Van Basten built a big Air Castle

What did Nicky Hofs think of Seedorf’s selection for Oranje? And will Vitesse’s Theo Janssen be disappointed? Because according to team manager Marco van Basten both these players were better than the AC Milan star. The fact that van Basten ignored Seedorf for years was not something we should make a big deal of, as the coach said himself. He only used football technical criteria. So, what exactly changed, apart from Seedorf’s charm offensive in the media? Do Hofs and Janssen struggle through a form crisis?

There seems to be no logical explanation, because there are no tactical or technical answers for this. With a cool gaze our team manager demoted Seedorf in public. The 30 year old ex-Ajax star was year in year out one the dominating players in the squads of one of the strongest clubs in the world. But no, van Basten thought that talented players and benchwarmers in the Dutch league were better for the specific midfield position. Or, Seedorf was unlucky and had a bad game. And if he scored, van Basten thought he should’ve scored twice (this really happened!!).

Not selecting Seedorf was in effect the only consistency one could find in van Basten’s reign in the last 2 years. When he started in August 2004, van Basten would build a team that could play attacking and dominant football. And attractive! The WC in 06 would probably be a bit too early for this team to peak, but at the EC2008 this team would be ready and able to go for gold. Van Basten chose a system, the Dutch School style, and would then pick the players to fill the positions in the team. And in that mould, there would be no room for Seedorf, who symbolized everything van Basten wanted to say goodbye to.
Seedorf sometimes totally ignored his tasks in Oranje. Van Basten wanted unity, discipline, youth, sacrifice and balance. There was no room for filmstar behaviour. Seedorf was a big name, but not necessarily a big player…

Two years later, it seems van Basten has strayed from his original path big time. The WC showed that the van Basten method did not work. By choosing 2 players for every position, we ended up with too much debutants/talents and a big devaluation of individual quality. The gameplan should’ve compensated these facts, but it didn’t. And that’s logical too, a team manager does not have the time to work with his players towards a new and high brow game concept, that differs from the way the players play at their respective clubs. At the end of the day, Oranje lacked experience, street smarts, pure football quality and leadership. And still lacks all that… After the abysmal matches against Luxembourg and Belarus, van Basten realized he still needs van Bommel in his team. Too late. Against Albany we again saw the confirmation that in two years time, Oranje didn’t develop in any way. The strength of a team is determined by the strength of the individual players. The selection of Seedorf can only lead to one conclusion: for two years, Marco van Basten has been working at a big huge Air Castle.

Translation of VI column