Van Basten: I wasn’t happy either…

October 17th, 2007 | by: Jan |

Against Slovenia Marco van Basted decided to take more risks and go for results and attractive football. That it didn’t happen bummed the team manager out. “We made it hard for ourselves. In the first half you have to put these guys away with 3-0. In the second half I detected some fear.”

The start was defnitely good. “The first half was in general ok. We started with a lot of attacking players and wanted to play one-to-one all over the pitch to pressure them from the word go.”

After an hour, Van Basten sacrificed a midfielder, just to be sure. “We went back to three midfielders. The fans didn’t like that, but I didn’t either. I was not happy. But, it’s the way it is, although I would have liked to see it differently.” Van Basten also pointed at the replacement of Rafael van der Vaart, Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben. ‘Those forced replacements of our most creative players on the pitch didn’t help the entertainment value either.”

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Comments

By World Cup Round Up: South Africa Qualifying, Match fixing Poland, Kyrgyzstan Cruise - World Cup Blog | October 18th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

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Posted from United States

By ferenc | October 18th, 2007 at 3:30 pm

robben is out for 4-5 weeks…:-(

Posted from Hungary

By Bart | October 18th, 2007 at 3:37 pm

I thought it was van Persie who was out for 4 weeks

Posted from Canada

By Jan | October 18th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

Shit, that’s bad. I’ll check. It won’t take long until clubs will rebel against this… crowded players’ agneda’s, insurance and salary issues…

Posted from Australia

By Jan | October 18th, 2007 at 5:51 pm

Robben and Van Persie are out for four weeks. Arsene Wenger is not happy with that and Arsenal’s program. Van der Vaart is out for three weeks, little tore in his hamstring. Robben tore a muscle. With Robin it’s his knee. Heinze also returns to Real Madrid with an injury.

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | October 18th, 2007 at 5:54 pm

Bart: both van persie and robben. and arsenal will play in these 4 weeks against liverpool and manchester united. it’s not the same without robin…

Posted from Hungary

By ferenc | October 18th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

Laporta has already asked eto’o and toure not going to the african cup in january. eto’o said no to laporta. it will be one of the most important issues in the coming years.

Posted from Hungary

By Caleb | October 18th, 2007 at 10:16 pm

Shit, Van Persie, Van der Vaart and Robben out… that’s bad news, especially for Hamburg and Arsenal who is one of my favourite EPL teams. And VP is on my fantasy football team too!

Posted from Japan

By bobotoh | October 19th, 2007 at 4:52 am

Can they play in the next match? When will the next match be played? They’re all important players for Holland, and for their respective clubs.

Btw, the best formation for Holland now is (especially in the middle):
—-the back four——
—Sneijder—De Zeew—Seedorf
———-VdV—————
—-Nistelrooy–RVP———–

That would be a great great squad! I have to leave Robben on the bench, because, I don’t know why, Robben is not good anymore…. De Zeeuw should play a role like Gattuso —the destroyer—

Posted from Indonesia

By Jan | October 19th, 2007 at 5:53 am

Or, De Zeeuw in the back four, Seedorf on 10 and Afellay on the left…

Posted from Australia

By goose | October 19th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

@bobotoh; next game 17 november (Lux.)…not sure if any of these guys will be there…

agree with Robben not playing but cant agree with deZeeuw…he far to timide to be like Gattuso…dont like deZeeuw, hes like a Landzaat clone….not good enough and no fire in his eyes

@Jan; Affelay is overerated

Posted from Netherlands