Louis van Gaal is taking a top volleyball coach to the World Cup - in a bid to ensure Holland have an edge when it comes to penalty shoot-outs.
Even at the age of 71, Van Gaal is showing he is open to new ideas by adding Peter Murphy to his coaching staff with the tournament in Qatar looming. Murphy is a former hall-of-fame coach of Holland’s national volleyball team - and Van Gaal calls him his “penalty killer.”
Van Gaal has built a reputation for being one of the game’s great eccentrics and having the ability to think outside the box. At the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, just weeks before the Dutchman was due to take over as manager of Manchester United, he substituted No 1 Jasper Cillessen for Tim Krul in the final moments of a goalless quarter-final clash with Costa Rica.
The Norwich keeper, who was playing for Newcastle at the time, saved penalties from Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umana as the Dutch prevailed. Van Gaal later admitted it was mind-games after Cillessen revealed Holland’s players had no idea about their manager’s plot.
Van Gaal is convinced that the knock-out stages in Qatar could be decided by the finest of margins. Murphy has been tasked to work with Holland’s keepers to teach them how to read where penalty takers will place their kicks.
But he is also teaching them to scramble opponents’ brains with some goalline antics that include performing a Native American ritual. Liverpool keeper Bruce Grobbelaar famously helped Liverpool win a shoot-out to lift the 1984 European Cup with his “spaghetti legs” routine against Roma.
Van Gaal came out of retirement to guide Holland to the World Cup after they flopped at Euro 2020. But the former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss insists there is method to his madness after being criticised in Holland for adding Murphy to his backroom team.
Van Gaal said: “We have been looking for the best penalty killer - and I believe that Peter Murphy’s knowledge and experience can help us a lot. He will not be teaching the boys to play volleyball, if that is what you think.
“Murphy is going to do tests with my goalkeepers. He is also going to tell them how to get the penalty taker shaking and make him feel less secure. There are tools and tricks for this.
“I think influencing the opponent is allowed. A dancing goalkeeper on the line is very much possible. Peter will also support our goalkeepers psychologically. He has studied this field at university and has a lot of knowledge. I can’t reveal more details about it, because other teams would surely benefit from it, too.”
Van Gaal added: “What I did in 2014 was something which I call ‘the eye of the master.’ It got us through. This time we are going to supply the goalkeepers with a scientific side to save penalties. We are probably the very first country in the world to make the penalty shoot-out a scientific project.
“That’s what I call innovation - and I do a lot of innovation in football. In all the tournaments of the World Cup it has been proven that penalties are often decisive.”
