Former assistant Shin Tae-yong explains why Kluivert failed in Indonesia

Ricky Riskandi, former assistant to coach Shin Tae-yong of the Indonesian national team, believes that Patrick Kluivert's failure stems from a hasty decision to end the long-term project built by Shin early. According to him, PSSI broke the 5-year foundation and put Kluivert in an impossible position in a short period of time, leading to Indonesia's failure to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.

5 year foundation broken

Sharing on YouTube channel Bicara Bola, Ricky Riskandi expressed surprise at the dismissal of coach Shin Tae-yong: “I am very surprised and extremely regretful that coach Shin Tae-yong was fired. Because, he is the one who built everything from the beginning. His work with the Indonesian team is not yet finished.”

He described the change in the coaching staff just as the team was on the rise as “picking flowers before they bloom”. In other words, the accumulation of organization, discipline and mutual understanding – which takes time – was interrupted.

Why can't Kluivert turn things around?

Ricky Riskandi insists the problem is not primarily tactical. Every coach has his own strengths, but Shin’s biggest advantage is the continuous time working and understanding each player after 5 years. When that foundation is dismantled, Kluivert – the latecomer – is forced to rebuild under urgent conditions.

“What I regret is that the person who built the foundation was coach Shin Tae-yong. And that did not happen overnight,” he stressed. From this point of view, Kluivert had to face too big a target in too short a period of time – as a result, the Indonesian team ran out of steam in the decisive stage and missed out on the 2026 World Cup.

Tactics are not the root, time is the lever

In international football, strategy is often based on continuity: a stable personnel system, tactical habits maintained over training sessions, and a trust built up between coach and player. When that chain is broken, any new ideas need time to sink in – time that Kluivert doesn’t have, according to Ricky.

Impact and lessons for PSSI

The key message from Ricky Riskandi is patience. Changing coaching personnel in the middle of a development cycle can disrupt a positive trajectory. At national team level, where training sessions are much shorter than at club level, the time spent building playing principles and internal bonds is invaluable.

For Indonesia, this failure was called “predictable” by insiders as the foundation was withdrawn. The lesson for PSSI, Ricky argues, is the need for a long-term vision and consistency to preserve what has been accumulated.

An insider's perspective

Speaking on Bicara Bola, Ricky did not deny Kluivert’s ability, but he stressed that the context determines destiny. When a successor has to take over in a short time and under pressure to achieve immediate results, the risk of collapse is very high – especially when the predecessor spent 5 years building the foundation.

His conclusion was straightforward: if a project is started from scratch, it needs to be completed completely, rather than being interrupted halfway. With the national team, this is especially true when each training session is a piece of a long-term picture.

Conclude

Indonesia’s story after the 2026 World Cup hopes reflects a familiar rule: time and continuity determine the sustainability of the project. According to Ricky Riskandi, PSSI’s early termination of Shin Tae-yong’s journey put Patrick Kluivert at a disadvantage, and failure was an inevitable consequence.