Feyenoord Forum » Algemeen Feyenoord Forum » Giovanni Van Bronckhorst from a Rangers Fan

Hi guys

Glasgow Rangers fan here.

With the possibility of Gio becoming our new manager, I would love to have a perspective from Feyenoord fans both, as his time as a player and manager? My plan is to write an article if/when he is announced so if you could give an insight to what the Rangers supporters can expect I would be very grateful.

I know Gio delivered a first league title as a manager after 18 years and also DESTROYED Ajax 6-2. What impressed you most about his teams? Was there anything he did as a manager that you didn't like?

Also what do you remember of him as a player for Feyenoord. His achievements from Holland are well known but I don't know a lot about what he did for your Club on the pitch. When he came to Rangers we were surprised as how big the fee was however after a few weeks we seen just how good he was. Many Rangers fans describe him as one of the best midfield players they have ever seen at the club and I think we can all agree he was World Class.

I attended the away match between our Clubs in 2003 at . It was interesting to say the least

Best Wishes

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As a player, especially as left (wing)back, he was an excellent player. Perhaps even world class at some stage in his career with a superb cross and long shot. I was particulary impressed by his performance during his period as captain of the Dutch national team. When he returned to Feyenoord he won the Dutch Cup, but overall it was not a very successful time due to our poor state of finance. We were a club in financial decline when he returned.

He's a generic Dutch 4-3-3 manager, nothing special when it comes to tactics or his training style. Not a visionary and no pragmatic tactical coach either, I would advise to lower expectations in that area. You will get a phenomenal people's manager though, a very decent man and great ambassador for your club.

I do have to say that our squad was not on par with Ajax and PSV for most of his years as manager, our meager financial state and our technical director being responsible for that. Naturally most of our supporters are deeply grateful for winning several prices after a long period of no trophies. It made some of us less critical in my view.

I wasn't too impressed by most of his years as our manager, despite him winning several trophies, the distance with Ajax and PSV in points was unacceptable in my opinion (some other supporters here will likely disagree with me). Even though we were financially behind, I think we had some periods that we lost too many points in "easy" games uncessarily due to a lack of smart attacking tactics and innovative training excercises (compared to Erik Ten Hag's Ajax or our current manager Arne Slot). Gio at one point, early on, even lost 7 games in a row. The only reason he wasn't sacked was due to his status as club legend.

That being said, he was not a bad manager either. He was adequate most of his Feyenoord years and Gio seemed to get it all right in the year we won our league title. We played a higher press, and the tactics were strikingly different with the other years as our manager. He made some daring tactical choices and even put our star player Kuyt on the bench at some point. In that period the squad was not on the level of Ajax, but we weren't far behind.

After winning the title, the tactics were mediocre at best and we didn't renew the team properly (indicating a lack of vision). The notable exceptions of course being the game we won against a superb Ajax with 6-2 (though, also largely thanks to having a world class player with Robin van Persie destroying the Ajax defence that game) and the Dutch Cup finales.

Overall, he's considered one of our more successful managers and players. However, that's also got to do with us not winning a lot of trophies the last couple of decades despite our status as the club with the most active (and second largest) fanbase in the Netherlands. As a person, he's absolute worldclass!

Dit bericht is voor het laatst gewijzigd op 17 november 2021, 22:38:13.

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He learned a lot from Van Gaal, Koeman and Advocaat I think. He likes to play the attacking Dutch style.

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Willykment schreef op 17 november 2021 om 22:30:

As a player, especially as left (wing)back, he was an excellent player. Perhaps even world class at some stage in his career with a superb cross and long shot. I was particulary impressed by his performance during his period as captain of the Dutch national team. When he returned to Feyenoord he won the Dutch Cup, but overall it was not a very successful time due to our poor state of finance. We were a club in financial decline when he returned.

He's a generic Dutch 4-3-3 manager, nothing special when it comes to tactics or his training style. Not a visionary and no pragmatic tactical coach either, I would advise to lower expectations in that area. You will get a phenomenal people's manager though, a very decent man and great ambassador for your club.

I do have to say that our squad was not on par with Ajax and PSV for most of his years as manager, our meager financial state and our technical director being responsible for that. Naturally most of our supporters are deeply grateful for winning several prices after a long period of no trophies. It made some of us less critical in my view.

I wasn't too impressed by most of his years as our manager, despite him winning several trophies, the distance with Ajax and PSV in points was unacceptable in my opinion (some other supporters here will likely disagree with me). Even though we were financially behind, I think we had some periods that we lost too many points in "easy" games uncessarily due to a lack of smart attacking tactics and innovative training excercises (compared to Erik Ten Hag's Ajax or our current manager Arne Slot). Gio at one point, early on, even lost 7 games in a row. The only reason he wasn't sacked was due to his status as club legend.

That being said, he was not a bad manager either. He was adequate most of his Feyenoord years and Gio seemed to get it all right in the year we won our league title. We played a higher press, and the tactics were strikingly different with the other years as our manager. He made some daring tactical choices and even put our star player Kuyt on the bench at some point. In that period the squad was not on the level of Ajax, but we weren't far behind.

After winning the title, the tactics were mediocre at best and we didn't renew the team properly (indicating a lack of vision). The notable exceptions of course being the game we won against a superb Ajax with 6-2 (though, also largely thanks to having a world class player with Robin van Persie destroying the Ajax defence that game) and the Dutch Cup finales.

Overall, he's considered one of our more successful managers and players. However, that's also got to do with us not winning a lot of trophies the last couple of decades despite our status as the club with the most active (and second largest) fanbase in the Netherlands. As a person, he's absolute worldclass!

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 18 november 2021 om 02:25:

He learned a lot from Van Gaal, Koeman and Advocaat I think. He likes to play the attacking Dutch style.

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:10:

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Willykment schreef op 17 november 2021 om 22:30:

As a player, especially as left (wing)back, he was an excellent player. Perhaps even world class at some stage in his career with a superb cross and long shot. I was particulary impressed by his performance during his period as captain of the Dutch national team. When he returned to Feyenoord he won the Dutch Cup, but overall it was not a very successful time due to our poor state of finance. We were a club in financial decline when he returned.

He's a generic Dutch 4-3-3 manager, nothing special when it comes to tactics or his training style. Not a visionary and no pragmatic tactical coach either, I would advise to lower expectations in that area. You will get a phenomenal people's manager though, a very decent man and great ambassador for your club.

I do have to say that our squad was not on par with Ajax and PSV for most of his years as manager, our meager financial state and our technical director being responsible for that. Naturally most of our supporters are deeply grateful for winning several prices after a long period of no trophies. It made some of us less critical in my view.

I wasn't too impressed by most of his years as our manager, despite him winning several trophies, the distance with Ajax and PSV in points was unacceptable in my opinion (some other supporters here will likely disagree with me). Even though we were financially behind, I think we had some periods that we lost too many points in "easy" games uncessarily due to a lack of smart attacking tactics and innovative training excercises (compared to Erik Ten Hag's Ajax or our current manager Arne Slot). Gio at one point, early on, even lost 7 games in a row. The only reason he wasn't sacked was due to his status as club legend.

That being said, he was not a bad manager either. He was adequate most of his Feyenoord years and Gio seemed to get it all right in the year we won our league title. We played a higher press, and the tactics were strikingly different with the other years as our manager. He made some daring tactical choices and even put our star player Kuyt on the bench at some point. In that period the squad was not on the level of Ajax, but we weren't far behind.

After winning the title, the tactics were mediocre at best and we didn't renew the team properly (indicating a lack of vision). The notable exceptions of course being the game we won against a superb Ajax with 6-2 (though, also largely thanks to having a world class player with Robin van Persie destroying the Ajax defence that game) and the Dutch Cup finales.

Overall, he's considered one of our more successful managers and players. However, that's also got to do with us not winning a lot of trophies the last couple of decades despite our status as the club with the most active (and second largest) fanbase in the Netherlands. As a person, he's absolute worldclass!

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Thanks very much for such a detailed response and for your honesty.

You talk about him being 'nothing special' tactically but, then saying the tactics were strikingly different when you won the title? What would you say changed that year? Was it specifically down to the high press? I've read previously that he is a conventional 4-3-3 manager but that he could sometimes steer more towards more defensive players in that system?

Also interesting to note that you still feel Ajax and PSV had the better squad. Him and his staff deserve a lot of credit for winning the title and for such an impressive record that season if that's the case?

I think the 'man management' side will be crucial at Rangers. We are in a slightly different position, in that we do have the strongest squad in the Country (in most peoples opinion). For whatever reason, some of our more important players have struggled to get going this season. I mean we have been playing well for long spells of games but that killer touch in front of goal or a lack of concentration in defense has cost us points. These players were fantastic last season so they haven't become 'bad' over night. It sounds like Gio, as a manager, might be just what we need?

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Dit bericht is voor het laatst gewijzigd op 19 november 2021, 13:57:19.

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:11:

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 18 november 2021 om 02:25:

He learned a lot from Van Gaal, Koeman and Advocaat I think. He likes to play the attacking Dutch style.

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Thanks for replying mate. As with my other reply, I have read that Gio could sometimes be a bit more cautious in terms of picking more defensively minded players, despite favouring an attacking formation. Is that something you would agree with?

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Personally I have always admired Gio both as a player and as a manager. He is such a great ambassador for the club because he is very well-spoken, he is realistic and just a very respectable man all around. I had hoped he would become the new National team manager, because I think he is an awesome people manager and is capable of creating a really good atmosphere around a group.

On the tactical side I agree with Willymkent, there is nothing special there. He does not seem to bring anything extra to the table in that regard and just follows a low risk 4-3-3/4-5-1 approach using mostly well established players. The year we won our titel was indeed a bit of an exception in that regard.

So if your team needs a manager that restructures the current team and helps develop young players individually and as as team I think Gio is not a perfect match. However if you have a lot of well developed players already then Gio is the perfect people manager for the squad.

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:11:

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 18 november 2021 om 02:25:

He learned a lot from Van Gaal, Koeman and Advocaat I think. He likes to play the attacking Dutch style.

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Thanks for replying mate. As with my other reply, I have read that Gio could sometimes be a bit more cautious in terms of picking more defensively minded players, despite favouring an attacking formation. Is that something you would agree with?

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Willykment schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:47:

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:10:

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Willykment schreef op 17 november 2021 om 22:30:

As a player, especially as left (wing)back, he was an excellent player. Perhaps even world class at some stage in his career with a superb cross and long shot. I was particulary impressed by his performance during his period as captain of the Dutch national team. When he returned to Feyenoord he won the Dutch Cup, but overall it was not a very successful time due to our poor state of finance. We were a club in financial decline when he returned.

He's a generic Dutch 4-3-3 manager, nothing special when it comes to tactics or his training style. Not a visionary and no pragmatic tactical coach either, I would advise to lower expectations in that area. You will get a phenomenal people's manager though, a very decent man and great ambassador for your club.

I do have to say that our squad was not on par with Ajax and PSV for most of his years as manager, our meager financial state and our technical director being responsible for that. Naturally most of our supporters are deeply grateful for winning several prices after a long period of no trophies. It made some of us less critical in my view.

I wasn't too impressed by most of his years as our manager, despite him winning several trophies, the distance with Ajax and PSV in points was unacceptable in my opinion (some other supporters here will likely disagree with me). Even though we were financially behind, I think we had some periods that we lost too many points in "easy" games uncessarily due to a lack of smart attacking tactics and innovative training excercises (compared to Erik Ten Hag's Ajax or our current manager Arne Slot). Gio at one point, early on, even lost 7 games in a row. The only reason he wasn't sacked was due to his status as club legend.

That being said, he was not a bad manager either. He was adequate most of his Feyenoord years and Gio seemed to get it all right in the year we won our league title. We played a higher press, and the tactics were strikingly different with the other years as our manager. He made some daring tactical choices and even put our star player Kuyt on the bench at some point. In that period the squad was not on the level of Ajax, but we weren't far behind.

After winning the title, the tactics were mediocre at best and we didn't renew the team properly (indicating a lack of vision). The notable exceptions of course being the game we won against a superb Ajax with 6-2 (though, also largely thanks to having a world class player with Robin van Persie destroying the Ajax defence that game) and the Dutch Cup finales.

Overall, he's considered one of our more successful managers and players. However, that's also got to do with us not winning a lot of trophies the last couple of decades despite our status as the club with the most active (and second largest) fanbase in the Netherlands. As a person, he's absolute worldclass!

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Thanks very much for such a detailed response and for your honesty.

You talk about him being 'nothing special' tactically but, then saying the tactics were strikingly different when you won the title? What would you say changed that year? Was it specifically down to the high press? I've read previously that he is a conventional 4-3-3 manager but that he could sometimes steer more towards more defensive players in that system?

Also interesting to note that you still feel Ajax and PSV had the better squad. Him and his staff deserve a lot of credit for winning the title and for such an impressive record that season if that's the case?

I think the 'man management' side will be crucial at Rangers. We are in a slightly different position, in that we do have the strongest squad in the Country (in most peoples opinion). For whatever reason, some of our more important players have struggled to get going this season. I mean we have been playing well for long spells of games but that killer touch in front of goal or a lack of concentration in defense has cost us points. These players were fantastic last season so they haven't become 'bad' over night. It sounds like Gio, as a manager, might be just what we need?

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As for your first question. Tactically, yes it was specifically a higher press collectively as a team that made the difference imo. Especially in the home games we used a very high press in the field. With our quick full backs Karsdorp and Kongolo our defence was less vulnerable. In other years, there was no coherent press and it was not executed collectively as impressively as in the year we won the title. Unfortunately the journalists who follow our club never really asked about this difference in depth, the quality of our football media is somewhat disappointing.

In the year we won our title only Ajax had the better squad in my view (although, I only make this assessment in hindsight given the results Ajax delivered after the year we won our title), PSV wasn't too far behind our team. We had a unique team, very compatible and versatile, and blessed with a great mentality. You could perhaps make the argument that Gio really got the most out of some players in the year we won the title. However, we really should have renewed our team more thoroughly after we won the title. I partly blame Gio for not renewing, but most of the blame goes to our technical director Martin van Geel at the time. Both lacked vision.

You are also quite right that Gio will steer towards defensive stability in an attacking formation when he makes his line-up. In our team he often opted for Vilhena and El Ahmadi to provide balance and power on the midfield. I'm not sure if it's something that is a part of his overall vision on football. He doesn't seem like the very tactical type (our current manager already provided way more tactical information and vision than Gio in several years), as I mentioned before he really is a people's manager above all. Therefore, if you already have the best players in the league and some important players are struggling, he is probably gonna be a really good fit for your team. He will build confidence and a good team mentality if his tenure at Feyenoord was any indication.

I hope he will make it at Rangers, would be great if he succeeds. Such a great man!

By the way, now that I think about it. It wouldn't surprise me if Rangers are gonna show interest in the likes of Kongolo and Vilhena. I'm not a follower of Scottish football but especially Vilhena seems like the type that would do well in your league. He's got a good connection with Gio.

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Noud schreef op 20 november 2021 om 13:01:

Personally I have always admired Gio both as a player and as a manager. He is such a great ambassador for the club because he is very well-spoken, he is realistic and just a very respectable man all around. I had hoped he would become the new National team manager, because I think he is an awesome people manager and is capable of creating a really good atmosphere around a group.

On the tactical side I agree with Willymkent, there is nothing special there. He does not seem to bring anything extra to the table in that regard and just follows a low risk 4-3-3/4-5-1 approach using mostly well established players. The year we won our titel was indeed a bit of an exception in that regard.

So if your team needs a manager that restructures the current team and helps develop young players individually and as as team I think Gio is not a perfect match. However if you have a lot of well developed players already then Gio is the perfect people manager for the squad.

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 20 november 2021 om 14:42:

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:11:

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 18 november 2021 om 02:25:

He learned a lot from Van Gaal, Koeman and Advocaat I think. He likes to play the attacking Dutch style.

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Thanks for replying mate. As with my other reply, I have read that Gio could sometimes be a bit more cautious in terms of picking more defensively minded players, despite favouring an attacking formation. Is that something you would agree with?

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Yes, he would always play with defensily solid players in his time with Feyenoord not flashy guys but people like Vilhena, Toornstra and El Ahmadi. Don't expect too many big chances at Rangers because the philosophy of Gio and Feyenoord is pretty similar to Rangers I think.

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 20 november 2021 om 22:31:

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 20 november 2021 om 14:42:

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SuperRangers1872 schreef op 19 november 2021 om 13:11:

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Marc Acardipane schreef op 18 november 2021 om 02:25:

He learned a lot from Van Gaal, Koeman and Advocaat I think. He likes to play the attacking Dutch style.

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Thanks for replying mate. As with my other reply, I have read that Gio could sometimes be a bit more cautious in terms of picking more defensively minded players, despite favouring an attacking formation. Is that something you would agree with?

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Yes, he would always play with defensily solid players in his time with Feyenoord not flashy guys but people like Vilhena, Toornstra and El Ahmadi. Don't expect too many big chances at Rangers because the philosophy of Gio and Feyenoord is pretty similar to Rangers I think.

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It sounds like there won't be too many changes in terms of style/tactics. I think the lack of 'noise' we are hearing from our rivals about this appointment also speaks volumes. Everyone knows what Gio is about and what he brings to the table. There is a real buzz about the Club which has been missing a little bit this season. Hopefully the players hit the ground running for him tomorrow.

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Pep Guardiola is happy that Giovanni van Bronckhorst is going to work at Rangers FC. The Manchester City coach hopes the Dutchman will do well at his new club in Scotland.

"A big compliment to him," said Guardiola, when asked during the press conference about the appointment of the Dutch trainer in Glasgow. Rangers is one of the biggest clubs in Scotland, it's a great opportunity for him. He's been here for a while, we're still in touch. He is a very nice man, I wish him all the best," Guardiola said on Friday.

After leaving Feyenoord, Van Bronckhorst worked for the Manchester City Football Group and in China, where the corona virus ensured that he soon returned to the Netherlands. At Rangers, the 106-time international is the successor to Steven Gerrard.

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