Who Is Maarten Martens?
When Maarten Martens was promoted from assistant coach to head coach at AFAS Stadion last January, he was taking what has become one of the biggest jobs in Dutch club football over the years.
From household names in the country like Louis van Gaal, Dick Advocaat, and Ronald Koeman to prospective trainers like Arne Slot and Pascal Jansen, AZ has had an impressive list of managers come in and out of the door over the last couple of decades.
Martens had big shoes to fill, especially coming into a club that expected to finish among the top four teams in the country and be a European regular every year.
The 40-year-old Belgian, who served the club as a player 226 times between 2006 and 2014, took over in his current function in the middle of last January, managing to steer AZ to a fourth-place finish at the end of the season.
They finished four points off a Champions League berth but did fend off the challenge of Ajax, who they finished nine points above to clinch a Europa League group stage spot.
With his only prior head coaching experience coming at youth and reserve level, last season was Martens big breakthrough with a change to take charge of one of the biggest clubs in Holland today.
Now that his feet have gotten wet from that first half-season experience, this is his first full term in this sort of position at this level, one that hes been taking with both hands, as results thus far have indicated.
This tactical analysis will take an in-depth look at AZ Alkmaars start to the Eredivisie campaign and what Martens has built the teams success off of with three wins and four clean sheets.
Maarten Martens Tactics & Attacking Style
As has been synonymous with Dutch football for many decades, AZ is a team that likes to bring the game to the opposition and play on the front foot, although they are more direct and quick with their actions to get the ball from back to front as often as they can.
Martens AZs base system is a 4-3-3 with two pivots, Jordy Clasie and Peer Koopmeiners, and a roaming attacking midfielder, Sven Mijnans.
Playing with two defensive midfielders allows AZ to establish control both on and off the ball while creating a foundation for Mijnans and the front three to build on offensively.
Well dissect their offensive strategy in depth below.
One key thing to note about this AZ teams double pivot is how they set the tempo for the teams play and what they offer tactically on the attacking side of the game.
An example of that could be found in the early build-up phase.
As AZ likes to play out from the back, we often fi
