very four years, each national coach has a chance to create history, to mark their name in annals of sporting time for all to marvel over and perhaps more importantly to them, to enhance their reputations to the point in which the job offers come landing at their door. However, there is a flip side too and underperformance will see a coach’s reputation in tatters with a trip to the unemployment office a likely scenario. One coach who has enjoyed both success and disappointment in almost equal measure on the global scale is the Netherlands’ head coach Louis van Gaal. One of the most high-profile managers heading to Qatar, van Gaal is no stranger to the Netherlands hotseat - occupying the position for a third time after taking over from Frank de Boer in June 2021. For so long, the Dutch have been the World Cup nearly men having lost in the final three times and finished third once. That solitary third place finish was under van Gaal’s watch in 2014 but once again expectation is high. Van Gaal has little left to prove, but you know what you’re going to get, and a 4-3-3 formation sees the Netherlands at their strongest.
