JAKARTA - Dutch football legend Patrick Kluivert was officially introduced as coach of the Indonesian national team on Sunday 12 January. The appointment of Kluivert replaced the fired Shin Tae-yong, although this triggered pros and cons because Kluivert's coaching portfolio was not too flashy.
Kluivert started his coaching career as assistant coach at Brisbane Roar in 2010 and later became assistant coach of the Dutch national team under Louis van Gaal. He also handled the Curacao national team and became Cameroon's national team assistant coach, before turning to Barcelona Academy director and interim coach Curacao.
Although Kluivert does not have the experience of coaching a big team, PSSI General Chair Erick Thohir chose him because he is considered capable of overcoming Indonesia's main problems, namely the lack of goals. As a reliable striker in his active life, Kluiver has experience in developing attackers, as proven when training Adana Demirspor who changed the performance of Mario Balotelli and M'Baye Niang.
Kluivert adopts an attacking and creative Ajax-style 4-2-3-1 formation, which is expected to bring positive changes to Indonesia, especially after the Garuda team scored only six goals in six matches in the third round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers.
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One of the main challenges for Kluivert is communication, considering that the majority of Indonesian players speak Indonesian, while they are more proficient in Dutch. Kluivert will be assisted by assistant coach Denny Landzaat who is proficient in Indonesian.
The presence of Kluivert as a football legend is also expected to motivate the team and maintain good relations in the dressing room. Now, Kluivert has a big task to bring Indonesia through to the 2026 World Cup, with four matches remaining in the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers in the Asian zone.
Kluivert is now facing a pile of work to be done, and despite negative sentiment towards its previous performance, great hope was put on him to appoint the Garuda team.
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