Red Devils head coach Mark van Bommel delivers his dressing-room talks in Dutch, as shown in videos posted on the federation’s social media channels. He did so at his very first meeting with the squad, and again after the match against Italy. Speaking to HLN, he explained that his assistants, Boudewijn Zenden and Maarten Martens, are fluent in French, that all the players understand Dutch, especially when he slows down, and that anything left unclear gets explained again, by him or by someone else.
In one-to-one talks with French-speaking players such as Diego Moreira or Roméo Lavia, he switches to English. With Matias Fernandez-Pardo, it’s Spanish. “In that respect, we can go in any direction,” he summed up to HLN. Dutch as the language of the dressing room? “Absoluut geen probleem,” absolutely no problem, according to him.
One language for the group. Another for one-to-one. A third for Fernandez-Pardo. And someone to explain it all again. In 1980, the coach pointed at the blackboard and said three words. Nobody asked which ones. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing. Note that I’m not against progress. I’m against this progress.
The re-explaining, Van Bommel said, happens after the meeting or on the training pitch. The coach is already looking further ahead: he believes the Red Devils could have gone further at the World Cup, and even won it with a bit of luck, and that this has to be the mentality for the next tournament.
Speaking more slowly. That’s a method. We didn’t speak at all, and we still understood. Everyone understands, he says. I believe him. A ball going into the net is the same language everywhere. It still has to go in, though. Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: HLN.
