Dubbed “the Dutch Chelsea”, AZ Alkmaar, its owner Dirk Scheringa, and it's manager Louis van Gaal didn’t win any popularity prizes the past two seasons—spending millions and boasting about imminent success.
Having missed the Dutch title on the final day on goal difference back in the 2005-06 season, AZ invested heavily and announced to challenge for the title once again last season.
The season turned out to be a horror season for AZ and Van Gaal. Plagued by injuries, poor morale, and new signings not gelling with the other squad-members, AZ had to battle against relegation for a while, before ending the season with an anonymous mid-table finish.
Louis van Gaal, the stubborn, arrogant yet brilliant manager, initially refused to take the blame for the team's decline. He blamed referees, the blamed the media, he blamed the weather, he blamed the Dutch FA, but never himself or his players.
As amusing as his rants often were, they were pissing off other managers, players, and fans to a point were people actually enjoyed AZ’s and Van Gaals losing streak. Many people were criticizing chairman Dirk Scheringa for not sacking the unsuccessful manager.
Van Gaal had considered pulling out, but he was convinced by his own players and chairman to stay. He had been served his own serving of humble pie, but he stuck to it and continued. Credit where it’s due, not many managers would have. Hell, not many chairmen would have given him the chance to stick to it for that matter.
Much to the amusement of his critics, Van Gaal and AZ lost the opening two fixtures of the current season as well. NAC Breda beat AZ 3-2 in Alkmaar and ADO Den Haag overpowered them 3-0 in the Zuiderpark in Den Haag. It looked like AZ had continued where they left of last season.
In the third league match, Van Gaal sparked what we can now describe as the turn-around. His motivational speech inspired AZ to pull of a shock 1-0 win over reigning champions PSV Eindhoven. This again underlines the importance of morale.
Keeping morale high amongst players is crucial (haven’t I mentioned this before?) and managers have many ways to play with their player's minds, whether they criticise to get a performance, or they encourage and tell them bluntly just how it is.
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