Brian Priske has gotten off to a poor start in Rotterdam but has consistently been praised as a great communicator in the Dutch media ever since he took over from Arne Slot during the summer break. He speaks eloquently and always backs up his arguments with statistical evidence.
But the Danish coach rather put his foot in it when he faced the very critical Rotterdam media after the hugely disappointing 1-1 draw against Willem II during the past weekend which left the Champions League outfit in fourth spot ten points adrift from Eresdivisie league leaders PSV Eindhoven.
“I feel the fire within myself but so far I haven´t really felt it within my players”, said Priske to the disbelief of the Dutch reporters at the media conference at the Koning Willem II stadium after the match. For the well-known columnist Valentijn Driessen, Priske’s honest statement was like signing his own letter of dismissal at the Rotterdam-club.
According to Driessen, Priske should have defended his players at all times, presented himself as a scapegoat and not hidden behind his players. "With his actions, the Dane appears to be the weakest link. With his statements he put his own head on the chopping board” says Driessen in De Telegraaf, and describes Priske as “Dead Man Walking” in Feyenoord only 48 hours before the crucial clash with Bayern Munich at de Kuip Wednesday night.
The mood has changed at De Kuip
How the mood has changed at De Kuip after Arne Slot established a virtual football empire in Rotterdam during his three-year tenure at the club guiding Feyenoord to their first Eredivisie title since 2017 and only their second since 1999.
Slot’s Feyenoord played with an incredible intensity with or without the ball, their pressing efficiency led to more turnovers in advantageous positions, they constantly sought to destabilize the opposition by outnumbering them in various positions on the pitch and recruited speedy wingers who took on their direct opponents with courage and conviction.
According to Dutch media it took Feyenoords General Manager Dennis te Kloese about a year to find the replacement for Slot as he chose to go for Brian Priske who had restored football pride in Prague with two successive championships for Sparta.
Despite enjoying a one-year stint with Royal Antwerp in Belgium, Priske was a fairly unknown name in Rotterdam and his appointment was met with scepticism by fans and journalists, a scepticism that so far has turned out to be justified.
Priske changed Slot's winning combination
It’s a golden rule that you should never change a winning combination, but Priske arrived in Rotterdam with his own ideas and immediately changed tactics from Slot’s classic 4-3-3 formation to a 3-4-3 which instantly created problems as players had to adjust to another system. Priske downplayed the adjustment but after his poor start (one win and two draws), the media immediately criticized him despite winning the Super Cup against PSV Eindhoven:
“Priske downplays the adjustment of the system from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3. Any coach, who says it makes almost no difference, can't be taken seriously. Everything changes in terms of the build-up, the defence, the attack, the pressure and so on. Instantly you wipe away all the agreements and automatic patterns that were otherwise successfully installed during the recent years", said Valentijn Driessen.
At the same time fans and media blamed Te Kloese for instantly creating a difficult scenario for Priske by offloading a number of Feyenoords key profiles without finding adequate replacements for them. The Rotterdam-club sold the right-back Lutsharel Geertruida to Red Bull Leipzig for 20 million Euros while the defensive midfielder Mats Wieffer was signed by Brighton for 32 million Euros.
"Not even half of that money was reinvested in the squad. And whatever was reinvested, the majority of investments went towards players who just provided the club with squad depth instead of having enough quality to give Feyenoord a shot at the title", says Flashscore’s Dutch news editor, Paul Winters.
Too easy to break down
“Players like Jordan Lotomba (Nice, 2,0 million Euros), Chris-Kevin Nadje (FC Versailles, 500.000 Euros), Anis Hadj Moussa (Patro Eisden, 3,5 million Euros), Gijs Smal (FC Twente, free transfer) and Ibrahim Osman (Brighton, on loan) haven’t looked great while In-Beom Hwang (Crvena Zvezda, 7 million Euros) has been a good replacement for Wieffer”, says Winters.
While Feyenoord generally have dominated possession in most of their matches this season, defensively they are easy to break down and they have looked disorganised at the back throughout the season. Priske has been unable to replace especially Geertruida and it shows in the defensive statistics. Feyenoord have only had three clean sheets this season in the domestic league and only Sparta Rotterdam and RKC Waalwijk have done worse.
In comparison, Slot already had three clean sheets after the first eight games of last season. While Priske has had to deal with injuries for key players like Lotomba, Santiago Gimenez and Julian Carranza, it does not make up for the fact that Priske so far has failed to live up to the job done by Arne Slot at Feyenoord.
"Slot got the job with Liverpool because he is like Jurgen Klopp. His style is hardcore, rock and roll Blietzkrig football and under Priske there is not the same attention to detail", says Paul Winters.
"Feyenoord haven’t scored a single goal where you could actually spot the influence of Priske. There is no Wauw-factor with Priske, defensively they lack stability, their attacking style is not exciting. So it's been a very bland season and there is no evidence of what Priske can actually do for this team", says Paul Winters.
Since getting his first job as a head coach in 2019, Priske has not spent more than two years in any of his clubs (FC Midtjylland, Royal Antwerp, Sparta Prague and Feyenoord) and facing Bayern Munich, Lille, Ajax and PSV Eindhoven in the near future in the midst of his barren spell at Feyenoord doesn´t suggest that Priske's stay at De Kuip will be much longer.