ZEIST, Aug 26 \u2014 New Netherlands coach Xavi Hernandez vowed yesterday to bring back the attacking footballing philosophy that the Oranje are famous for, believing that this will bring the team out of the doldrums in terms of results.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we play good football… taking the initiative, dominating the game, playing in an offensive way… we will be closer to winning and to getting results,\u201d the 46-year-old former midfielder told reporters at his first news conference since being appointed.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands were disappointing at the most recent World Cup, topping their group without really convincing and then crashing out to Morocco on penalties in the last-32.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember when I was a kid watching the Netherlands, you could watch good football. And this is my target \u2014 to play good football in order to be proud,\u201d said Xavi.<\/p>\n
Asked which was more important, attractive football or results, Xavi replied: \u201cBoth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to compete, we are here to enjoy and we are here to win. I insist, we are here to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
In replacing Ronald Koeman on a four-year deal, Xavi becomes the first foreign boss of the Oranje in 48 years.<\/p>\n
The Barcelona great, who won the 2010 World Cup with Spain as a player, beating the Netherlands in the final, had not held a head coaching job since leaving the Camp Nou in 2024.<\/p>\n
Xavi, whose first coaching role was with Qatari club Al-Sadd, won the 2023 La Liga title with Barca but was sacked at the end of the following season and replaced by Hansi Flick.<\/p>\n
Dutch Director of Football Nigel de Jong, who was on the losing side during the 2010 World Cup final, revealed that they had approached former Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and ex-Liverpool manager Arne Slot before settling on Xavi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, it\u2019s not a bad position after Guardiola and after Slot, no?\u201d joked Xavi.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t care if I\u2019m the third or I\u2019m the 10th one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Xavi\u2019s first match at the helm will be a home Nations League clash with Germany on September 24.<\/p>\n
Facing him on the sidelines will be another national management rookie, Liverpool legend Jurgen Klopp.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel excited, I feel motivated because we are playing against Germany, one of the best teams in Europe, and one of the best coaches in recent years, Jurgen Klopp,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Passion, ambition, desire\u2019<\/p>\n
The Netherlands are still attempting to shed their nearly men tag in international football.<\/p>\n
They have lost three World Cup finals, the most of any nation in history to have never lifted the trophy.<\/p>\n
A Euro 1988 triumph remains the Netherlands\u2019 only major title, and they have since lost four Euros semi-finals, including two years ago to England.<\/p>\n
Xavi won four Champions Leagues with the Catalan giants during an illustrious playing career, and sits second on their all-time list of most appearances for Barca, behind only Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he is not playing football, he is watching football, he will become a coach I\u2019m sure,\u201d Guardiola said in 2011, after Xavi had more than met the challenge of filling his boots at the heart of Barca\u2019s midfield.<\/p>\n
Nicknamed the \u201cMaquina\u201d, the Machine, in Spain, Xavi was the midfield metronome who came to define a style of football which dominated the game for the best part of a decade.<\/p>\n
If it were not for Messi, Xavi surely would have won the Ballon d\u2019Or, an award he finished third in three times in a row, behind only Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Andres Iniesta.<\/p>\n
Xavi said that his main goal as Dutch coach was to make the country proud of the Oranje again.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will work with passion, with ambition and with desire, in order that people in Holland, the 18 million people, are proud of our team.\u201d \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZEIST, Aug 26 \u2014 New Netherlands coach Xavi Hernandez vowed yesterday to bring back the attacking footballing philosophy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6108,2854,6,24310,4894,24286,26099],"class_list":["post-40621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-jurgen-klopp","tag-nations-league","tag-netherlands","tag-nigel-de-jong","tag-oranje","tag-xavi-hernandez","tag-zeist"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}