He’s from the home of total football. The land of Cruyff, Neeksins, Rep, van Basten, Rijkaard and Gullit.
A country that, for decades, has been held in the highest regard.
Not to put too fine a point on it, Dundee United new boy and proud Dutchman Frank van der Struijk admits, at times, that can be a pain.
The 31-year-old stresses he has no problem with the external praise of the game in Holland, it’s the internal pressure to follow the philosophy to the letter that bugs him.
“In Holland they want to play football, football, football. A little bit too much football I think,” said the former Willem II and Vitesse Arnhem star.
“Sometimes I think they should kick it faster to the front but if you kick a long ball they say ‘what are you doing?’
“They play football to keep the ball but they have to play to score goals and I think that’s why in Germany and England they’re getting better than us.
“If the ball is in behind they want to build up when they’re under pressure.
“Sometimes you have to kick a long ball to get out of pressure and then put the opponent under pressure.”
Put another way, van der Struijk is from the school of defending that refuses to lose sight of the fact the first priority is to keep the ball out of their own net.
He’s all for getting the ball down and passing but not if the risk is too high.
And while he admits he doesn’t know much about Scottish football, yet, from what friend and team-mate Nick van der Velden has told him it will be a refreshing change.
It was van der Velden, already a hit with Arabs less than two months after he made the hop across the North Sea, who recommended van der Struijk and urged him to come if he got the chance.
“I didn’t know Scotland and I’ve never been here before but he told me the people are nice and the football is good. The Premier League in England is all we see in the Netherlands, not Scottish football. Nick told me there are good players here and he told me a lot about the club. He said the coach needed some defenders and he was a good guy. So Nick told him my name and we talked.
“Nick said the football is a little bit different from in Holland but I’d get used to it.”
And just like van der Velden, in moving to Scotland he is fulfilling a long-held ambition. Trying a different style of football was something he was determined to do but it was not a decision he was going to make lightly.
“I have always wanted to try another country and two years ago I said I wanted to leave Holland. I want to play a different football. I want to see a different culture and a different way of playing football and this is my chance.
“I had other offers but I have a wife and kids, so it had to be right for my family. I could have gone to Germany or Africa or China but one of my children is a six-year-old and there had to be good schooling where I went.
“Football is very important but my family is also very important. If I am going to play well it has to be right for them as well.
“If it was not right for them then I am going to be a little bit sad at the club. That would not be right but I have waited and I am sure I have made the right choice.”
United fans should get their first sight of van der Struijk in today’s Irn Bru Cup clash with Peterhead.
As a Dutchman it would have been fitting if he was wearing their traditional tangerine but, instead, he’ll be in the pink of the new third strip that’s being used for the first time.
“I like the pink strip, it’s something different — usually it is white or black for change strips. It will be the first time I have played in pink but this is good.”
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