After a coaching career of more than 25 years, Ronald Koeman is on the eve of his biggest challenge as a coach: performing with the Dutch team at the World Cup. “I’m really looking forward to it,” he told NOS in Barcelona.

Koeman emphatically states that he wants to create a positive atmosphere with his staff and the group and that he hopes that this will also be created around the Dutch national team: “That is sometimes lacking in the Netherlands. We have a negative attitude.”

Koeman will report to Zeist on Monday for the kick-off of the World Cup preparations. In the relaxed setting of the luxurious golf resort Club de Golf Barcelona, ​​where his annual Koeman Cup was again held with countless acquaintances from the football world, the national coach explains how he wants to take on the challenge.

With a final place in the Nations League in 2019 and a semi-final place at the European Championship two years ago, the Dutch team’s performance under Koeman is not bad. Yet the praise does not stop there.

Koeman is sometimes called a pragmatist. Not an idealist, but a realist. Choices based on available qualities, not on ideals. Not an innovator. Risk-free, never surprising. Koeman is extremely annoyed by such terms.

“People may say that, but it is a stamp,” he responds. “There are also coaches who have a stigma that they always play offensively and then I think: that’s not too bad. I’m still a coach who wants to have the ball and wants to put pressure up front at the right time.”

And then the former coach of Vitesse, Ajax, Benfica, PSV, Valencia, AZ, Feyenoord, Southampton, Everton and of course FC Barcelona becomes fierce: “I am Ronald Koeman, I am the national coach, I have trained the biggest clubs. You cannot achieve that because you always let your teams play risk-free.”

He points to the 1988 European Championship, with Rinus Michels as coach and Koeman as libero. A tournament for eternity with the only title for the Dutch team: “We didn’t play very offensively then.”

It was a European Championship in which Marco van Basten, just back from injury, started the first match against the Soviet Union on the bench and then became the star of the tournament. The Dutch team does not have a player of that caliber at the moment, but players who have just returned from injuries do.

The national coach sometimes has a headache due to injuries such as Memphis Depay and Jurriën Timber, but he remains optimistic. “We have a good team that can beat anyone,” says Koeman. “But actions are better than words.”

Koeman will make the Dutch World Cup selection public on Wednesday. It is a puzzle, with not always the best players, but the best team. It must become a harmonious whole, with a specific role for everyone.

“We are away for a long time, we are on each other’s lips every day,” says the national coach. “Then you also need boys who accept their role, who continue to provide energy even when they are not playing and who do not cost us energy.”

Tournament football can be grueling and also requires players with character, with endurance, with ‘grinta’, like Argentina had in 2022. “Those boys from South America often have something extra in that regard. They have had to do more.”

“The strong remain,” Koeman knows. With his more than 25 years of experience, he hopes to show the best version of the Dutch team and the best version of himself at the World Cup. And maybe get rid of that “stamp”.