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Three Questions for San Marco

September 6th, 2007 | By: Jan | 9 Comments »

Oranje works on the ideal line up behind closed doors. In his quest to find the right fornula, Marco van Basten has to answer three questions:

Question 1. What can Van Basten do to allow the central striker, in this case Ruud van Nistelrooy, to play on his strenghts?

Ruud van Gol showed in the Liga game against Villarreal again where he is the most lethal. That is in the zone of 20 meters by 20 meters around the box of the opponent.

That’s where he battles defenders, where can be played off and from where he can catapult himself – face towards the goal – into the box if the right cross pass comes.

Oranje executes it differently. But, there is no reason why Ruud wouldn’t be able to play in the same way. With players like Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Afellay, Seedorf and Van Persie, Holland has numerous options to combine from midfield into the box.

But, if Oranje wants to play like this, there should be enough room in midfield. Van Nistelrooy can assist in creating space by playing deep and pressing the opponents defense back. Having a deep winger, like Babel on the left, could also help to push the opponent back and allow our midfield to dominate the pitch.

It’s no coincidence that Van Basten canceled his strategy to judge his strikers on their “football playing” skills. This led to a lot of frustration (Van Nistelrooy, Kuyt, Huntelaar) because first the strikers needed to open themselves up on midfield so the defenders could build up via the strikers. In this way, the limited space in midfield would be all used up by the strikers, allowing our creative players on midfield not enough space to work in.

With the Bulgarians playing in a defensive, tight manner, it’s important to have players like Sneijder – the man in form – and Van Persie from right penetrating to 20 meters from the goal and allowing them to take their chances with strikes from that distance.

Question 2. What is the best mix between defensive and offensive players?

Having Van Nistelrooy, Sneijder, Van Persie and Babel in the starting line up means having four purely offensive players.
To counterbalance this, Van Basten has 6 spots left. Van Bronckhorst seems to be the right holding midfielder. The Feyenoord captain has the experience and the vision to play a dependable role on midfield.

Next to him there is one spot left. And this player will need to have dynamics and good lungs, duel power and the skills to re-possess the ball. Denny Landzaat used to be the favorite player for this position but he is currently injured.
From the remaining options, Demy de Zeeuw and Nigel de Jong seem to be the best.

However, Van Basten is typically a coach who has the guts to use youngster Afellay on this position. Against Slovenia he replaced Landzaat and did that very well.

Question 3. How important is experience at this stage for Marco van Basten?

The question is relevant because Van Basten could start a team with Van Nistelrooy, Seedorf, Van Bronckhorst, Ooijer and van der Sar in the ax. Van der Sar’s position is without a doubt. Ooijer formed a dependable duo with Mathijsen before he got injured and has gained rhythm with his club. Gio and Ruud van Gol have been covered already
but there’s still Seedorf. The man who was voted – by a majority of top coaches – the best midfielder of the last CL season. Seedorf could play on the left in a more offensive role, like he does at AC Milan. In Italy, the former Ajax player has his buddy Kaka in a free role, in Oranje that could be Sneijder or Van der Vaart.

Behind Seedorf, at Milan, there are three players: Ambrosini, Gattuso and Pirlo. In Oranje, that could be Gio, De Zeeuw and a central defender. The Bulgarians will most likely play with two strikers at the most, so three real defenders should be enough.
Seedorf and Gio – both experienced players – should be made responsible for building up and keeping the balance in the team.

In this role, Seedorf will need to play disciplined and focused and without any trickery or risk. When Van Basten welcomed Clarence back at Oranje, he called him one of the creative spirits of the team. With this moniker it seems Van Basten does not want to use him as a more holding midfielder at the back.

Van Basten has a couple of question to answer before he can collect his ticket to Switzerland/Austria.

Tags: marco van basten, The Netherlands, Wesley Sneijder

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Comments

By tiju thomas | September 6th, 2007 at 8:06 am

A superb analysis with reality jan
i think front trio is cofirmed
Babel
Nestel
Van persie
then Znider( i think he also confirmed with his pos)
Then zedorf /vart/afaleey ? who?
holding mid it should be dek saaw
LB Gio vani
CB1 Math jenson
Cb2 ooiger
RB heitnga
Van der sar fine
at least good in papers
Sure jan we will win this game by least 2-0 y?
Coz we lost to Swiss tat will create an energy in players mind
hoping for our victory

By Mario | September 6th, 2007 at 9:49 am

Well, well, well—nice post Jan. I think van Basten has too many questions too ask himself.
I think that a line up with with a 4-3-3 following Schuster´s strategys suit Holland very much.

I am thinking a line up like this:

1- van der Sar

2- Melchiot (rb)
3- Heitinga (sweeper)
4- Mathijsen(stopper)
5- Gio

6- De Zeeuw (Defensive mid)
7- Seedorf (Right mid)
8- Sneijder (Left mid, like at Real)
11- van der Vaart (offensive mid)

9- Ruud (central striker)
10-van Persie(second striker)

I am also thinking to line up Babel but for that it will be needed a 4-3-3 system that I think van Basten will eventually use and Afellay could take de Zeeuw role but I doubt he will be able to defend properly but as we know van Basten always surprises us and perhaps he would be Seedorf for Afellay and I think that will be a big mistake.
Anyway, I am waiting the game, here in México it will be live on ESPN and hopefully our team wins!

By goose | September 6th, 2007 at 10:53 am

I have 3 questions for vanBasten:

1. Will you go away please??

2. Why is it that the one time you and your team have a trainingsession in my home town (today!), its a secret one with no people allowed??

3. Will you please, please go away??

no time to read your post Jan (btw; youre full speed now!) ill comment later

Posted from Netherlands

By ferenc | September 6th, 2007 at 11:18 am

1. why you don’t forget the 433 system? (you should just have a look at our top players’ clubs)

2. why isn’t clarence seedorf, the best midfielder of the cl in your starting eleven?

3. why you don’t try to put one of our defending midfielder into our defense?

Posted from Hungary

By goose | September 6th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

Latest: vdVaart out for saterday! dont know if he would have started but maybe a change for Seedorf to get in the team!!

GO CLARENCE!!! GO CLARRENCE!!

Posted from Netherlands

By tenBrook | September 6th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

Love the posts, please don’t cut back on the frequency.

But you have to translate the last paragraph under question 2 for us non-dutch speaking dutch-americans…

Posted from United States

By Bob | September 6th, 2007 at 5:30 pm

While recognizing the fun of playing fantasy football by the placement of Dutch players on a proposed starting 11–(elftal–right, Jan?)– it might also be useful to consider the fate of the Netherlands team from a different perspective.

A recent study of the value of coaches to team success,completed here in the US, came to the following conclusions:

Baseball–important for strategy and substitutions during the game, quality of practice sessions, choice of starting players–overall, a low ranking in terms of coaches relationship to team success.

Basketball–important for choice of starters, substitutes, team plays and formations, quality of practice sessions, instruction to players during the game–overall, a high ranking in terms of coaches relationship to team success.

American football–critical in choice of plays, formations, starters, substitutes, quality of practices; limited influence during game due to complex nature of scripted plays–overall, the highest ranking in terms of coaching relationship to team success.

Football (American soccer)–important for team shape, choice of players, conditioning; limited influence during matches (exception:substitutes)–overall, low ranking in terms of coaching relationship to team success. (Note: apparently many teams have an overall coach/manager for the “big” decisions, but use a trainer during practice sessions, and which position for football was ranked high as a job position/responsibility in comparison with other team “trainers”.

Does van Basten train as well as coach? Does it matter?

Food for thought, as we say here in America.

Posted from United States

By Jan | September 7th, 2007 at 4:17 am

True Bob, true. The impact of the coach in soccer during the match is low. In terms of training (physical, technical and tactical) the coach/trainer is important but that mainly at club level, where coaches have 5 days per week to work with the chaps. National team managers need to be more motivators and people-managers. And obviously they need to be able to pick the best team and tactics. This is where Van Gaal went wrong with Oranje. He wanted to mould the players like he did as Ajax coach and that just doesn’t work. At PSV, Hiddink was the face towards the press, sponsors and made the big decisions (who to sign, who to let go and who to play) but Eykelkamp and Rutten (now FC Twente coach) were the actual trainers.

Posted from Australia

By goose | September 7th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

Nice one Bob; vanBasten actually does train the guys himself..his assisants help ofcourse, dont think that there are many coaches that dont train the team themselfs..i mean, not in all cases the coach will be able to really participate fysicly but hell be on the pitch when his team trains (even Hiddink, drinking his coffee, his a coffee addict)
the rest Jan filled in already, like useual i totaly agree,

grzt

Posted from Netherlands

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