How Arne Slot became the biggest coaching prospect in the Netherlands at SC Cambuur

Cambuur’s supporters had a good time, halfway through the 2016-2017 season, when the wing attackers were released. Logically they expected a cross towards the goal, towards the striker in the penalty area.

The surprise was great when the wing players suddenly played the ball structurally back to the axis of the field, and then started an attack again.

They were not used to that in Leeuwarden.

What turned out? Arne Slot, who was interim coach of Cambuur with Sipke Hulshoff at the time, had found an interesting statistic. Only one in seventy to eighty high crosses from the side resulted in a goal. Why, Slot reasoned, would you throw all those balls at the pot?

Expectations of SC Cambuur

Slot and Hulshoff’s approach to the game was embraced by the playing group. The only problem was: not all supporters understood it. Cambuur is a club where some opportunism is appreciated, from the pounding, from football players who are stirred up by the fanaticism from the stands.

Slot noticed that the expectations of the supporters contrasted somewhat with the instructions with which he and Hulshoff sent the Cambuur players onto the field.

And so he organized a supporters’ evening in the stadium, during which Slot meticulously unfolded the tactical plans. Only hours later, around midnight, did fans leave the stadium, enthusiastically talking about ‘hot zones’, ‘overlapping players’ and ‘half-spaces’.

It was an evening when the analyst and didactician came together in Arne Slot. But in a broader perspective, Slot’s presentation perhaps told even more about his social intelligence, with a keen sense of what was going on both internally and externally.

Already a top trainer

Gerald van den Belt is therefore not surprised that Slot is widely seen in the Netherlands as the top trainer of the future. “In fact, he already is,” says Cambuur’s financial director about the now 42-year-old Slot, who finished the previous season as shared leader with his club AZ.

“Arne is above average intelligent, both in dealing with people and in football,” Van den Belt continues. “A good coach knows how he wants to play, which football players he needs for that and what those players have to do. But you also have to be able to make your approach to the game trainable. That sounds simple, if only because trainers are appointed for that purpose. But translating your ideas about football into concrete exercises on the field and then seeing that reflected in the matches – that is incredibly difficult.”

Van den Belt has known Slot since the latter played football in the youth academy of PEC Zwolle as a teenager. A quarter of a century later they are good friends. “So I speak through rose-colored glasses when it comes to Arne,” Van den Belt warns. “He has done a fantastic job for us. But that also applies to Sipke Hulshoff. All the credits that Arne has received equally belong to him.”

Sipke Hulshoff

Hulshoff worked with Slot at Cambuur for more than a year and a half. “We immediately clicked,” says Wim Jonk’s current assistant coach at FC Volendam. “Arne watched an incredible number of matches on television. He then made short video clips, which he used to analyze opponents or try out new ideas. But above all, he was very concerned with game principles.”

Game principles? That needs some explanation. Many trainers think in classic formations with two or three attackers, says Hulshoff. “But game principles are not about those types of systems. Then it’s all about adhering to a few basic rules. Winning the ball within three or five seconds, to name just one example. Or that you create an excess number in certain places on the field, which can make you dangerous. Now you see that more and more trainers work with game principles. But Arne was really a pioneer at the time.”

Van den Belt brought Slot to Cambuur in 2014, then from his position as technical director, from the youth academy of PEC Zwolle to become assistant coach to Henk de Jong.

The following season, Slot took charge of Cambuur’s promises. Until he was transferred to the first selection again in November 2015, together with Hulshoff.

Skepticism about inexperienced duo

After the dismissal of Rob Maas, another year later, Hulshoff and Slot were appointed as final managers on an interim basis. “The first match under their leadership was lost,” Van den Belt reflects. “Then the entire community shouted for a strong man to sit on the bench. While we already had the best possible trainer duo with Sipke and Arne. I then moved heaven and earth to secure that combination for three years.”

Van den Belt did not get his plans through. That had everything to do with the rather explosive situation surrounding the club. After the 2016 relegation, Cambuur had started the season in the first division quite badly. The interim appointment of Hulshoff and Slot initially resulted in skepticism: what on earth did Cambuur do with these two inexperienced trainers?

But after a hesitant start, things started to go well for Hulshoff and Slot. Cambuur stringed together victories in the competition and also reached the semi-finals of the cup tournament, by eliminating Ajax and FC Utrecht, among others.

Van den Belt immediately realized what the price of success was. His players and trainers would inevitably be attracted by other clubs. “I knew that the chance for the coaching duo Hulshoff-Slot had been lost.”

Slot is picked up by AZ

G The way in which Slot eventually left for AZ is funny. Slot had given an interview to a trade magazine during the season The Football Coach, in which he talked about Cambuur’s tactics and playing principles. Max Huiberts, technical director of AZ, was so impressed that he decided to invite Slot for a cup of coffee.

After a year in the shadows, as assistant coach to John van den Brom, Slot became head coach of AZ last season, with which he played the best football in the Netherlands. No one at Cambuur was surprised about it. “I noticed everything that I was working with a top trainer in the making,” said Hulshoff, who in turn was praised by Slot for his structure, video analyzes and tactical insight. “I think it’s great that Arne is doing so well now. I also wish him the best, as a professional and as a person.”

“Cambuur has benefited a lot from Arne. Not only because he was a good trainer, but also because he recognized the talent of unknown players such as Stefano Lilipaly and Jamiro Monteiro. We later sold those boys for good money,” Van den Belt concludes. “But conversely, Arne has also learned a lot from us. He always expresses his appreciation for Cambuur and the people he has worked with here. Arne has followed a crash course as a head coach in professional football with us. If you look at it this way, Cambuur has been the turbo for his coaching career.”