Keep Hunter, Sneijder in defense and play ball!!

Willem De Kromme Van Hanegem’s opinion in the AD.

It’s a bit cheap to all line up now to say van Basten makes a mess of things. Two years ago the same people were cheering and applauding when the KNVB did what the masses wanted. They all want to tackle our team manager. But I haven’t changed my opinion.

Marco van Basten is not capable enough, with his staff, to collect the best players and let them play attractive football. The results are ok, the quality of play is poor. When I said that a year ago, people laughed at me, now they think I am too nuanced.

I can only smile. The football world lost it’s mind and everyone screams and yells for their own intrests. I am independent. I don’t serve anyone’s intrest. I worry about football itself.

That’s why I concentrate on our football. Against Rumania we played as if we needed to play a very strong teams. With wingers who never cross the ball in, but focus on their own actions and who want to score themselves. With midfielders who search combinations in order to advance themselves to be able to shoot at goal and score. With full backs who need to take on their opponents and run like idiots forward. And central defenders who couldn’t build up, simply because no other player was reachable. A mess, in other words.

Against strong football nations you can play this way with Babel and Robben, since these opponents will leave some space and you can take on your opponent. But against football countries like Rumania, Slovenia and Luxembourg you’ll always bump into the next defender. We are so easy to defend in this way, that even Luxembourg would find it easy to snatch a point away from us.

I would do this, with the same group. Bouma left back, Boulah right back. And I would tell them not take on their direct opponents and to stay at the back. Play like defenders and only build up and go forward if there is no risk at all. And centrally, Sneijder and Mathijsen. Mathijsen being the pure defender, and Sneijder the build-up guy. Sneijder also has the aggression and explosivity to win balls back.

In midfield, De Zeeuw more than deserves his spot, as the controlling midfielder. Left in midfield, I’d play van Bronckhorst and right I’d play Seedorf. Robben leftwinger (!) and Babel on the right (!) with the task to make the combination with the midfielders, go for the space and cross the ball in to our center striker. But first you will have to demolish the opponent. With pace and intelligence. And when you’ve done that, you can fire up the cannons.

I’d use Huntelaar centrally. He didn’t have a chance last Saturday, but he is not to blame for that. I’m sorry for Kuyt, but he shouldn’t act the prima donna right now. You can use Kuyt in the future against stronger teams.

O, one more thing. Let’s stop all those system discussions. And let’s also stop shouting that we’re not good enough. We are. Just pick the best players and use your brain on the pitch, and the ball. The ball should do the work. So combine, find the spaces and pressure the opponent.