooh ! Maybe him and Dagger could convince Eriksen to come.

We could do cash plus Downing.

Send Stewart on a private plane to Amsterdam (after contracts are sorted).

Mysteriously, the plane goes down over The North Sea.....

Ajax shrug.

Everybody wins !
Click to expand...

there is a place in the liverpool squad for downing, those football cones arent going to put themselves out
 
He needs to come and then we can pillage the bright shining lights of Dutch footy. So far we've had French, Spanish, and British. Maybe Dutch will actually work!
 
Binny said:
He shot up my list after reading up on him.

His title wins might get underestimated cos of Ajax's stature and the league they're in but with the trouble in the club off the field, the lack of money, injury issues etc. it shouldn't be taken for granted.
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Binny give us your top 3 for the managers post!
 
His man management skills and success as a player makes him as strong a candidate as AVB IMHO
 
RolandG said:
Binny give us your top 3 for the managers post!
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If age wasn't an issue (as it seem to be for the owners), I would've like Manuel Pellegrini (chance passed by I guess), Luciano Spalletti or Francesco Guidolin.

For younger manager wise, realistically Didier Deschamps, Frank de Boer or Rudi Garcia.
 
Pellegrini and Deschamps are good shouts but the latter has turned us down twice already. What's the chance that we'll be 3rd time lucky?

I like what I read about De Boer winning the league in adversity. Internet abuzz with AVB rumours and the lead candidate for the job. Can't say I'll be too disappointed with him. We wait with baited breath.
 
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