Going Dutch: How Liverpool inadvertently became the Netherlands’ best team | OneFootball

It was a historic double for the Dutch manager and captain. Not retaining the Eredivisie, though PSV Eindhoven did with Peter Bosz in the dugout and Luuk de Jong wearing the armband. But across the Noordzee, as Arne Slot and Virgil van Dijk became the first head coach and skipper respectively from the Netherlands to win the English title.

As clubs from the same country cannot face each other in the Champions League’s group phase and as Ajax are headed for elimination, Liverpool against PSV could be the closest thing to a Dutch derby in the premier European competition this season. Liverpool have already made a slice of Dutch history in Europe this season: against Atletico Madrid, they became the first non-Dutch club to field four Dutch starters and, fittingly, one of them, Van Dijk, scored the injury-time winner. Slot tried sending out the same quartet of Jeremie Frimpong, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo and his captain against Galatasaray, with rather less success: Liverpool lost 1-0.

Were Frimpong not injured, there was even the chance Liverpool could begin with more Dutchmen than the champions of the Netherlands on Wednesday. The Dutch enclave at Anfield is nonetheless proof that football is one of the great export industries of a small country which has spent much of the last six decades overachieving relative to its size and population, if not necessarily its talent.

Certainly Liverpool conducted a Europe-wide search for Jurgen Klopp’s successor before settling on Slot. They were not deterred by the reality Bosz’s PSV had pipped them to the Eredivisie crown in 2023-24. Bosz won a rematch, too: PSV became only the third team to beat Liverpool last season, even if their 3-2 triumph in January came when Slot rested his regulars, with qualification assured. For different reasons, PSV should not plan to face Jayden Danns, Kostas Tsimikas, Tyler Morton, Trey Nyoni, Amara Nallo or James McConnell again.

But the instructive element of the Dutch invasion is, perhaps, that most of the players were bought by a German, in Jurgen Klopp. Along the East Lancashire Road, Erik ten Hag could be accused of overrating his countrymen and showing a favouritism to players from the Eredivisie when Manchester United’s recruitment policy seemed to consist of a subscription to Dutch television. Slot has imported Dutch coaches but only bought one Dutch player. He, Frimpong, has rarely been trusted at right-back and is, in any case, the least Dutch of the Dutchmen. Brought up in England, he does not speak Dutch.

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Gakpo and Gravenberch were crucial to Liverpool 2.0 (Getty Images)

Slot’s sidekicks do. Sipke Hulshoff is his long-time assistant but, when he wanted more Premier League pedigree by his side at Anfield, he appointed the former Everton defender John Heitinga. When he left for his ill-fated time in charge of Ajax, Slot brought in a predecessor as Feyenoord manager, and former Arsenal defender, in Giovanni van Bronckhorst: a 2006 Champions League winner’s experience in the competition also includes a 7-1 defeat to Liverpool, when in charge of Rangers.

And Liverpool’s Dutch contingent over the past decade could all fit into four categories: those with a background at each of the Netherlands’ big three, and the outsiders, in Frimpong and the former Groningen centre-back Van Dijk who were at none. Heitinga and Gravenberch are Ajax youth products. Besides Slot, Hulshoff and Van Bronckhorst, Gini Wijnaldum, perhaps Klopp’s definitive midfielder, have all been on the books of Feyenoord.

The PSV alumni include Gakpo, bought by Liverpool when Ten Hag’s United wanted him, and Pep Lijnders, who predated Klopp at Anfield but rose to become his assistant. When Klopp’s gegenpressing was amended to include a greater emphasis on possession, it was when Lijnders had replaced Zeljko Buvac as Klopp’s right-hand man. Gegenpressing became less Germanic, even if it was not quite Total Football.

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Liverpool became the first non-Dutch club to field four Dutch starters in Europe this season (Getty Images)

Liverpool could have had more of an Ajax influence. In 2012, they were in talks to bring in Louis van Gaal as sporting director; Brendan Rodgers’ preference for managing without one was a reason why they did not and Van Gaal, after taking the Netherlands to the 2014 World Cup final, later went to Old Trafford and, like Ten Hag, bought from his homeland. In contrast, it is notable that none of Slot’s buys have come from the Eredivisie and only Milos Kerkez has played in it.

So when Liverpool have gone Dutch, it has felt more organic. Wijnaldum and Van Dijk, two of Klopp’s Champions League winners, came from Premier League clubs, the former to be reinvented from No 10 to a deeper midfielder, the latter as the world’s most expensive defender who would get a place on the Ballon d’Or podium.

Gakpo consulted Van Dijk before joining. Gakpo and Gravenberch were part of Liverpool 2.0, the remodelling of his forward line and midfield that Klopp did at the end of his reign and which enabled Slot to become a champion in his first year. This time, he did the reinventing: Gakpo, a multifunctional player for Klopp, was used exclusively on the left wing and scored 18 goals last season; Gravenberch, a more attacking midfielder for Klopp, became Slot’s preferred No 6.

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The Oranje influence has extended from players to backroom staff (Getty Images)

Knowledge of each acquired in the Netherlands may have been a factor. Van Dijk’s history with Slot had been more distant: they played against each other in 2013 but, when reunited, Slot was surprised how good the defender’s passing was. They have formed a firm alliance.

But if it looks unlikely they will retain the Premier League, only one team has won the European Cup with both a Dutch manager and captain. Ajax in 1995 were led by Van Gaal and Danny Blind. For Liverpool, double Dutch was a winning combination in the Premier League last season, less so this. But the Reds have a distinct Oranje influence.