Manchester United: Why Steve Holland could be key to a renaissance under Michael Carrick

“Football is obsessed.”

Ask people who know Steve Holland well how they would describe the former Chelsea and England coach and the same phrase is repeated.

A source told BBC Sport: “Football is his life.”

“Whether it’s the Champions League, thoughts on players or anything else, he’s very intelligent when it comes to the details of football.”

Which explains why, instead of sitting back and contemplating the success of Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Arsenal, Holland spent the trip back to northwest England watching footage of the win with manager Michael Carrick and the rest of his team behind the scenes to come up with a plan for Sunday’s home game against Fulham.

On Monday, while the players had a day off, Holland and company were at United’s Carrington training ground, intensifying sessions that they hope will lead to a third successive Premier League win.

Attention to detail is a Dutch personality trait, and something he has relied on since joining Crewe in 1992, having concluded that he would progress further as a coach than he had as a player if he devoted himself to the profession at an early age.

Holland (55 years old) believes that former England national team coach Graham Taylor is the only one who was younger than him when he received what is now known as the UEFA coaching badge when he was 21 years old.

Among the rest of United’s new coaching staff, Coach Carrick had not even started high school when Holland began his coaching journey. Jonathan Woodgate is slightly older than Carrick. Jonny Evans and Travis Bennion are younger.

That’s why Holland’s presence – and with his experience in England and ability to handle intense pressure – is so vital to Carrick and his coaching team, and why he gets so much credit for a positive start to a period that has already seen wins against Manchester City and Arsenal take United to fourth in the Premier League.

“He won’t be bothered by the scrutiny and pressure that Manchester United are under,” says former Radio Stoke editor Graham McGarry, who got to know Holland well during his 16-year spell with Crewe.

“He’ll take it all in his stride and just do his job.

“His training sessions are amazing. You can already see the reaction of the Manchester United players to them.”

The Netherlands is unlikely to talk about this publicly.

The second characteristic that is constantly noticed is that he is a man of few words, a person who is difficult to read. “You never knew whether he was quietly content or silently angry,” said a source who worked with him.

But this mask can help when it comes to getting messages across. The argument goes that the fewer people talk, the more likely the audience is to listen when something is said.

It is too early to evaluate the Netherlands’ work. It has been just over two weeks since United’s coaching staff was introduced as a group for the first time, but several insiders confirm that the coaching staff are operating as a collective group.

It should not be discounted that although Darren Fletcher did not win his two matches as caretaker coach, he reshaped the squad after the sacking of Ruben Amorim on 5 January. The Scot was beginning to lighten his mood. As Kobe Maino recalls. This meant the return of key players Brian Mbomou and Amad Diallo from the Africa Cup of Nations to a stable environment, giving Carrick the best chance of success.

The sources said that changes had been made to the training program. The days are now shorter, but more intense. There is a different energy in the sessions and a greater focus on individual work with specific players. The matchday routine for home matches has been adjusted so that players now arrive at Old Trafford closer to kick-off.

Carrick was given the job ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, partly due to the work he does ‘on the turf’. But the Netherlands ran the training sessions with England, allowing Gareth Southgate to have an overview.

In consultation with Southgate, the Netherlands concluded that England’s formation was “very weak” in 2018 World Cup qualifiers, resulting in a switch to a back three. “Harry Maguire’s ability on the ball was key,” Holland explained in a half-hour dissection of his work on the Coaches Voice podcast in 2021.

Speaking to Sky Sports before the Manchester City match, Maguire referred to his dealings with the Netherlands.

“It was great for England,” he said. “We all knew what we were doing.

“I can remember a lot of time working with Steve and him really training tactically how to defend and how to keep the ball out of the net.

“It’s basics but it’s really disciplined basics. I feel like he’s going to have a big role to play in improving our defensive record a lot.”

Since leaving his position with England after Euro 2022, Holland has had a short and unsuccessful spell in Japan and has done some work in the League Managers’ Association.

What he didn’t do was attract media attention.

Voice chats of coaches etc. with the Football Association are rare examples of interviews being conducted with the Netherlands.

“The perfect number two” as it was described.

The insight found is revealing.

He explained in an interview published by the FA: “With any training session, the more the players enjoy their work, the more you will get out of them.”

“It is important to try to find innovative ways to provide repetitive exercises to stimulate players’ interest.

“The key is always with training is the transition to the game. It’s important to try to maximize the potential for transition by not straying too far from the reality of the game.”

He may be new to Manchester United, but dealing with the fallout from a departing coach is something Holland has plenty of experience with.

It was then Blues coach Andre Villas-Boas who promoted him from the youth ranks to the first team at Chelsea. “I was on vacation in Spain,” Holland recalls. “I got the call on the second day and came home on the third day. My wife still reminds me of that regularly.”

Villas-Boas was sacked after nine months in 2012. His successor, Roberto Di Matteo, won the Champions League but exited after eight months.

Behind the scenes, Holland has been impressive. He survived the spells of Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink before resigning to focus solely on England after Chelsea won the Premier League in Antonio Conte’s first season.

“At a big club, every day is a drama,” Holland told Coaches Voice. “It’s never as bad as it seems, but your ability to deal with these moments is crucial.

“My experience in life at Chelsea has taught me that it’s about winning. A winning mentality doesn’t involve feeling sorry for yourself or making excuses. It means you analyze and push to do better next time.”

Those words seem wise given the intensity of the hype surrounding Manchester United, who will look to add further weight to claims that their revival under Carrick and co is more than just a flash in the pan when they host Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.

From the outside, it appears that the Netherlands are already having a major positive influence on the fallen giants of English football.

The job may be tough, and the demands may be high, but it’s fair to assume the Stockport-born ‘football freak’ is in the mix.