Giovanni van Brockhorst's impressive period at Feyenoord can be looked on with excitement from Rangers fans having just had the official confirmation that GvB is on his way to Ibrox. There were mainly highs in the Dutchman's spell at his boyhood club with the club winning three domestic trophies including their first league title in 18 years. By now most Rangers fans has heard about the 16/17 title but many question how big the downward slope was from being champions of the Eredivisie to finishing 3rd and 4th in Holland's top league. To try and give insight into this and to provide the most up to date information (other than a heavily Covid interrupted stint in China) on the manager's philosophy and style I will be focusing solely on the 2018/19 campaign- his last while managing Feyenoord.
This season was Feyenoord's least successful of the four under van Bronckhorst as they went trophyless for the first time in his tenure. A 5-1 aggregate loss in Europa League Qualifiers to Slovak side, Trencin left a lot to be desired however a 3rd placed league finish isn't bad for Feyenoord and the football remained entertaining for the majority.
Tactical Themes
Defence
The Feyenoord centre-backs liked to receive the ball from the keeper and build from the back, usually using a deep-lying midfielder to outnumber the press and pass through it. The fullbacks were a major strong point during the season as they'd overlap and be the main source of width for the team. One thing to notice is that these fullbacks liked to put in low and drilled cross with a focus on accuracy and hitting a target rather than just floating them into the box. This would perfectly suit Rangers with Tavernier and Barisic who are famous for their pinpoint crossing accuracy.
Midfield
The midfield may have been the most interesting part of GvB's system at Feyenoord. On paper it's a three in midfield with two pushing up to make runs in behind and flood the box with one staying back as a pivot. Whoever took up these roles would rotate throughout the game. The midfield would often be the main pressers for Feyenoord- pressurising and harrying the opposition when the line of attack is broken through by the opposition defence building from the back. The midfield winning the ball high up resulted in multiple chances over the course of the season. These qualities in GvB's Feyenoord midfield are fairly similar to the midfield Gerrard had at Rangers showing that van Bronckhorst offers tactical continuity from the previous management.
The image above shows every loss of possession during Feyenoord's (orange, left to right) win over Heerenveen (blue, right to left). As you can see Heerenveen lost the ball numerous times just inside their own half. This is due to the intensity of the Feyenoord midfield when pressing- pushing up into the opposition half and hassling the opposition into mistakes.
Attack
The Feyenoord attack tended to play fairly narrow over the season as you can see from examples of a few of their average positions from games.
Average positions against De Graafschap (left), FC Emmen (middle) and ADO Den Haag (right)
The wide men were playing as inverted wingers with their first thought usually being to cut inside and cross or shoot. Ryan Kent loves to do this and would be ideal for the left inverted winger role if van Bronckhorst implements this system at the light blues, Hagi is also more than capable of doing this on the other side. Some of the most talented players at Feyenoord played in the inverted winger role in particular Steven Berghuis. Due to this GvB clearly instructed him to take shots from distance shown by the fact he had the 5th most shots from outside the box pg in the league that season with 1.7. If you look through some of Feyenoord's highlights you will see this in full effect with some of the goals in Berghuis' showreel being spectacular. In terms of up top, van Bronckhorst plays with one striker who likes to drop deep and create as well as get in the box to finish. We know Morelos is more than capable of this however, some fans argue that Gerrard played him too deep, limiting his goal output. The new manager may be able to find balance with this considering during the 18/19 season, Feyenoord striker Jorgensen averaged 1.3 key passes pg whilst still netting 10 in 25.
Feyenoord 6-2 Ajax
One of the best individual results of GvB's Feyenoord career was tearing apart an Ajax team consisting of Donny van de Beek, Ziyech, de Ligt, de Jong and Tadic 6-2. The relentless attacking play of Robin van Persie Berghuis, Toonstra and others was too much for Erik ten Hag's Ajax and their star-studded team.
The picture below was moments before Feyenoord's first goal of the game. The three players shown in it are a right-back St Juste, and two central midfielders in Vilhena and Toornstra showing just how much GvB's likes to flood the box.
At Rangers we may well see something similar to St Juste here with James Tavernier who often found himself inside the box, joining the attack under Gerrard. Another thing to notice from this goal is that the man who started RCM, Jordy Clasie is nowhere to be seen due to sitting deep in case the ball breaks to Ajax. This is another similarity to Gerrard's system as the three midfielders would often rotate to have one as a pivot in different situations, whether it was Aribo, Kamara, Lundstram or Davis. Another goal of interest was scored with some brilliant tiki-taka football leading to Feyenoord's second of the game. Robin van Persie and co forced their way into the Ajax box through relentless passing football before eventually finding Berghuis who had an easy finish in acres of space. Every single goal in this game bar one was scored from some kind of cross with the majority of them being either drilled or along the ground. Feyenoord were so dangerous from these due to the immense number of players in the box with the striker, inverted wingers, fullbacks and midfielders all looking to make runs into the area. We may well see this at Rangers with the pinpoint crossing ability of Tavernier and Barisic.
Flaws
For me, the two most obvious flaws from the footage I watched were clear. The first being the high risk-taking when playing from the back. It wasn't uncommon for a Feyenoord midfielder or defender to be caught out when trying to play short possession football in their own half, if it wasn't for the team's great last-ditch defending then this would've been punished more often. The second flaw I noticed was that the midfield pushes up so high that the defence were often left vulnerable when facing counterattacks, with the lack of midfield meaning there is no cover for the fullbacks who also like to push up. A huge theme of Gerrard's time at Rangers was the relentless running of midfielders to cover for advancing fullbacks so it will be interesting to see how GvB utilises a three in midfield when he arrives- assuming he plays one. Other less major flaws I have seen people pick out include that the side sometimes struggled to break down low blocks which could become more of an issue when playing in Scotland.
Conclusion
There are a lot of positives when looking at this Rangers team compared to how GvB likes to line up- particularly with how the ex-Barca man likes to utilise his wide men and midfield. The new manager offers a lot of continuity but the necessary tweaks for it to be a refreshing change to a less impressive Rangers side this season. Another thing to note is that following Giovanni van Bronckhorst's spell at Feyenoord, the former fullback spent a year under the managerial education of Pep Guardiola and the rest of the City Group. Due to this some of those previously mentioned flaws of van Bronckhorst's managerial game will have been worked on- creating an even more exciting prospect for Rangers fans.
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