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The Young Socceroos were never going to win the World Cup in Colombia. But a 5-1 defeat to a weakened Spain in their final group game in Manizales begs the question of whether our youth footballers are in good hands under the tutelage of Jan Versleijen.
Versleijen arrived in 2008 to take over from former Socceroos defender Steve O’Connor as head of the Australian Institute of Sport’s football program, with the role of head coach of the Joeys and Young Socceroos thrown in.
Since then we’ve seen the Young Socceroos finish bottom of their group at successive World Cups, while the Joeys performed marginally better at the recent under-17 World Cup, reaching the knock-out stage only to be hammered 4-0 by Asian rivals Uzbekistan.
During that time there’s been plenty of talk about performances outweighing the importance of results, but Versleijen isn’t doing too well on either front.
In Manizales, the Young Socceroos lacked cohesion in defence, struggled to retain possession in midfield and relied heavily on opposition errors to get on the scoresheet.
Yesterday, Spain went 4-0 up in less than twenty minutes and looked capable of ratcheting up a cricket score until an opportunistic goal from Kerem Bulut slowed their momentum.
The Spaniards were not only streets ahead of our boys in terms of technical ability, but repeated lapses of concentration seemed to be par for the course in our defence, as was the case in the harrowing 3-2 defeat to Costa Rica.
So how much of that is Versleijen’s fault?
After all, the Dutchman can only go so far as to select his players, instruct them on tactics and try to motivate them psychologically, just like any other coach.
Moreover, Versleijen wasn’t helped by a slew of pre-tournament withdrawals, including high-profile striker Matthew Leckie, while captain Ben Kantarovski went into the tournament lacking match fitness and ultimately missed the final group game through suspension.
That said, tactical rigidity and inflexible “systems” are ruthlessly exposed by teams like Spain, who are as capable playing off-the-cuff as they are at following complex tactical instructions.
And when one of our junior national teams concedes within ninety seconds of kick-off in an important game at a major tournament, it’s reasonable to ask just what it is exactly Football Federation Australia is getting out of the continuing employment of Versleijen.
Is this so-called “Dutch way” really working out? Or has the whole idea been exposed as little more than a marketing ploy dreamed up by FFA employees with more business acumen than football nous?
I don’t think the FFA was wrong to “go Dutch” when they did and quite frankly, I’m sure they’d have copped just as much criticism had an Australian been at the helm in Manizales.
But given that we’re stagnating on the world stage in terms of junior football, if not regressing, now is the time to reassess how things are going, particularly with Versleijen’s contract up for renewal.
I’m not calling for him to be shown the door based solely on results from Manizales and I think it would be a knee-jerk reaction if that was case.
But there’s nothing wrong with asking questions and now is the right time to do so.
Because if Jan Versleijen wants the performances of his teams to speak for him, they’re telling tales in Double-Dutch, and quite frankly some of us are having a hard time understanding.