Ronald Waterreus sees an ideal national team coach: “If they’re smart at the KNVB…”

According to former PSV goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus, the KNVB would do well to take leave of national team coach Ronald Koeman after the World Cup. Waterreus writes this in his column for the regional paper De Limburger.

The former goalkeeper sees Arne Slot as the ideal candidate to succeed Koeman as national team coach. Slot was recently put on the street by Liverpool FC’s club management, and according to Waterreus, the KNVB would do well to contact the recently dismissed coach.

The seven-time international thinks that Slot could bring more enthusiasm to the team than Koeman. ''Arne Slot would bring to Oranje the enthusiasm that Ronald Koeman lacks. Slot was still coach at Liverpool when Ronald Koeman made his World Cup squad public in Zeist. And he did that, it seemed, not with too much pleasure in his body. Our national coach weighed, measured, stammered and grumbled. Anyone who didn’t know better would think he was about to go trekking through the Amazon region with the Dutch national team without food and without navigation,'' writes the former PSV player

In addition, the born Limburger thinks the current national team coach has no interest in the upcoming World Cup. ''For days I’ve been wondering about how he presented himself last week. The tournament has not even started yet; possibly the coming six weeks will mean an endless number of press conferences, but even now he makes a downright tired and listless impression. As if he doesn’t feel like the World Cup,'' Waterreus continues.

Therefore it would not surprise the former goalkeeper either if Koeman decides to step down as national coach after the World Cup in North America. ''And there’s a very good chance the KNVB won’t find this too annoying, now that two ideal successors are available. Of course I’m talking about Pep Guardiola and - especially him - Arne Slot. Come on, in his final year at Liverpool plenty of caveats can certainly be made. You nevertheless can’t get around the fact that in the years before that, at Anfield and in De Kuip, he has done more than an excellent job,'' continues the former PSV man with his story.

Waterreus therefore advises the KNVB to contact Slot. ''If they at the KNVB are smart, they’ll place a call to Bergentheim once. What is certain: the press conferences would become, with Slot, the equally charismatic as shrewd coach, in any case more fun and more energetic'', the columnist concludes.