Head coach Bert van Marwijk will personally pay the salaries of eight assistant coaches and analysts to help Australia prepare the way for this month’s World Cup in Russia, local media reported Friday.
Dutchman Van Marwijk is reportedly on a short-term contract worth more than $1 million ($760,000) to guide Australia through to the end of the World Cup and told Fairfax Media he will pay out of his own pocket to employ eight Dutch technical staff to fast-track the Socceroos’ preparations. His decision came after Football Federation Australia informed him they did not have the budget to hire a large team of new assistants, Fairfax newspapers reported.
Van Marwijk said that faced with such a short period of time with the Australian team before the tournament, he needed to have his own people in place to deliver his message, style of play and tactics as quickly as possible.
“I need that because I don’t have the time. When you try to develop a team in such a short time I need to work with people who know me,” van Marwijk was quoted as saying. “They must look through my eyes, they must know what I mean. I cannot afford communication problems.
“You need time to get to know each other and I don’t have the time. I would like to work with Australian people.”
Van Marwijk’s backroom team are all people he has worked with in the past and include four assistant coaches, two video analysts and two scouts. His assistants are Mark van Bommel, Roel Coumans, Jurgen Dirkx and Taco Van den Velde.
“I need them because they know how I work, they know how I want to work, they know how I want to play,” van Marwijk said. “I know these guys and they don’t come for the money, they only come to perform. That must be very professional.
“When you want to have a chance in the World Cup, those things must be very, very professional and I think that’s the case now.”
Van Marwijk has two analysts, one whose day job is at PSV and the other who is from FC Utrecht in the Eredevisie. After qualifying for Russia 2018 with Saudi Arabia but quitting due to personal terms, Van Marwijk was appointed in charge of Australia’s World Cup squad.
“I want to survive the first round. That’s the pressure I gave myself and also the players,” he said. “For me, the first important thing is to perform in the World Cup.”
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