Marco’s future uncertain

Jan and Goose, you have to help me with this subject of van Basten’s future. What future? Post EC, post WC, the rest of his life? What do the Netherland Dutch fans think of van Basten–do they like him better than we bloggers? Is there really another choice to van Basten? Hiddink has “been there, done that”–de Haan wants to go to the Olympics with his U21 team–van Gaal and Rijkard have also been there, and failed miserably–Koeman is in Valencia–Advocaat and Beenhakker, forget!–Adrianse, he’s no pal of Cruijff, from what I read–Cruijff, he simply won’t do it–and I am not available! So, my choice is Jose Morijnyo(spelling is awful), the out of work former Chelsea coach who could make this Holland group of athletes into a powerful force. I have never felt fondly for Jose, but he is one helluva coach. If the KNVB wants to think outside the box, then now is the time.

Posted from  United States

Did you guys know that we have a friendly against Italy in February (according to fifa.com), and one against Russia in May(according to wikipedia)

Posted from  Canada

Bob, I dont think the ’special one’ is an ‘Orange’ coach. No doubt a good coach, but not an ‘Oranje’ coach. In my opinion, the best non-Dutch ‘Oranje’ manager would be Wenger. I would love to see Arsene work with Persie/Seedorf/Sneijder/RvN/RvdV/Bommel(he would return). The attacking, flowing, winning football he could produce with these players would openly put Marco to shame. It’s kinda sad that the best total football coach in the world is non-Dutch. I wish it weren’t so.

Posted from  United States

ah yes.. wenger at Oranje; thats something to dream about… but doubt he will ever move to national football. hes too much of a club person, scouting the newest young talents before anybody else..

I wish this is a warning signal for Marco from the KNVB. This article gives me hope because under San Marco we are going to fail very bad, we can fail with another coach but with San Marco it’s a fact, it’s just my opinion of course and I respect all opinions.

I think the KNVB doesn’t have to hire a foreign coach, there are many great coaches in the Netherlands and they can persuade some of them to take the job. But I wouldn’t be against hiring a foreign coach.

I remember when Van Basten took the job there was a clause in his contract that stated that the team had to play “attractive football” because the fans didn’t like the way we played under Advocaat and as far as I know Holland hasn’t played that “attractive football” yet under Van Basten. I hope Kesler still remembers about that clause and I hope that’s what he means in this article.

I wish the best to the Netherlands, I trust in this team, the players, not the coach but if he stays I also wish the best to him and I wish he proves me wrong. We shouldn’t fear Italy or France, respect them and learn from them but never fear your enemy. It is the time for the experienced players to show their leadership and for the new generation to show what they are made of. I believe we can not only go through but that we can win the tournament.

HUP HOLLAND HUP!!!.

@Bob, I can’t see Mourinho be successful with the Dutch. Mourinho is a bit of a totalitarian dictator. And his tactical ideas…i don’t know…boring Chelsea…

I also don’t think Rijkaard failed as team manager, really…

But, we do have some good potential team managers… Bert van Marwijk. Martin Jol. Huub Stevens. Adriaanse.

I can’t see a lot of foreign coaches be successful… Wenger, yes…

But other than him?

As for the Dutch sentiment… I live in Australia, so I don’t really know, but from what I hear, the Dutch people aren’t that happy with Marco, but at the same time they also seem to feel Holland is not as good as “we” think we are. Yes, we do have fantastic offensive talent, but what do they need to play well together? And the defensive block is less than average. So, I don’t think there is a feeling in Holland that we would “do better with another coach”… But that’s my idea… Goose?

Posted from  Australia

Bob: in the last 10 years oranje played the most beautiful football under Rijkaard!

Posted from  Hungary

Jan, your comments regarding the Dutch fans and their opinion about the national team is consistent with conversations I had this past spring when visiting the Netherlands. Many Netherlanders thought the team was only “ordinary” and to a person, all believed the players were significantly overpaid. I chatted with some fans during the Ajax-Heracles match, who were avid supporters of the national team but believed this particular group of athletes to be less gifted than many of the previous Dutch teams. Therefore, maybe it does not matter who coaches them–”blood out of a stone” thought–but I believe it matters a great deal and would be pleased to see one of the names you mentioned being appointed to coach the national team. Once again, and I repeat myself, ultimately the match is played by players and it is their ultimate responsibility to take this team as far as its capacity will allow.

Posted from  United States

Well well from reading the above i hve to say i disagree with the ideas on van basten. I personaly think he can do great things for holland. His ideas are great about “attacking dominating football” and i do think he is able to achieve this despite the poor results.Think about it… we faced teams that were really defencive and only focused on defending and countering. e.g switzerland slovenia etc. These teams are hard to manouvre and it could well be that with more offensive teams there defense will leave more spaces and that will be more convenient for us. who knows? Ofcourse holland has got to improve a lot to stand a chance in this group of death but i do not think one can blame the coach for it.If u look at the belarus game u can clearly see that there was no motivation and the players needed to be kicked to do something.
@ BOb: I do not agree with having mourinho as a coach… ur a dutch football fan are u not? dont u wanna keep the old offensive dutch spirit with these special tactics that are ours? assigning mourinho would lead to very agressive compact football, the type the germans used to play.

Back to van basten now… if u look at the world cup u cannot say that the football there was poor… we played great football against portugal despite the fighting… if u take all the fighting out ur left with all the chances that holland missed ( cocu hitting the bar; kuyt missing the one on one vs ricardo; van bommels several near misses.) one main aspect that holland needs to improve on is the finishing touch we are and have always been bad at this. all u have to do is look at all the times we lost in penalty shoot outs. anyways i hope holland does a good euro keep us updated Jan ur doing a good job. peace guys

Posted from  Switzerland

Don’t like foreign coaches. Each country should be coached by their nationals. Not even a big fan of the Dutch coaches working with other teams. National should be national.

And Mourihno kinda nuts anyway. He could even have more personality clashes than Marco.

Rijkaard – yes he choked in one game – wouldn’t call that a complete failure though.

Agreed that Nederland doesn’t have overwhelming talent. But the fact that Oranje scored fewer goals than any other qualifying team does not speak well for a team that supposedly has so much attacking talent. Oranje has simply not cranked up a bit offensive game against anyone for a long time. Control the ball and possession yes, but win by 3 or more goals – not for a long, long time.

Still very happy with the group – 3 great games guaranteed!

Posted from  United States

well; Marco is gone… think i speak for all dutch people when i say;

Thank you Lord!!! too bad he will still be round for the EC08

all people in Holland hate vanBasten the Bondscoach (we still love him as a player ofcourse!!)

bye, bye Marco, no go and play some golf

Posted from  Netherlands