Van Basten has tough choices to make

“Not that bad an option, eh?” That was Marco talking, a bit cynical, about Rafael van der Vaart as a false right winger. Cynical because van Basten caught a lot of flak when he first introduced this option.

Just like against South Korea, Van der Vaart played a brilliant match, infiltrating from the right. Against Thailand, he scored after one minute assisted by an inspired Sneijder.

HSV Hamburg’s captain became the most important man during the trip. The 44 times capped international was very proud of the captain-band and sees it as a huge motivator to grow into that all important player his coach likes to see him become.

Before the match against Thailand the team manager pondered the progress of the generation Vaart-Sneijder-Persie-Robben. They get to the point in their career where they will need to coach and guide the younger players and make others play better. Van Basten is happy with their progress but thinks this should and could be much better.

He used Cruyff as exanple: “Johan was 18 years old when he stood in the middle and told everyone where to stand. That type of player is not present at the moment, not just in Oranje, but in the whole of international football.” He advised Van der Vaar recently to syay with HSV Hamburg and to grow there so he could leave for a big club as the super star, instead of a player who will need to fight for his spot again. And he advised Sneijder only to leave Ajax if his new club would allow him to play every week. “It’s a pre-EC season, so you don’t want to end up on the bench at a big European club. It’s better to play with Ajax than to be benched at Real Madrid.”

Van Basten also seemed to have found a new rightback in Mario Melchiot. He impressed in particular in offensive sense.

The group to chose and select from has gotten bigger. Van Basten is happy with that. Although he will have to make some tough choices, with nine big name offensive players. “We won’t change the way we select. With 4-3-3 we will only need two center strikers and a so-called pinch-hitter.”

It could well be that only Vennegoor of Hesselink will be selected for all the games (being the pinch-hitter). With Van der Vaart as the new right winger there are only three spots left in the selection for Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie, Kuyt, Huntelaar and Robben. And only two spots in the line-up! “Yep, we’ll see how we go, but it will certainly be interesting…”