FFA Technical Director Han Berger On Preparing The Socceroos
The Dutchman will be preparing a report for the FFA on the methods used by staff to prepare for South Africa.
By Chris Paraskevas
May 12, 2010 4:09:00 AM
When Rinus Michels brought his famous Netherlands outfit into camp for the 1974 World Cup, you would be unsurprised to learn that his preparations were entirely team-based and involved a heavy physical schedule resembling something of a domestic pre-season: this was, after all, the man nick-named ‘The General’ for his uncompromising approach.
Yet despite the fact that Michels was a tactical pioneer the aforementioned method that might have been the vogue within national team camps in years gone by has now transformed with the globalization of football and the relatively free movement of playing labour across the continents. All but two of the Dutch players who took part in that famous World Cup final in 1974 were playing their football in the Netherlands at the time.
To give you an idea of how times have changed, only four of the players who took to the pitch for the Oranje in their 2-0 World Cup Qualifying victory over Norway last June were not playing abroad.
“The most important thing is that in the old days, the team came in and would do one program all together,” FFA Technical Director Han Berger tells Goal.com.
“This started to change when football really became a global sport but if you look at the preparations of the Dutch team in ‘74 with Michels, the players all played in Holland, came into camp, had a very physical preparation that was like a pre-season.
“That changed from the moment that players played everywhere in the world, basically from the beginning of the 90s. That is a major change because you have to tailor it for every individual.”
Australia is no exception to the rule, with this most recent of World Cup squads a sharp contrast to the locally dominated group of players that made the nation’s first ever appearance at football’ showpiece event in ’74 – Verbeek has selected only one A-League player.
In camp with team, with the staff, will be making a report for the FFA to see what lessons can be learned for future tournaments. Focusing on the development of players, particularly young ones, expecting a generational shift after the World Cup.
Of course, it’s not just the fact that players are now plying their trade outside their home countries but they are doing so in a variety of different settings that are providing for unique individual situations: Luke Wilkhsire will be coming in off domestic season in Russia while Michael Beauchamp has been called up after a stint with Al Jazira-Club in the UAE.
As a result, the form, mental and physical state of the players are hardly similar, as has been highlighted by the delicate situation involving Harry Kewell and the likes of even Marco Bresciano and Vince Grella, who have been plagued by injury this season. Gone are the days where the team-based preparations used by the likes of Michels were the norm, with the focus now on tailoring individual preparation of players whilst not neglecting team-based tactical sessions.
It is a process that will involve not just Pim Verbeek but his entire coaching staff, who will be studied by Berger in the build-up to the tournament as he prepares a report for his employers at Football Federation Australia.
“As a football technician, I have a long history as a coach myself so in the first place you look at the football things: the way the staff approach training situations, the build-up physically to the tournament which is a more tailored situation because the background of every player is different.
“It will be interesting to see how that works. The time of a team orientated building up of fitness and readiness for a tournament is long gone because you really have to tailor that to every individual player: some stopped playing long ago, some play on, some are coming back from injury, others like [Tim] Cahill have played 60 or 70 games this season. My intention is to record that for future approaches.
“Then of course that leads into a team tactical approach towards every individual game to get a maximum result from that.”
Berger had a similar role when he was Technical Director for the KNVB, casting an eye over the Netherlands’ preparations for Euro 2000. How did the approach to preparation differ in that camp to the Australia one?
“I think those approaches at this level, they differ from country to country depending on the mentality and background of the staff,” Berger continues.
“This [Australia’s] won’t differ too much from the approach to the Dutch team at Euro 2000 because Pim [Verbeek] is a Dutch coach.
“Every coach has his individual approach but in general there are many similarities, especially with Dutch coaches.
“Just as the Brazilians have their own style of doing things and the Germans have their own style.”
The aspect of the camp that Berger most looks forward to is the presence of a number of Australia’s next generation of Socceroos in the provisional squad picked by Verbeek: the likes of James Holland, Nikita Rukavytsya, Dario Vidosic and Adam Federici.
“[I’ll look at] how they develop during this period, to have a clear idea who will be our next crop of players for the next campaign. I can advise Pim’s successor and give him as good as possible a start.
“I’m very curious especially to see how our young players go. There are also players that are a little older and have a little more experience but didn’t play much in the national team, Dario Vidosic, for example.
“I’m very curious to see how they develop and how they handle being in a camp like that because you’re very close with them, see them on a day-to-day basis and that’s very interesting for me and the future of football in Australia.”
The immediate priority will of course be the fine-tuning of Australia’s senior stars ahead of a June 12 kick off against Germany. More so than in 2006, the current coaching staff will have to nurse a number of players given their lack of game time over the past season, which will impact upon the mental and physical readiness of those individuals.
“Some need to do more and others need to rest because there is a big difference between players coming in fit and fresh,” Berger says.
“You can be medically fit but if you play 70 games or sometimes more than it is very important for coaches and staff to get players fresh.
“Freshness is mainly a mental aspect much more than a physical one and you need to take all those things into consideration.
“Pim as a head coach is more or less like a conductor of an orchestra and you have to conduct that whole process and that’s one of the most important roles of a head coach and then at the end of the day to make the tactical choices in game preparation.
“For that whole process you have lots of specialists for the physical side of things and then you decide on the team’s strategy and line-up.”
Verbeek’s rather conservative selection policy should serve him well in this regard according to Berger, who ahs described the decision to call upon familiar faces rather than experiment with in-form but untried players – Joel Griffiths, Eddie Bosnar and Sasa Ognenovski are names that spring to mind – as “wise” given the limited time for tactical preparation.
“I think that’s a very wise thing to do [selecting familiar players]. It looks like you have quite some time from the outside but a few weeks is nothing, especially if you have to get players fit and ready. Four weeks is nothing – it’s gone before you know it.”
Berger similarly sees no reason for Verbeek to affect any major changes in his team’s playing style ahead of the tournament. I ask whether the conspicuous absence of a Plan B or Plan C for the Socceroos if things go awry in that first group game against Germany is a concern.
“I think every coach and every team has a Plan B or Plan C but that’s something different; many people think a plan B is switching from 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 or a totally different system but even the best players in the world would struggle with that and would need time to adjust to a new formation.
“You never see the big teams totally change their approach and formation. Plan B is about a little bit of a different accent: a little bit more back or forward or instead of a midfield player, an extra attacker playing in a certain position. It’s small changes like that.”
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