National team managers are fascinating creatures. Particularly, I feel, when they happen to be Dutch.

Starting with Rinus Michels and his captivating total football of the '70s, we’ve been treated to a series of oranje bosses who seem to have utter confidence (usually bordering on arrogance) when it comes their own powers of decision making. That’s probably as it should be of course, as there’s no sense in appointing a gaffer who’s a big call away from drowning in a sea of self-doubt.

Occupying the Dutch hot seat again is Louis van Gaal, a man who certainly has a pretty good conceit of himself. Since 1986, Netherlands have missed out on the World Cup finals just once. Against all odds, they were absent from the 2002 finals in the Far East following a botched qualifying campaign under the supervision of - Louis van Gaal!

So it would take someone with an unwavering belief in his own abilities to walk back into a still burning fire, following the out and out conflagration of Euro 2012.

Faced with a difficult World Cup qualifier for starters against a useful Turkey side, what did van Gaal do? He put his faith in several players who will be unknown to all but a regular Dutch Eredivisie watchers.

Let me put you to the test on this one. Have you heard of Daryl Janmaat? How about his Feyenoord club team-mates Jordy Clasie and Bruno Martins Indi? Then we have PSV’s Jetro Willems (ok, you might have seen him at the Euros) but Kevin Strootman and Luciano Narsingh? Got you, eh? Ricardo van Rhijn of Ajax, who came on at half-time for the stricken Janmaat?

You get the point. Van Gaal went into a potentially hazardous qualifying opener in Amsterdam with only a smattering of international old hands. If three of them happen to be Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder, then you’re talking about a lot of ability as well as experience but the vast majority wearing orange were learning on the job.

In the first half against the tenacious Turks, the home side produced their share of wobbly moments. Martins Indi, born in Portugal but Dutch raised, and goalkeeper Tim Krul suffered a (lack of) communication problem which saw the former come within a hair’s breadth of an embarrassing own goal. Willems made a defensive error so basic, it would not have looked out of place in the Dutch amateur leagues.

Van Gaal later conceded he was far from happy with Martins Indi and Willems based on the first half but then praised them for their application after the break. Strootman, sitting deepest of the three starting in midfield, distributed shrewdly and Narsingh scored his second goal in as many national team games near the end, to secure an important 2-0 victory.

Netherlands already look more intriguing: sharper, younger, more dynamic. Of course, the old team, as results at Euro 2012 showed, was in desperate need of a refit. In that sense, van Gaal’s job was made that bit easier, although he still had the temerity to leave Klaas-Jan Huntelaar twiddling his thumbs on the bench for 90 minutes.

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to spend time with the Australian national team while Guus Hiddink was busily challenging them to play and think differently ahead of a crack at urbane Uruguay for a place in the World Cup finals. The opinion of every Aussie player I spoke to, was that Hiddink’s boldness and ability to think outside the box, struck a chord. It was just the approach that was needed for a team seeking to go the extra mile.

Hiddink is of course, one of the most perceptive managers of his generation, possessing the innate ability to quickly size up and player and assess what more he can bring to the table.

Van Gaal does not go out of his way to make friends with people. Blunt spoken, prickly, downright rude at times, you almost get the feeling he enjoys being something of a hate figure. But clearly, he has that x-factor, the managerial magic all top tacticians need.

His work at AZ put him on the way to reinventing himself. The Alkmaar club’s 2009 title triumph brought an end to nearly thirty years of Ajax/PSV/Feyenoord success.

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and to a large extent, van Gaal could do little else but give some of the new boys a run on Friday night. But there’s surely a lesson there for national team managers who take the safe route time and again with established but ultimately mediocre players.

It’s too early to make predictions about how far the Netherlands will go with the current crop of players. You can’t win anything with kids. Can you?

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