Much of the talk about the FAI’s new High Performance director has focused on his name, but Ruud Dokter (yes, that’s the name on his birth cert) could have a significant impact on Irish football over the next few years. So who is he and what will his responsibilities be?
Dokter Who?
The 57-year-old’s predecessor Wim Koevermans was also a Dutchman and like him, Dokter has extensive experience of working with the Netherland’s ultra-successful national youth teams where total football and a 4-3-3 formation are the norm.
He has served the Dutch FA as a coach for the Netherlands’ U15, U16, U17, U18 and U21 teams, and also worked with the women’s team.
Responsbilities
I interviewed Wim Koevermans exactly two years ago and despite his Dutch background, he said that he and the FAI were not planning to totally overhaul Ireland’s youth system and totally replace it with a Dutch model.
However Dokter is likely to administer some of the new Dutch-style methods that have been introduced such as changes of formation that will see Ireland’s youth teams continue to move away from the 4-4-2 to modern 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 variations.
Part of that process is to be aided by the Emerging Talent Progamme which was instituted in 2006. The programme works with elite young players in the 11 to 16 age group and includes 12 training centres around the country so that no player has to travel more than hour to reach their nearest location. Early graduates of the system who have received full international caps for Ireland include Cillian Sheridan and Greg Cunninhgam.
The Emerging Talent aims to develop the technical skills of young Irish players in order to bring them in line with European standards and ties in with Dokter’s orders. Small sided games to encourage ball skills are part of its remit.
Koevermans has already completed one pet project of the FAI by creating an U19 league for Airtricity League clubs as a means of preventing the flow of young Irish players to the UK.
The intention was to try and give players aged 15 to 16 the option of playing a decent standard of football that would create a pathway to first-team football and stop the stagnation of youngsters in British academies.
Dokter’s responsibility will be to maintain that league and possibly even expand, while he would be wise to focus on the gulf between the schoolboy leagues and the League of Ireland.
But, like Koevermans, all of Ireland’s underage coaches will answer to Dokter with the notable exception of Giovanni Trapattoni and any managers that follow him, which makes it difficult to forge a link between youth development and the first team, particularly if the manager’s style is at odds with best practice.
