His answer was very Dutch.
Fifteen minutes into his introductory press conference, Gerard Nijkamp explained his philosophy for how FC Cincinnati will play soccer moving forward. As the club’s new general manager, Nijkamp’s recruitment of players should ultimately embody that vision.
This was May 30, and the Dutchman said Interim Head Coach Yoann Damet’s coaching style already followed a similar vision.
“The philosophy, the vision of football, I’ve seen (already) in matches on my television,” Nijkamp said of watching Cincinnati while in the Netherlands. “(It’s) building from the back; dominance in your playing style. That means you have to have the ball and play from the back to the attacking parts…not too much long ball, not much from the second ball.”
Essentially, Damet preaching FCC must play from the back is exactly what Nijkamp wants.
While last Saturday’s result showed the club’s current struggles to put a full-field game together, it also showed components of a possession-based game of playing from the back.
Against Minnesota United FC, the Orange and Blue completed 598 passes with a season-high 89.5% accuracy. In terms of possession percentage, the visitors finished at 62.3% – and that ratio was just as high before MNUFC scored its first goal as it was when it scored its last.
But keeping the ball isn’t enough.
“(The vision) also includes a certain positional game, but you must be realistic,” Nijkamp said. “It must not be your objective to play a positional game; it must be the objective to score goals and score more goals than your opponent. So, winning games, but winning games in that vision of football with a dominant side.”
While comments above focus on how FC Cincinnati want to dictate play and impose themselves on their opponent with flowing possession, the general manager also specified how he envisions the club should play defensively.
“(There should be) aggressiveness in getting the ball back and winning the ball in transition to go forward as soon as possible through passing,” he said. “(This means) a lot of running. There must be a fitness in the team at a high level.
“With Gary Walker, who came in from Manchester United, they’re already in a good way to become the fittest team in MLS.”
Walker, who joined Cincinnati in March, is the FCC director of sports performance and assistant coach.
Of course, making this vision a reality takes time. But that doesn’t mean the vision isn’t already enacted.
Damet has continued to coach in the style that suits Nijkamp. The two Europeans think alike in that regard.
FC Cincinnati are also starting to see the first signs of the new general manager changing the club’s roster to accurately display his vision. The club signed Dutch center back Maikel van der Werff from Vitesse on Tuesday afternoon.
Van der Werff has played under Nijkamp’s philosophy when they were together at PEC Zwolle. A “SparkNotes” way to describe this philosophy would be to call it the Dutch style.
“It takes time,” Nijkamp said of how long it takes to install all parts to complete this vision. “There are challenges, we know. But we have to work on that. With this vision and philosophy of football, we can take it to the next level.”
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The Dutch style of soccer sees teams typically play in a 4-3-3 formation, like FC Cincinnati have been. While goals can be generated on quick counter attacks – which usually occur from high-press defending – they also derive play possessional play that sees the team build from the backline into the opponent’s attacking third.
Rather than players being huge, towering figures who can grind past opponents with direct play and crunching tackles, the emphasis is more about speed than size. For FCC to play a style in the Dutch philosophy, players will have to think and produce at higher speeds than opponents.
