Annoying bump in the road…

Oranje lost against Romania with 1-0 but the chances to qualify haven’t really changed.

Next Wednesday, Oranje takes oon Slovenia, again a match that requires some important decisions by the team manager.

The conclusion after the match of most players and coach van Basten was clear. The defeat was a nuisance, an annoying bump in the road, but nothing more than that.

With three games to go, qualification is still a lurking on the horizon. Holland needs 7 points from the last three games against Slovenia, Luxembourg and Belarus.

Gio van Bronckhorst and Joris Mathijsen are suspended for the Slovenia match. But, Van Persie and Sneijder will return. Mario Melchiot will not be present due to an injury.

Boy Waterman and Khalid Boulahrouz are both sent home for the Slovenia match. The big question is, who will take Gio’s position on midfield.
Against Romania, Seedorf started, but that was mainly due to the absence of Sneijder. Seedorf himself views this differently: “I think that the starting positions of Sneijder and myself are not linked to each other.”

Team manager Van Basten sees this differently. He is not a fan of a team with and Sneijder, and Van der Vaart and Seedorf, although he did nuance his words by adding: “at least not on one midfield.”
With Gio suspended we will now find out how Van Basten views Seedorf: is he just a stand-in for Sneijder or can the two play together. The Champion League’s best midfielder thinks the latter.

And then there’s the jigsaw of the central striker’s position. Since the WC, that has been a brain-teaser for San Marco. With Ruud van Gol’s return it was clear: the Madrid striker is the number 1 for the number 9 spot. Candidates to replace him now are Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Dirk Kuyt - he is injured for these series of matches though - and Robin van Persie, who functioned pretty good in the central position in an earlier qualification game. Vennegoor of Hesselink is also injured and not part of this group.

Robin van Persie is also needed on the wings. The game against Romania showed that Oranje needs wingers with the form of the day. Last Saturday, Arjen Robben played on the left flank and Van der Vaart on the right, but both disappointed.

Van Basten refused to switch to a 4-4-2 system, although several players in the group start to question this rigid vision, like Seedorf who said: “It would be wise if we would experiment at least once with 4-4-2 after we secured the qualification.”

The big question is: will Marco van Basten listen to his players?

source: www.ad.nl

My contribution to this article:

San Marco will use this match and the fact that Ruud is absent, by playing a 4-4-2 by stealth.

He’ll play like this:

Stekelenburg

Heijtinga Mathijsen Ooijer Bouma

De Zeeuw Sneijder Seedorf

Vaart Persie Babel

In this way, he - on paper - will play 4-3-3 (saving face) but in effect, Vaart will play more as a midfielder. He will not get in conflict with Seedorf, coz he avoids the midfield choice of Vaart/Sneijder/Seedorf (buy putting Persie centrally he can play Vaart “on the wing”) and he’ll keep Huntelaar as pinchhitter on the bench (only striker left in the group).

Mark my words…