All time great team around Koeman

[harms]

So how do those players get the best of Koeman? Those formation looks like lack of creativity though. Maybe as long as one DM can cover CB, like Stielike?

If memory serve right, Koeman is similar to Sammer. Please enlighten me, harms. And people don't like Sammer in back 4. Or maybe he's similar to Hulshoff?

Pirri was a bit of a random one. Stielike would work nice as well.

I'd certainly pick Koeman either in a back four a-la PSV or in a Cruyff/LVG-esque diamond with a back 3 turning into a back 4. Using him in a back 5 like Sammer goes against his historical preference even if it feels like an obvious safe choice.

Since I've already done the one with a diamond... + I didn't pick his previous partners like Lerby & Gerets simply because they were his partners although they would've been perfect (although I've picked Gullit).

Basically, give him the set up that doesn't try to take away from his playmaking and allow him the full reign — Netto and Bonhof can peel out wide, Gullit & Rensenbrink can act as targets for his long-passing, Nilis works well as a presence up front... etc.

 

[Gio]

Not really, but usually it’s the best team that’s can achieve the purpose in those threads. PSV wasn’t filled with GOATs and he was simply immense for them.

Yeah. Can't argue with his record for PSV or Holland in the late 1980s. Led some miserly defences. Contrasts quite sharply with his Barcelona and Holland performances post 92 or so. He was badly exposed in some of those more gung-ho set-ups, with his own flaws - lack of pace and mobility - compounding the risks of those systems.

Think there are loads of ways to skin the Koeman cat. Paired with an athlete, paired with another ball-player to make him less press-able, in front of a defence in a DLP role, in a 3 or a 4 to replicate PSV/Barca/Holland 88/92/94, etc.