Q&A with Marco van Basten

Questions asked via the KNVB website. Marco (or Kees Jansma, who knows) answers them….

Q: The Times made a list with the best 5 coaches ever. Rinus Michels is number 1, Ernst Happel is number 2. What would your top-5 be?

Van Basten: ,,For me, Johan Cruyff is number 1. He is the best I ever worked with. All other coaches I worked with were great, like Sacchi, Michels and Capello. You learn from them all. But Cruyff was superb. He knows a lot about everything. And he is able to sell the product football. He could improve the collective and also the individual. When at Ajax he was still so fit that he could even play along on the training. He made you think about everything, tactics, skills, fitness, the referee…all aspects. And he was fun to work with too and he made you use your brains.”

On top of that, Cruyff always wanted possession. And that was, back then as well, a big difference. This was apparent in all his actions. He’d rather win with a goal in the first than a goal in the last minute. That’s how he thinks.”

By the way, you can’t compare being a team manager for a National team with club coach. It’s like comparing apples and pears. At the club, you work with the players every day. But, Cruyff is one and the rest are all on number 2.”

Q: In what way affects the pressure and criticism on the team the bonding and gelling of a tight group at Oranje?

Van Basten: ,,It shouldn’t affect it negatively. It should even have a positive effect. You get a common enemy and that allows groups to become stronger. But it can work in a negative way. If the criticism is picked up in the group, sometimes you can get two or more camps within the group. That doesn’t help to create unity. So, you need to be straight and honest in the group and clear. So that everyone has the same message on behalf of Oranje towards the press.”

Q: Which rule would you abolish if you were FIFA boss?

Van Basten: ,,I wouldn’t abolish a rule, I’d add a new one. I would like to see camera’s in the goal to judge whether a ball is over the line yes or no. That is so hard to gauge for a referee or a linesman. It would make the game fairer. I think the FIFA is going to experiment with it, which is good.”

Q: Holland misses a player like Jan Wouters, to guard the balance in the team and to allow the technical players to play better.

Van Basten: ,You can’t compare individual players. We have enough tough players in the team and our defense has done very well in the qualification and WC matches since 2004. We only conceded eight goals, so from a purely defensive perspective, we’ve done pretty good.
Jan Wouters was key for the balance, that’s right, but he was much more than that. People now say he was so tough and good defensively, but Jan was technically and tactically one of the best. He just didn’t show it with trickery. But he was the one who gave me the assist against Germany in 1988 to score the winning goal. That ball was precise, right angle, right speed, right moment… First you have to see that situation and than translate in to your feet and the feet need to be able to execute what the eyes see. And all that in a split second. Jan was a great player who could also hand out a cookie if needed.”

Q: In 1988, were you favorites for the title? And if not, when did you realize you could actually win?

Van Basten: ,,I don’t think we were favorites. We missed the three tournaments before it, the WC86, EC84 and the WC82. We were happy that we could go in the first place. I was injured and not so motivated to go, since Michels had told me he wanted to use me as a winger. The first match, we lost. The second was a close one against England. I remember they hit the post at least once. One of our goals was close to off side… And then we had that horrible match against Ireland, with the late Kieft goal. And they had huge opportunities in that match as well. But when we were through the group phase and only had Germany and the other finalist to beat, we felt we could do it. Although for us the Germany match was a revenge match for the WC74. That was then extremely important in Holland. And we had three AC Milan players, while they had three Inter Milan players… Klinsmann and Gullit were big mates in those days, so there were a lot of connections. We didn’t even think about the finales.”

Q: Why don’t all players sing the National Anthem before a match. What’s the deal with that?

Van Basten: ,,There is no deal. That’s for the players to decide. A player needs to prepare in the way he feels best. I won’t tell players to sing because I want to. Some players are too concentrated to sing, others feel a bit embarrassed maybe… It doesn’t matter to me.”