Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and The Brewers — A Match Made In Heaven-upon-Trent?

Seven years ago, Gary Rowett left the dugout at The Pirelli Stadium and was replaced by a pretty unexpected name.
That name was the one of a former Netherlands international. A name that has over 100 Premier League goals and two Premier League Golden Boots. A name with immense international pedigree and a World Cup appearance. A legendary name in places like Madrid, Chelsea, and Leeds.
That name was Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Obviously.

JFH was announced as Burton manager on the 13th November 2014, with the side sitting in the automatic promotion places thanks to two-and-a-half seasons of pretty stellar work from his predecessor. Rowett and his side had managed nine wins from fifteen, with five defeats spliced in, then he would head off to Birmingham, The Brewers in third place.
Caretaker boss Mike Whitlow would manage a 1–1 draw with Plymouth, but for the last thirty games, Hasselbaink was in the hot seat. His only previous experience in management came in the Belgian second division, with a Royal Antwerp side freshly relegated and hoping to bounce back with a ‘two or three year plan’. Hasselbaink would be a season in the job, his side finishing seventh, as he rejected a new deal at the end of the season.
Six months later and he’s found a new home by the side of the River Trent.

In those thirty games, Hasselbaink’s Brewers would lose only three times. This was accompanied by eight draws and an astounding nineteen wins as Burton took the title by five points.

Now this could be explained by Rowett’s groundwork. Taking nothing away from Hasselbaink at all, but Burton were a well-run club with high aspirations and had been planning for this without doubt. In his two full seasons in charge, Rowett had not missed the play-offs, losing in the semi-finals in the 2012/13 season, and then the final the next.
Even before that, Rowett was assistant to Paul Peschisolido, Burton’s first football league manager, who saw them acclimatise before they could expand.

Peschisolido settled them in.
Rowett built them up.
Hasselbaink got them over.

We can look at each of them as an individual who stepped in and did their job, and we can see them for what they were — cogs in a well-oiled machine. Each of whom did their part to get Burton promoted to League One.

If you did think that he was solely standing on the shoulders of giants, this was his chance to prove himself to you. Surviving with a promoted side in a fresh division would be the ultimate test.

He would be gone by December.

December 4th to be exact. When he was announced as the new manager of Championship side Queen’s Park Rangers. The Hoops had been so impressed with the work he was doing that they snapped him up.
And how could they not be impressed?
From twenty league games, The Brewers had been defeated five times and had drawn only twice. Thirteen wins for a newly promoted side is staggering, but, as I mentioned, this is something Burton had been planning for a long time — they were set up for it. Not just the squad and the coaching staff either — the whole club.

Nigel Clough would take over, beginning his second spell in charge of the club, and would press on in similar remarkable fashion, with Burton sealing automatic promotion on the final day. They completed the season having only conceded 37 goals, the lowest in the division. Who better to take them up?

Because let’s not forget who came before Peschisolido.

Clough took them higher.
Hasselbaink got them over.
Rowett built them up.
Peschisolido settled them in.
Clough took them higher.

The prodigal son had returned and had taken Burton Albion up to the second division of English football for the first time in their history.

But when Burton got up there and started enjoying themselves, their former boss was getting the sack.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink was dismissed as QPR manager in November 2016 and it wouldn’t be until September of the next year that he came back into a managerial position, managing just shy of a season with League One’s Northampton Town as they were relegated.

He wouldn’t return until New Year’s Day 2021, and The Pirelli was his destination.
He left the club when they were top of League One, and had returned six years later with them at the foot.

New Year, Old Brewers.

Even the most optimisitc of Burton fans weren’t convinced their side was gonna light the world on fire in their second season back in League One.
Budget cuts had hit them hard, and Nigel Clough, along with assistant manager Gary Crosby and chief scout Simon Clough, had decided to resign in order to protect the club financially.
The new man in the hot seat was their 2009 Player of the Year and club-captain Jake Buxton in his first managerial position.
On December 29th, Burton lost 3–4 to fellow strugglers Wigan after being 3–2 up. The loss cemented their place on the bottom of the table and Buxton was gone that day. They had only two wins from twenty-one and had kept no clean sheets.

Enter Hasselbaink.

Referencing a ‘really good working relationship’ with chairman Ben Robinson, there was a feeling that Burton had staved off the shakes and were getting back to the plan. In other corners, there was the feeling of the appointment being a step backwards that could do damage in the long-term, with a squad low on morale perhaps unable to meet the pressure.
The first sign wasn’t a good one either. With JFH watching on from the stands, they were thrashed 1–5 by Oxford, a scoreline they were familiar with after suffering it at the hands Lincoln just a week prior.

There was a job to do, and JFH insisted that there was quality enough already at the club to get it done. Even though he joined on the first day of the transfer window, he stated that he wasn’t gonna jump right into it, that he wanted to get the players he had performing and then go from there. Though with the side low on starting out-and-out centre-backs, Hayden Carter was recruited on loan from the Championship’s Blackburn Rovers.
Alongside, he had assistant manager Dino Maamria, someone with handy experience who had recently managed Stevenage and Oldham in League Two. They would take charge for their first game on January 9th, away to Gillingham, early kick-off.
The Brewers may have ridden their luck at times, but come full-time, they marched out of Priestfield as 0–1 winners. The goalscorer? The centre-back recruited just three days prior, Hayden Carter.

One could have said then that it would all come together. They’d achieved a first clean sheet of the season, a debutant had scored, which is almost the equivalent of a sub scoring right after coming on, and victory was achieved with Hasselbaink back at the helm.
While his last spell could be spinned as him inheriting a good side and continuing to allow them to play well, this time was the opposite; a side playing the worst in the division, and he needed to get them to play well.

What a start.

A defeat to Ipswich would follow, but to prove the train was still very much on the tracks, they knocked off top of the table Hull, followed by fellow basement-dwellers Northampton. Heavy defeat to Sunderland at The Pirelli was disheartening, but the best cure was to come as Burton went on a run of six straight victories to climb off the bottom of the table, out of the relegation zone, and into 18th.
Remarkable.
Now, during his tenure, Jimmy has snapped up a few signings and a few loan deals, and has restructured the side in his image, with a lot of young, dynamic players signing on, so that could explain the upturn in form, but it’s not as if the squad was gutted — he has simply incorporated parts where they were needed.
What has changed is him.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is the one major difference between Burton’s form in the first half of the season, and their form in the second half. Is it a case of ‘new manager bounce’? Or is Burton’s destiny calling again?

Bar the tightening of the purse strings, things didn’t look down for Burton.
As I said, no-one was expecting world-beaters, but Buxton had inherited a solid squad, with Scott Fraser and Oliver Sarkic the only notable departures. On top of that, they’d added the likes of Charles Vernam fresh off a breakout season with Grimsby, SPL stalwart Steven Lawless, experienced defensive duo Michael Bostwick and Neal Eardley, reliable bagger Kane Hemmings, and they’d got Kieran O’Hara back from the previous season, this time on a permanent deal from Manchester United. These were all on free transfers.

This is good.
There were options for the new boss, and a core that he’d been playing alongside just a few months prior.
And while there were no problems, per se, right off the bat, there were concerns.

Positional issues arose. Jake Buxton would not play someone in a position if he did not think they could play there — even if it wasn’t their natural position, there’d be belief that they could do a job. But combine a potential lack of knowledge for a position with dodgy deployment and then you’ve got an issue.
Burton were having an immediate issue with space in amongst their back line. Slow centre-back pairings were being exposed with set-ups that strongly resembled zonal marking — a tactic simple to exploit. And when they would try to break that form, there was no organisation. In a 4–2 defeat to Swindon, the opposition were able to saunter right through, while to round off a loss of the same scoreline against Portsmouth, former Brewer Marcus Harness was able to chase his own pass when he had three defenders stuck to him, assisting himself to score a hat-trick against his old side.
These lines were rigid and fluid, seemingly at all the wrong times.

Going forward was a different story; they were dynamic and full of varied attacks, often led by Lucas Akins, who has been such an important player over the years for Burton and continues to show his worth. They were not scared to attack, to take on a chance from anywhere on the pitch — in games against Bristol Rovers and Wimbledon, they peppered their opponents’ goals and were unlucky not to come away with more… But there was a reason they didn’t.
In those same games, games they should have won, they displayed a now familiar weakness; three-quarters of the team could be taken out of the game by one ball. Rigid lines deployed in a 4–3–3 (with marauding wing-backs) puts a lot of pressure on the middle three to split attack and defence when they need to, and while going forward while holding a line gives you more options and opportunities, making you more dynamic, if you were to lose that ball, it could be easily fired back on you and the counter would be on. This is exactly what happened to Burton against Swindon, Bristol Rovers, Peterborough, Rochdale, Sunderland, Lincoln… The list goes on. The likes of Michael Bostwick, John-Joe O’Toole, Sam Hughes, and John Brayford were being exposed in a way they wouldn’t have an advantage. While the attacking team can be commended for exploiting it, the more it happens, the more it becomes the fault of the defending side.

As we came towards the end of Buxton’s run, wheels did start to come off. While we still had a team ready and capable of striking, the avenues of attack were drying up and more and more of Burton’s goals started to come from opposition errors. It’s good that they were taking advantage of mistakes, but they weren’t grinding out their own chances as much.
There was a lack of grit, of intestinal fortitude; they were dispossessed too easily and brushed aside often. When defending, communication and organisation seemed to go out the window — especially in dead ball situations, see the opening goal conceded against Northampton at home and the match-settling sickener against Wigan.
It always seemed as if the players were marking the ball, not the player.

The period over the final three games before Hasselbaink’s re-arrival was the nadir for the side so far this season.
Fourteen goals conceded, outpaced by everyone, and eventually, playing as statues.
This was a plodding, nervous team that looked cooked, and Jimmy needed to get ’em well done.

As he said he would, he emphasised what was already there — the attack was working wonders at a few points this season, and like a snake from a basket, it just needed to be coaxed back out.
The Gillingham game was a lovely first game back and one for settling in as it wasn’t the classiest of performances, but it would be something found in defeat to Ipswich that would steady the ship — the 4–5–1.
Two sets of wingers meant more men back when they were countered on, effectively negating the counter (or having a better chance of doing so), while the men going forward opened up the midfield and revitalised the channels that were starting to close up weeks prior. They rode the formation to wins against Hull, Northampton and Charlton, still stuttering in defence, but molding and adapting there as well. There was closing down, there was pace, there was scrap, there was the return of grit! Hayden Carter was the man at centre-back looking for a mate and he would largely split responsibilities with Michael Bostwick as rigid lines were steadily done away with to allow for more fluid play.
Along with Carter, a few more fresh faces were added and swiftly integrated. Hasselbaink knew who his exisiting performers were, and thrown in amongst Ben Garratt, John Brayford (at full-back, not centre-back), Ryan Edwards, Lucas Akins, and Kane Hemmings, were:-

• Jonny Smith
  Absolute dynamo that has added a whole new attack for Burton, applying his pace in the position of lead troublemaker.
• Michael Mancienne
  Experience to steady a shaky defence who can come out and play as a link between defence and midfield — an important man in the middle, especially with Burton’s issues.
• Danny Rowe
  Really personifies the ethos of this side being unafraid to take chances. Scored a goal of the season against Charlton, and he could have had two.
• Sean Clare
  A real presence in the midfield with a load of that grit I was on about. He’s a strider as well, box-to-box, and he seems to have clear instructions on when to be where.
• Tom Hamer
  Lovely long throw and a more defensive presence at full-back.

Now, Hasselbaink did say that he wasn’t gonna go wild in the transfer market before he got a look at the team properly, but with the way these signings have come in and the difference they’ve made — I don’t think we can have a go really. And that ain’t even all of ‘em!

But it’s not all sunshine and lollipops. Problems still linger.
They still seem bamboozled by dead balls and are easily beaten in the air, making a competent high corner fatal. Slow centre-backs will still be caught out by a high-line as we saw in defeats to Sunderland and Blackpool, and though they are commendably brave with chances, they must be careful there isn’t something more. Recent defeats have seen MK Dons and Shrewsbury curtail their attacking channels and so Burton have snatched at long shots out of desperation when there may have been better options.

The key will be to continue.
They’ve looked more refined going forward, seen especially against the likes of Charlton and Rochdale. The press is alive and well, as we saw against Peterborough and Crewe. The closing down was utilised well against Hull and Bristol Rovers. And the 4–5–1, now adapted into a 4–2–3–1 saps the effectiveness of one ball taking them out.
They can’t be relaxing on that and need to push to make it better. It doesn’t get much better than a six-game winning streak, but at the same time, it absolutely does — seven-game winning streak, eight-game winning streak, how about an eleven-game winning streak to end the season? A playoff push?
The work just needs to keep going, and they’ll reap the rewards.

We join them now having spun off a six-game winning streak into a draw and two defeats, but Burton fans can comfort themselves with Jimmy’s record since returning:- nine wins, one draw, and four defeats. That’s a win-rate of 64.3%.

It’s a tough run-in for their final ten games of this season, but they’re far enough in now to have identified key players and game-winners. Lucas Akins has to remain head of creative, Ben Garratt needs to continue his spectacularity, Kane Hemmings needs to be fed, Ryan Edwards and Jonny Smith need to be played in, and Hayden Carter, Michael Mancienne, Michael Bostwick, and Sean Clare need to keep those lines of communication open.

They’ve got games in hand, and they’re five points clear, but that can dissipate quickly if they get comfortable. Games against Swindon and Wigan could be telling, but those are the only chances The Brewers will have to push off of any fellow bottom-thirders.
If that past few games are anything to go by, I’d say they could be in trouble, or at the very least, a close shave — but if I’ve seen it, then Jimmy has, and they’ll be sorting it out with a progressively settled squad.

Providing that no-one panics…

In the past few decades, Burton have been all about progression, going from strength to strength through realistic growth. Their rise has come from smart spending, not massive investment, something that sets them apart from other clubs on the rise.
Obstacles have been overcome with compromises, and while relegation from the Championship certainly wasn’t part of the plan, it’s planned for — any team would be stupid not to.
Everyone at the club knows this season is about survival, but a path is being paved for the future — and it has always has been.

Ben Robinson was named chairman in 1976 at the age of 31, and just a year after he joined the board. That year, from the Southern Premier League Division they missed out on Wembley with an agonising aggregate defeat against Matlock Town in the semi-finals.
Robinson would have a hand in shrewd managerial appointments as they sought a rise through the divisions, tempting in Ian Storey-Moore, and later, Neil Warnock.
But it would be in 1998, when the position of manager was advertised in the local paper, that the ascent would kick into a new gear. Nigel Clough would join as player-manager and after a sticky start (and getting rid of his fancy ride) would barge into the Conference, attaining a record number of points along the way.

A few years into their fifth tier stay and the next step came. Eton Park was their first permanent home, and The Pirelli Stadium was next. It allowed the club to cement themselves, tap into every avenue in a new way, hold Manchester United at bay, and ultimately, reach the football league.

Alongside all of this, Burton has been first and foremost a club for the people, be they of Burton or be they of beyond. Robinson himself said that the upgrades the Pirelli offers feed directly into setting a standard for treatment.
Robinson, as well as Albion players and staff, are also involved massively in the community, on personal and professional levels, with the Burton Albion Community Trust (BATC) delivering projects through the community.
The club shows a tight-knit community, and to hammer that home, the club’s commercial director is a club-lifer, literally. She celebrated her first birthday the same day Burton exited the FA Trophy at the semi-final stage to Matlock Town. She is Fleur Robinson, the chairman’s daughter.

Burton Albion is a football club that goes beyond the game, and no matter what happens to them come the end of this season, or where they are in a decade’s time, the people of Burton, and people everywhere, will have a club that the game can be proud of.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is a part of that community now, he’s written into the lore of the club, and though there’s a desire to flick to the last page and see how it ends, let’s take Ben Robinson’s advice and stop to smell the roses instead.

Keep it streets ahead,

C.L.R.

Cheers to the sources! 11v11, Palletforce Ltd., burtonalbionfc.co.uk, The Derby Telegraph, Flashscore, Sky Sports, BBC Sport, The Burton Brewers Proboard, The Coventry Telegraph, and worldfootball.net.