In an exclusive interview with FootItalia, ex-AC Milan and Chelsea star Ruud Gullit blasted Manchester United, labelling them as a “graveyard” for any players or manager joining the club. He also weighed in on Liam Rosenior’s appointment at Stamford Bridge and the Serie A title race.
FootItalia: What did you make of the Arsenal vs Chelsea match on Wednesday night?
Ruud Gullit: I think Chelsea wanted it badly, but sometimes it looked a little bit frantic, like they wanted it too much. You need an anchor point that eases the game, especially in midfield, you need a little bit of control. All these new coaches want to play from the back and that brings problems. Arsenal were clearly prepared to block that. If you see that happening, you need to do something else, you can’t keep forcing it. Eventually, you have to play the ball forward anyway. But when you try to play from the back and then are forced to go long, you end up with huge gaps in midfield because players are still deep in the box, that gap becomes too big. Overall, Chelsea want it badly, but there’s no one controlling the tempo, someone to say, “Slow it down, keep the ball.” That might be a lack of experience. They all want it badly, you can see that, but it’s frantic. It was the same under Maresca as it was last night under Rosenior. You can’t play at 100% all the time. You need to find your tempo, read the game, then accelerate, constant acceleration leads to exhaustion. That midfield anchor, that calming presence is what Chelsea miss.
FootItalia: Enzo Maresca has left and Liam Rosenior has been given a six-and-a-half-year contract. Is that sustainable?
RG: The length of the contract doesn’t matter. I know Chelsea well, managers there don’t last long, even when they’re successful. The real question is: are these players bought by the coach or by the club? Does the coach have to deal with what he gets rather than what he wants? It feels like recruitment is driven more by the owners than the coach. Is that the right way? I don’t know yet. Is it sustainable? Can you win trophies like that? Time will tell.
Chelsea are hard to read, every season feels like a work in progress, but they’ve been at this for two or three years now. I want to know: what’s the end game? What’s their philosophy? They need more experience – players who read the game. It’s one of the youngest squads in the Premier League. They lack experience, people say that’s not an issue, but I think it is. You need someone to take young players by the hand. I had that when I was younger with Johan Cruyff which was the best schooling it was possible to have. Playing with experienced players like him taught me how to read the game. That’s what Chelsea need.
FootItalia: Speaking of young players, Jorrel Hato scored his first Chelsea goal recently. What do you make of him?
RG: I had doubts about his transfer to Chelsea. He was one of the best young players in Holland, and sometimes it’s better to stay longer and gain experience. He was captain at Ajax at such a young age, but Ajax were struggling. He escaped a difficult situation at Ajax. He saw it coming and thought it was the right time to leave. I don’t know if Chelsea is the right club for his development. He hasn’t played many games since the move, now he isn’t being selected regularly for the national team anymore and with the World Cup coming, that’s difficult. If he plays more at Chelsea he can get his place back in the national team. I understand why he left, it imploded a little bit, Ajax losing 6-0 in the cup last night shows how much turmoil there is there so I can understand why he left. Whether Chelsea is the right club at this stage, given they’re also in transition, only time will tell. I said the same thing about Nathan Ake when he went to Manchester City. But if Hato plays regularly under Rosenior, he can reclaim his national team place.
FootItalia: Let’s talk about Jurrien Timber. How good has he been since his ACL injury?
RG: I watched him for a long time, ever since he was a youth player in fact, because my son played against him and his brother. He’s a very good player and has developed fantastically well. I had some doubts about him at centre-back due to his height, but his quality on the ball is exceptional. He’s played alongside Van Dijk for the Netherlands which helps him. He’s developed well as a full-back too, on either side. That versatility helps him in the national team. I’m very happy with his development. I like his brother too, but he is in a different situation as he doesn’t want to extend his contract with Feyernoord for several reasons I don’t know, but both brothers are very good.
FootItalia: What about Matthijs de Ligt at Manchester United?
RG: It’s funny, almost every season he’s played professionally, the coach of his team has been sacked, a strange coincidence. But I like him, he’s a good kid with the right mentality. He learned from the best in Chiellini at Juventus. He’s still developing, maybe he can improve his anticipation in some situations, but he’s willing to learn. For the national team, his injury is unfortunate. Hopefully he’s back soon.
FootItalia: Did it surprise you that Manchester United fired Ruben Amorim without a clear replacement plan?
RG: I said from the beginning it was risky for Amorim to come to Manchester United mid-season. You don’t have time to change things properly, that was the main problem from the beginning, because he couldn’t change anything. He tried to implement a system that didn’t fit the players. When you play with three at the back and things go wrong, it’s hard to change, you can’t just throw on another striker, you have to go backwards. I’d rather start with four at the back and then go to three, but that is something you can do only with the right players. You have to look at the players, if you don’t have the players, what do you do? And the players at Man United do not have the confidence that big, they struggle with confidence and pressure from the outside world. It’s not an easy environment, it’s a graveyard for players and coaches. Many players leave United and suddenly play well again. Manchester United need to look at themselves and what’s really going on there. What is the vibe? The vibe there is not good. And English football, the Premier League needs a strong Manchester United, the more teams that are good, the better it is for the Premier league itself. Since VAR, Man United are not that lucky anymore, there have always been clubs that had certain advantages, in Holland, Germany and Spain it’s the same. The last-minute “Fergie time” doesn’t exist anymore and since VAR, you can’t do that anymore.
FootItalia: Let’s move to Italy and the intriguing title race there. Can Inter be stopped? Are AC Milan good enough to win the Scudetto?
RG: Milan aren’t playing brilliantly, but they’re getting results. There isn’t that much quality in the AC Milan squad and the coach Allegri understands the limits of his squad and has a system for them that enables them to win. I understand why he does that because the confidence grows from winning, the more confidence you get, the better you are going to play, eventually. That is the right thing for Milan to do at the moment, that is something we will have to get accustomed to. The problem in Italy is that the best players no longer play there. They play in Spain and England so Serie A faces that problem. Inter are the team I like most in terms of the way they play, there’s a vibe there, they have quality and identity, reaching two Champions League finals says a lot.
FootItalia: Is there a big difference in talent between your era and today’s?
RG: No, I think it’s always the same, there is good talent always coming out. is always there. There is much more scrutiny on these kids because of social media, because of the attention of the media itself. It’s not easy, kids in my day didn’t have that, I could go with my friends to a bar or a restaurant if I wanted to do, I didn’t do it a lot but if I had friends I could go, having dinner, I wasn’t drinking alcohol in my days but we had more privacy and more of a life outside of football. Nowadays it’s almost impossible so therefore you need to be very careful as a kid these days, much more attention, much more expectation. Look at Lamine Yamal at 16/17? In the frame he learnt, he learnt from last year, despite all the things he did, he learnt from it. The thing is, you have to be careful what you do, people have opinions, it’s a different world. I sometimes feel for these kids as it’s not easy, especially when you try to express yourself and you can’t.
FootItalia: A word on Arne Slot at Liverpool? He’s weathered the storm it seems…
RG: He’s a good coach, we all know that but these things take time. I was with Khalid Boulahrouz and he was in Spain at Valencia and he explained about what a team goes through when a teammate dies. It’s different for everyone but it takes a long, long time to get over that. Liverpool went through a difficult emotional period after the death of Diogo Jota. That energy is in the locker room, that affects the entire club, it takes time to get settled. The mourning period is finishing now and I think slowly they are getting over it with him still in their hearts. But grief is a process, and every player handles it differently. The club didn’t talk about the struggle because maybe it would be perceived as a weakness. You want to grieve in your own way, from speaking to Khalid Boulahrouz, I learnt much more about it than before and every player needs to have their own time, not everybody can cope with it in a fast way, it’s not that easy, especially the players who were close to him. Well done to Liverpool for bouncing back.
FootItalia: Who has been the best Dutch player in the Premier League this season?
RG: Van Dijk is back to his best now after a difficult period, that’s great for the national team, he has found his mojo again. Jurrien Timber has been excellent. Tijani Reijnders sometimes yes, sometimes no but still he’s been ok. We have good goalkeepers too. Dutch players are doing well.
FootItalia: Cole Palmer or Martin Odegaard?
RG: They are two different players, but both operate in that same zone, in between the lines of midfield and striker. They’re both fantastic players, Odegaard lost his position also, for a long time whilst he was injured. These two are the clever players who can open up a game. Palmer is that player that can keep that ball, he doesn’t lose the ball, he plays it simple because he doesn’t lose the ball and simple is the most difficult part for a football player. They both have very good technique, their first touch gives them space and time.
FootItalia: Joshua Zirkzee, what should he do to get his career back on track?
RG: I saw that Roma maybe wanted to have him, I hope that he will leave. For me, there was always a doubt that it was the right decision to go to Man United. I think he should have stayed in the Serie A. He was doing well with Bologna and I think he should have gone to a better team in Italy, for him it would have been much better. Man Utd have to figure out what that vibe is there, because something is wrong there, the energy is not good, it doesn’t feel good at all. Look at Scott McTominay. It is unbelievable how well McTominay has since he left Old Trafford. It’s incredible, it’s fantastic to watch. At United he was more like a 12th man, than he was a player and look how he has flourished, just playing every game is so important.
FootItalia: If a 24 year-old Ruud Gullit was preparing to leave PSV for AC Milan as you did, and Chelsea came and said, Ruud, we want you, we’ll pay you whatever you want, would you have joined Chelsea?
A: No, you can’t say ‘if’. The thing is, it happened, I’m happy. It was a surprise for a lot of people that I went to Chelsea anyway. Something changed at Chelsea, we played there, something changed there, I felt it. I remember when I was coach the first couple of games when we kept the ball and the fans were a little bit like “get that ball in the box”, it took them a month, two months to adjust a little bit to the football we tried to play and eventually they loved it. I think Glen Hoddle started it by getting me there, getting Mark Hughes there. So therefore it was a turning point for Chelsea when we arrived there and look what happened, Chelsea is now the elite of Europe with two champions leagues, unbelievable, fantastic. Do you feel like Chelsea are kind of missing what you brought them at that time, right now, someone to calm it down? Yeah, I think that it’s a little bit all frantic, frantic in every sense. So many players there with long contracts, I don’t know what’s going on. I hope at some point they can do an interview with the people there and tell us, “What is your goal? What do you want to achieve? What is your philosophy about?” So then we can see what’s going on, hopefully they get it around very, very soon because there’s not a lot of time.
FootItalia: Are Arsenal going to win the league or any trophy?
RG: I like the way they play, no doubt about it, it’s fun to watch and good to watch, but the problem is, when they are upfront and they feel the heat, they can’t sustain it, they don’t like it, so they should be second and then follow. They should be chasing, at the end of the season all of a sudden you’re playing teams who are fighting relegation and they are the most difficult games to play but lets see, they are doing well. Teams are chasing them and of course they score a lot of goals from corner kicks, there will come a moment where that doesn’t happen all the time. Because they are good when they are in front in the game, waiting for the right moment, nick the ball then score a second but it’s very pleasant to watch them, but they do need to win something. They are still fighting on all fronts. It happens a lot where you lose one, all of a sudden you start thinking you don’t want to lose another one, if that happens then all of a sudden your confidence goes down, it’s a confidence thing, especially when it happens in the last quarter of the season, because they think ‘as long as i’m still in it, everything is okay’. I’m a Chelsea fan so I want Chelsea to win the league.