Mark van Bommel monologue

For Angela

“I’ve played for Barcelona, so you think you know what happens at the top. In our championship year we once lost twice in a row, but here… It’s much worse. The pressure, the expectations. A victory in Munich is normal. If you win 1-0 people are disappointed. A draw is seen as a loss and losing, that is a disaster. Things are extreme here. And everything and everyone focuses on Bayern Munich. It’s not: who will become champs this year, no… it’s who will be able to stop Bayern Munich from winning. They even have an official name for the number two in the standings: Bayern-Jager (Bayern Hunter). There’s lots of strong teams in Germany… Werder Bremen, Schalke, Vfb Stuttgart or HSV Hamburg, but they are never able to be top all the time. Lately Bayern Munich is capable of winning with great football. I remember in my youth, that Bayern was a bit of a lousy counter-attack team. Great to watch for a football crazy person like me, but in general people in Holland looked down on Bayern. Now, we play fantastic football and we get a lot of sympathy. And we do have a lot of quality players. Last season, if you stopped Makaay, you stopped Bayern. Now, the danger comes from all possible angles. Klose, Toni, Ribery, Schweinsteiger, Podolski… Everyone can score and finish off a match. And the funny thing is, it gelled from day 1. Normally you can’t just buy 8 great players and turn it into a team, but we managed to do just that. It was wonderful. In Spain, you do get more time on the pitch, because most opponents also try to play good football. That’s different here. Every opponent just wants to destruct our game play. They all start one striker, you know? Bielefeld plays 4-4-2 but if we come by, they play 4-5-1. I recently saw Madrid play Mallorca and that ends in 4-3. And Mallorca could have won. A club like Wolfsburg here won’t do that.

The press in Spain was also very knowledgeable. They knew everything. And here, you have tabloid-like papers. I try to avoid those papers. But fans do read them, and ask questions about it. Or the press grills you. Your environment will be influenced, whether you want it or not. If Sagnol lets slip he’s not that happy in Munich, it’s frontpage news for two weeks. But, our group is seasoned and knows how to deal with it. You just shrug your shoulders.

When at PSV, I was one of the controlling midfielders, like I am now. But at PSV we had a deep striker (Van Nistelrooy) and a more shadowy striker (Luc Nilis). Here at Bayern we have two strikers next to each other. So, at PSV I could go deep much easier, when Nilis came back to midfield, I could go. That’s different now. I play more controlling, I score less here and I’m maybe less remarkable, but the good side is, I also grab less yellow cards.

At Barca I was more a servant. Here and at PSV I am more a play maker from the back. At Barca, there were so many great players and as a new player, I wasn’t that high in the hierarchy. I don’t mind that, if you have Iniesta, Deco and Xavi, you sort of settle for the servant role. But I can’t shine as much and most people thought I had trouble with the quality-level. I don’t think that is the case. Rijkaard wanted me to stay, but I didn’t believe in the rotation tactics. Not for me at least. I need to play every week to get into rhythm. That’s just how it works with me. Friendlies, trainings sessions… I can only give my 100%. So, to be fit but to be rested is just killing me. I played some great games for Barcelona, but after Fortuna and PSV I didn’t feel as important. Here in Munich, I have that feeling back.

The problem with my type of player is, that people can’t see how valuable you are if they haven’t seen the whole match. In short highlights, it’s always the goals, assists, challenges, blunders and yellow cards you see. There are no statistics for midfielders, other than the number of kilometers they ran. I don’t need to score or give assists so much. It’s not about me, I just want to win. And if I can have value for the team, that’s enough for me. Hiddink always spoke about the minimum-level. He meant that whatever happens, you need to be able to score a 7 with your performance. If you’re a 9, great. But don’t be a 4 a week later. I’m the kind of player who can always be a 7. Sometimes an 8, very rarely a 6, but never lower than that. Because I know my tasks and my mentality helps to do the rest. I will always work hard. And by playing how I play, I allow others to shine. So, sometimes a striker can score 2 goals and maybe be rated a 9, but not a lot of people see that he was able to do so because of me or any other midfielder working his arse off for him. The fans all cheer the goal scorer. And if I grabbed a yellow, people will say. Ah, yeah and Van Bommel, he took a yellow again.

The problem with yellow cards is also that sometimes, it’s another player who loses the ball when most of us are in front of the ball. The opponent with the ball needs to be stopped. I get to do the vacuum cleaning and it’s important for the team that that man doesn’t pass me. So, sometimes my yellows are the result of a mistake by another. But that’s how it is. I won’t complain, but it’s not fair that I have the reputation of being a woodchopper. Sometimes I’m just outwitted by the opponent and they seek me out to make the challenge. Most players on my position, like Gallas, Gattuso, Davids, Simons and Scholes get booked regularly.

Sometimes the best thing to do is recover the ball on midfield and pass it over 5 meters into the feet of a striker or the playmaker. In my position, that could be a great game. The analysts, coaches and players can value that kind of play, but the average fan doesn’t. Take Denny Landzaat. Most fans don’t see his value. Or De Zeeuw or indeed with myself. To give you an example: sometimes, when the opponent has the ball, I let my man go free on purpose. Chances are, that he will be played by the opponent. I then take the ball off him or put pressure on him. As a result, his pass is wrong and another player of my team - say Schweinsteiger - gets the ball and he passes to Toni, who scores. The papers will say “great goal by Toni on a Schweinsteiger assist”. My name won’t be mentioned. The fans don’t recognize that always, but luckily my team mates and coaches do. And that’s enough for me. When I was younger, I wanted to be the star, the player people talked about but I learned that it’s not about that. And it’s about details. I asked Ribery many times how he wants the ball in certain situations. We talk about that for hours sometimes. He likes the ball played fast into his feet. So, he can then make one swift move with his foot and pass his opponent. I know to play the ball hard on his left foot. Those things can be decisive. And I need to do that under pressure in split seconds. With Toni, or Klose or Podolski it’s different. Sometimes talking about football is more important than running miles with a ball. If that pass on Ribery is on the right foot, he’ll need more time and the opponent can regroup. So, I can pass a great ball on his right and slow ourselves down. Fans will say: great pass by Van Bommel, but lousy touch by Ribery. While in fact, the pass wasn’t right at all. Same with a deep pass. The trick is to place the ball right in the running line of the striker. He shouldn’t have to slow down for it. Those type of balls, you need to caress more than anything else. And the moment you touch the ball, you know whether it’s a good one. My skills allow me to hit the ball hard with a slice effect, so the ball sails over defense but sort of breaks when it hits the grass. It’s like a backspin or a draw ball with billiards. Top football is so tough. All players are skilled, there’s not a lot of time and space, so the passing needs to be perfect. On which foot, with which speed, etc. We trained on this for weeks and weeks in a row in Barcelona. The real top players in that type of game are Pep Guardiola (former Barca player, currently youth coach in Camp Nou) and currently Xavi of Barcelona. Wizards. These guys allowed the stars to shine. They knew all the details and could hit the ball right in one go. Fabregas has it too. And you can train it. It’s something you should work on every day. And Bayern as a team operates like that. Take Klose, for instance. He is much more than a goal scorer. He works for the team, he knows how to defend with his position. Like Landzaat! If he goes three yards to the right, a certain pass deep by the opponent is impossible. That’s the type of tactical play guys like Klose, Landzaat, De Zeeuw, Lampard and others specialize in. If these players aren’t doing that, players like Ribery and Ronaldinho can’t perform their trickery. Both Ribery and Ronaldinho play on the left. So, we always left their left back free in building up. So we tempted the opponent to build up over the right flank. Ribery and Ronaldinho - in these cases - than don’t have to defend too much. And once we took possession, we could cross pass to the left.

You’re not just dominating the game, you also camouflage your weaknesses. These things are essential in top football. You always here commentators say that the losers didn’t work hard enough or weren’t sharp enough or something like that. Bullshit. It’s about being in time or coming in to late. Has nothing to do with working hard. If you don’t play well, you’re forced to work harder. But working hard is never the answer. It’s working smart. Like Johan Cruyff, when Barcelona couldn’t dominate, he’d take out a striker and added a midfielder. Why? Because he needed ball possession to dominate, so he added a midfielder to create more control. And this sounds counter-logical, but by sacrificing a striker, sometimes you can attack better. Do you know which Dutch coach has a great eye for this? Fred Rutten. I worked with him at PSV and now he is FC Twente’s head coach. He knew everything about the opponents. Patterns, weaknesses, how they ran, etc. And at PSV, after Rutten’s talk, Hiddink would do the ten minutes pep talk, and that was it.

Hiddink is more like Rijkaard. Great managers. Keeping every one happy, sharp and committed. Henk ten Cate did the actual coaching and tactical preparations. But Rijkaard was the glue.

I think my problems with Marco van Basten are partly due to my experiences at Fortuna, PSV and now Bayern Munich. Van Basten doesn’t want to make players important. He would play Van Nistelrooy or Kuyt or Seedorf and then the next game, he’d criticize them and replaced them. I have trouble with that. From my 17th, I was always an important player. At Oranje, I thought I was too, but it seemed Van Basten saw it differently. I think I played with too much pressure in those days and it effected my performances. I also believe we have too many captains in Oranje. I am one of the leading forces at Bayern, and Sneijder is important at Madrid, Seedorf in Milan, Rafael at Hamburg and Robin at Arsenal. It’s hard to bring all those personalities in sync in one team. That’s why Kuyt is so well liked by most coaches. He will do whatever the coach asks him. I am difficult for my environment and looking back, I think that’s one of the reasons why it didn’t work out. I also think Marco made mistakes in the way he treated me. I always worked well with my coaches. Hiddink, Gerets, Van Marwijk, Van Gaal, Rijkaard…not the least I’d say. And then something snapped. I couldn’t work with the way Van Basten operated and I made my decision. So many things have happened, I don’t think I will play for Oranje while Marco is in charge. But listen, I support my decision with 100% but everytime I feel it in my heart when Oranje plays. I really hurt when I think about it. But I just have to bide my time and keep on playing good football.”

Source: VI weekblad