PSV Eindhoven v Manchester United: Louis van Gaal goes up against old protege Phillip Cocu
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Published 28/08/2015 at 16:40 GMT
Manchester United begin their Champions League campaign at PSV Eindhoven on September 15 as Louis van Gaal matches wits with a man he helped mould into the manager he is today - Phillip Cocu.
Louis van Gaal / Phillip Cocu
Image credit: Reuters
It’s May 2004 and Philip Cocu is tired. The Barcelona player has just become a father for the third time, but he still agreed to an interview and sat one-on-one for an hour. Well, one-on-one plus his eldest son. He’s tired but engaging and if the talks about a new contract are weighing heavily on his mind, it doesn’t show.
The Eindhoven-born midfielder had been brought to Barcelona by compatriot Louis van Gaal in 1998. Cocu spent six years at Camp Nou, longer than at any of his other clubs AZ Alkmaar, Vitesse Arnhem, PSV (two spells) and Al Jazira. He played over 200 times, scoring 31 goals.
Cocu was the foreign player with the most Barça games, a record only broken by Lionel Messi. He was able to play in four different positions from defence to attack; and by the time we meet he’s a veteran who’ll win 101 caps for his country. But he’s not one for the spotlight.
They don’t make special TV programmes about me which analyse the way I play like they do with Ronaldinho, Edgar Davids or Patrick Kluivert, he says. You need players who balance the team just as you need players like Ronaldinho. You also need players who sacrifice for the sake of the team. Madrid had Makelele and look what happened there. He left because he didn’t get the appreciation he wanted from the club.
In his six years at Barça, Cocu’s saw a lot of changes as the club now associated with success which finished as low as sixth in 2003, their worst season in years. Cocu, usually used as a tenacious midfielder and promoted to vice-captain behind Luis Enrique by Van Gaal, was analytical.
“A lot of things went wrong,” he says of a time when Barça struggled more than they excelled. “It’s sometimes difficult to analyse when you are part of the team that is doing badly because you are too close to events. There was never a shortage of outsiders willing analyse our team.”
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Patrick Kluivert (L), Phillip Cocu and Luis Enrique train alongside Louis van Gaal when the four were at Barcelona in 2002
Image credit: Reuters
“When we had one bad year, you could say blame it on the Champions League and more competition in the league, but we slipping every year and we knew it, very slowly, but very surely.”
After a dreadful start to the season, Van Gaal was dismissed for a second time by Barça in 2003 and replaced by Radomir Antic.
“When Antic came here he was so optimistic that sometimes we had to laugh because his optimism didn’t reflect the situation,” smiled Cocu. “We could play the worst game ever and he would find positives to talk about. His method must have worked because Barça got into the UEFA Cup on the final day of the season.”
New signing Ronaldinho, who’d told Brazilian team-mates that he was joining Manchester United, had impressed in a first season at Barça.
“Ronaldinho made a big difference,” said Cocu. “He came here and made training enjoyable once again. He was always, always smiling. His optimism and positivity spread to the other players.
"Maybe he noticed that you have to enjoy football to play it well and he made us all look at ourselves. He made us look at ourselves and think: “we are being paid a lot of money to play this beautiful game in the sun, in this beautiful city”.
"If we can’t enjoy it then we are doing something wrong. It sounds so simple but he made a big difference.”
Cocu was enthralled by life in Barcelona.
“The culture, nightlife, beach, schools, weather, everything is here,” he said, smiling.
But he was at a club who’d been overshadowed by Real Madrid.
“It made it even more difficult for us that Real Madrid were winning the league and the European Cups,” he explained. “There’s such a big rivalry that there’s a real hatred from the supporters that is more than football.”
Barça's boardroom was divided, the changing room too and changes of coaches were frequent a Camp Nou. Instead, Cocu remembers happier times at PSV Eindhoven, where he talked of the great team spirit.
“Stam, Nilis, Ronaldo, myself,” he said. “We were united. For three years we were playing football so well that we were laughing during the game.
"Everything connected. We socialised together, went to Amsterdam together at night, we’d go out in Eindhoven. It’s very difficult to perform at the highest several if you have three or four cliques who don’t connect.
As for Barcelona’s Dutch connection, so strong under Van Gaal with up to eight Dutch players in the first team squad, Cocu said: “There is a connection with the past, with Cruyff, but the for me the main reason is because the football is similar in Holland and Barcelona. Barcelona try always to dominate the game by playing one touch football. We try to attack always. To do that you need quality players and maybe a lack of quality has been a problem in recent years at Barça.
"It’s very difficult to change the philosophy of a club like Barça. We couldn’t, for example, just start playing defensively like Valencia. I have a lot of respect for the way they play and Valencia’s system has been very successful for them, but it would never be possible for Barcelona to play like they do. Barcelona fans demand that the team stick with a philosophy and tradition of the club, and that traditional is to dominate games and not give too many chances away.”
Nothing has changed there in the 11 years since, but what of Cocu’s own philosophy?
I like fast attacking play, one touch play with wingers. If you play this kind of football then it is very enjoyable. Of course you want to win, but if you can win by having 60-65% of the possession then that is better.
Cocu’s Barça team usually had the possession, if not always the results. The media could be stinging in their assessments, singling out what they considered to be an excessive Dutch influence. Cocu was a very good player for Barça and wasn’t one for bringing attention to himself.
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Phillip Cocu gave Memphis Depay his big break at PSV Eindhoven
Image credit: AFP
“I’m not a mediatico (media player) and I don’t want to be one,” he said. “I don’t want the interest from the media. I have a good life here. We integrate into the community. My children are growing up speaking Dutch, English and Spanish. We live well here in Barcelona.” Two days after we spoke, Cocu left Barcelona. The media line was that he refused terms, the truth was that he wasn’t offered a new contract.
Cocu had learned a lot about football management under Van Gaal, and learned too about big club politics at Barcelona. And he put it all to good use when he became coach of PSV Eindhoven, first as caretaker when he gave Memphis Depay his debut in 2012, then permanently in 2013.
In 2015, Cocu’s PSV won the title for the first time since 2008. His team were among the top seeds in the Champions League, higher than the Manchester United side they’ve been drawn against in their group.
Cocu won’t go head-to-head with his old Dutch master as a favourite, but he will go as a hugely respected coach in his own right.
Van Gaal will be proud.
Andy Mitten
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