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Van Basten Interview

December 26th, 2007 | By: Jan | 45 Comments »

Hi all, a quick new post from my holiday address :-). Thanks all, for the season’s greetings… This is an interview with San Marco in the AD newspaper.

And as someone posted earlier: it seems Bayern Munich wants van Basten as their new manager. Van Bommel probably called his manager already…

All is relative. Marco van Basten says: “At the EC1988 I got 5 chances to score. I scored all five. On the EC1992 I got five chances to score, I scored zero. Zilch. Nada. Was I suddenly a lousy player? Was Rinus Michels suddenly a bad coach with a questionable tactical plan?”

Oranje’s preparation for the EC started on Edwin van der Sar’s hotel room, rigt before the Oranje-Luxembourg game. Marco van Basten invited the “big seven” as he called them to talk about Oranje’s tactical plans for the future. Van der Sar, Van Bronckhorst, Mathijsen, Van der Vaart, Sneijder, Seedorf and Van Nistelrooy were present, but Van Basten states that this is not a fixed group. “They were seven important players, but Robin van Persie wasn’t there because he was still injured. If he was fit and present, he would have been part of the group too.”
Asked what the team manager does with the results of that meeting: “I think it’s important to involve and commit the players early in your plans for a big tournament. We have ideas, as the technical staff, but clearly so do the players. I think it’s vital to finetune all those ideas. The players are in favour of a system with four defenders, two controlling midfielders, three creative players and a deep playing striker.”

Asked about the clashes he apparently had and has with certain players, Van Basten is diplomatic. “I’ve learned that it is very important to be able to deal with people. Working with the best players in Holland is gratifying, sometimes complicated, sometimes really fun. But sometimes you have to weigh your words. With a KNVB-suite on you can’t always say what you think.” Have you ever thought: spoiled brats? Van Basten: “No, never. But I do think it’s important for some to have a certain degree of self-knowledge, you know? That’s an important quality. Also for me, as the manager of course. My truth is only relative, isn’t it? I’ve learned to stay truthful to myself. That’s import, but also hard. I do a lot if not all on my gutfeeling. After 3,5 years as a team manager, I can assess that my feelings have always guided me well.”
.
Looking back, would you accept this job if you could turn back time?

“Oh, it was a huge learning curve. This job made me a celebrity again in Holland. As a player, I couldn’t do anything wrong. As a coach, I think most people have had times that they fully disagreed with me. My kids haven’t really been impacted by this job, though. That was a surprise for me. My son is 10 years old, my daughters 16 and 17. They are occupied with school, with partying, with hockey. We don’t talk a lot about football at home. In that sense, this job wasn’t so bad. I had my doubt about the personal impact on my family but that turned out to be pretty neutral.

And some people criticize the KNVB for appointing a young and inexperienced coach, but Advocaat and Van Gaal were pretty seasoned and look at the criticism they copped. I respect them both as persons and as coaches, but there are no guarantees for success in this job.

Why the sudden decision to stop after the EC?

“It wasn’t a sudden decision. It was maybe communicated as such. But I always knew that I would quit after the EC2008. That was my, and John’s, objective. I kept the door open for a bit, but it was clear to me in the last months that after four years I’d want to move on. And some people say “Ajax” and others “AC Milan” but don’t be surprised if I decide to not work for a spell.”

Tags: Clarence Seedorf, Group C, marco van basten, Oranje, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, The Netherlands

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 45 comments.

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By ferenc | December 31st, 2007 at 9:22 am

my last post this year. so,Happy New Year my Friends. i hope this blog will be as good as it is and good luck for our Oranje in 2008.

Posted from Hungary

By Miguel Rosado | December 31st, 2007 at 4:18 pm

I have a question. How is Kevin Hofland, is he ready for the national team?. I remember he played under van Gaal and I really liked his style.

By goose | January 1st, 2008 at 6:38 am

HAPPY NEW YEAR my fellow Oranje fans!!

lets hope 2008 will bring better football, some glory during the EC08, a new and better manager!! (and vanBommel!!! haha)

@Miquel; Hofland is ok, hes already 28 or 29…he started with Foruna Sittard together with Bouma and vanBommel btw.. im not sure if he is Oranje material..he makes plenty of mistakes with Feyenoord but on the other hand…competition for the defenders in Oranje is at an all time low!! hahaha , we can always try!

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By tiju | January 1st, 2008 at 7:37 am

Happy new year to evry body.
i am looking for a new look orange
hayyy
Guys wat will you do with Znijder(a selfish bull) and Zedorf(poor poor runner) at same time?
do u think can we play free flowing foot ball with these guys no hope?
use them by 45/45 for total 90 minutes.
Concentrate more on VDV,RVP,RVN
with courageous drenthe
dancing legend castelen
with tireless midfeilders like,van bommel,schaars,de saaw,evander zno.
remmeber in ACMILAN Zedorf has kaka,pirlo,gattuso(three of them are tireless)
i bet you all see my team
this team can beat anybody convincingly with free flowing football
heitinga,ooiger,mathjenson,rayan donk
vandervart,castelen,vanbommel,drenthe
van persie,nestel rooy

iam thinking abt 23 man sqaud not 11
that to we need eqal subs in bench like roban,znijder,Zno etc

By sergica | January 1st, 2008 at 6:59 pm

Marco city….
http://sergica.miniville.fr/

Posted from Italy

By dirk v.d berg | January 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 am

When you think about it 4-2-3-1 is the same as how we used to play 4-3-3. Because obviously the central striker is ahead of the wingers, making him the one, and the attacking midfielder normally moves up in line with the winger, makign the 3, and the other two midfielders stayed back. Obviously not all 4-3-3’s are like this, but I know thats how van Basten used to make us play. We should play more of a 4-1-2-1-2 formation.

heitinga - mathijsen - ooijer - emmanuelson

seedorf

van der vaart robben

sneijder

van persie - van nistelrooy

or we could play a 4-2-2-2 formation, seemed to work well for brazil.

heitinga - mathijsen - ooijer - emmanuelson

sneijder - seedorf

van der vaart robben

van persie - van nistelrooy

our problem during euro 2008 qualification was not enough goals, so I don’t think playing with 1 striker would necessarily help that.

Posted from Canada

By Marc | January 2nd, 2008 at 2:23 pm

@Dirk: i like the idea of 4-1-2-1-2 because we do have the right players. 4-2-2-2 is just like a 4-4-2 and that seems too classic… every team uses 4-4-2. The reason we didnt score goals was because we didnt convert our chances.. not because we didnt have enough attacking players… so 4-2-3-1 seems a more prudent way of playing but does provide potential to attack allong the wongs and to play free flowing football.

Posted from Switzerland

By ferenc | January 2nd, 2008 at 4:36 pm

and how do you try to defend with six (!!!!) attacking-minded players in the starting eleven? against counter-attack specialists italy and france we’ll loose 0-4,0-5 with this formation. do you seriously think that seedorf and sneider are capable to defend? the real 4-2-3-1 means that 4 defenders 2 holding (!!!) midfielders ,3 creative midfielders ans one striker. it means that in this formation there’s room omly for seedorf,van persie,van der vaart (or sneijder) and rvn.

Posted from Hungary

By stephen | January 2nd, 2008 at 5:18 pm

You are absolutely right ferenc. The truth of the matter is that we cannot play RnN, RvP, Robben, RvdV, Sneijder, and Seedorf all at the same time. A couple of them must sit and it will all depend on who’s in form, who’s fit, suspensions etc. The question is who are the two that will sit in front of the back four? I would not put Sneijder of Seedorf there. The only options I can think of at this moment are: Bommel, Davids(if fit), DeZeeuw, and G Boateng(not sure how he is playing this year). As we all know, vBasten has not chosen Bommel,Davids,Boateng for a long time and it doesnt look like he will anytime soon. That leaves us with deZeeuw only. Maybe we ought to play a 4-1-3-2 with Ruud and Persie up front and Seedorf,Vaart,Sneijd in midfield with deZeeuw as holding. However, with our shaky and uncertain back 4, right now I’d prefer 2 holding rather than 1. Boateng anyone?

Posted from United States

By FlyingDutch | January 2nd, 2008 at 5:58 pm

Today, Real play KingCup, Robben scored but Drenthe didn’t play. Schuster prefer Marcelo. I think he should go somewhere else.

Posted from United States

By dirk v.d berg | January 2nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Robben got his first Real Madrid goal today, a pretty nice goal too.

I kind of agree that we need holding midfielders, I just hate to see all of our talented attacking players used as bench warmers. Liverpool’s using Babel pretty effectively as a sub, and I figure we would do the same thing in Euro 2008. Is van Bronckhorst playing midfield or defense for us, because I think at Feyenoord he’s a holding midfield, and could possibly play the same for Oranje, with de Zeeuw. I doubt van Bommel will ever come back to Oranje, he’s too stubborn, which is partially why we need him.

Posted from Canada

By goose | January 3rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm

just to remind you people how bad we really are.. heres a tube with all the goals from the qualifiers for the EC08… great to see back all those games, the great memories!! hahaha

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=h6l7FAzTB5w

and heres the Robben goal;

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=U3dmcHNR1Ic

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By goose | January 3rd, 2008 at 3:09 pm

@dirk; vanBommel will be back after the EC08, just hope for him that vanBasten wont be the new manager of Bayern!! haha, that would be a great one! (but vanBasten will be the next manager at Ajax, im pretty sure)

Posted from Netherlands

By Prabal Rakshit | January 4th, 2008 at 12:05 am

Goose, saw the videos you put. The last one in which Ned loses to Belarus, they were wearing blue uniforms. Is this a new uniform? Can’t imagine Oraanje wearing anything apart from orange.

Posted from United States

By ayl | January 4th, 2008 at 1:39 am

Hey Prabal, that strip is their new away strip. There was a link to it on this site a while ago but it would be in the history section now.

Posted from Australia

By goose | January 4th, 2008 at 5:20 am

Well; we already wore blue in 1998 if im not mistaken… i dont like the retro shirts they have now…. i really liked the kit form the WC74… i like to see Oranje wear; Orange shirt - white trousers - orange socks, on the shirt a big black lion and nothing else, same as 74 but then with modern look, Adidas!! (not like they have now; each game they play they have the dutch flag and the flag of the opponant on their shirts..that sucks big time)

so this completes the fashion repport of today!! haha

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By dirk v.d berg | January 4th, 2008 at 10:57 am

Does anyone know when they are going to preview the new Home Shirt. I already bought the away shirt, just for formality reasons, its not one of their best. I’d have to say my favourite is the 1970’s one, then the 98 home, then probably the 94, and 88′ ones.

Posted from Canada

By stephen | January 4th, 2008 at 11:08 am

Agree with the ‘74 kit, outstanding…I also like it with black trousers. The all white ‘74 away kit with orange trim would also be my preference. I think they wore the all white vs Brazil. Beautiful

Posted from United States

By Igor | January 4th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

@Dirk, only on this site can you find someone who would list the ‘88 oranje kit as one of their favourites…i’ve often herd non-dutch fans comment on how bad those jerserys were. i think it’s unanimous, the ‘74 kit was probably the best ever, but i also think the ‘04 kit home kit was pretty sharp (that however was not always reflected in the team’s level of play).

Posted from Canada

By Igor | January 4th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

story on the top 3 ups and downs of dutch football in 2007:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=495394&root=europe&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1&cc=5901

Posted from Canada

By goose | January 4th, 2008 at 8:07 pm

thanks for the link Igor (altough the comment about Drenthe not wanting to play for vanBasten is a laugh…its not like we need Drenthe in Oranje at the time!

the EC88 kit was the worst ever seen, but since its the kit we became champions in i like it!! i have to say that it has gone down hill ever since Nike became sponsor..i for one think that Adidas should be the one.. i really hate this retro kit, i think it makes us look slow

btw; you people remember the story of Cruijff during the WC74 and the stripes??? hint; Adidas - Puma… i wonder if anybody knows!!

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | January 5th, 2008 at 9:32 pm

Hi all :-),

Goose, I know the story… :-))…

I actually like the blue socks with the orange jersey and the white shorts.

Posted from Australia

By Finnster01 | January 6th, 2008 at 8:03 am

Those old 74′ strips were a “Man’s Man” uniform. They were intimidating as heck, and would strike fear into any opponent. Just pure awesome.

I think the new blue kit looks like it has been stolen from the Women’s team. Other than Robben and some of the other few girls in the team, not so sure they are all that happy about it.

Something tells me Seedorf doesn’t like what he sees in the mirror…

Posted from United States

By goose | January 6th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

hahaa.. nice one Finnster….guess C.Ronaldo would look great in them too!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Mario Rosado (Dutch admirer) | January 6th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

I think the blue socks is stupid. When has Holland played with blue socks??? Never. I would like the orange jersey with black shorts and orange socks. That uniform is awesome and if not the whole uniform in orange or even white shorts but never with blue socks because it doesn´t combine orange, white and blue. I don´t get it, is it because of the colors of the Netherlands flag the blue color?. I hope that Nike designs cool uniforms for the Dutch for Euro 2008.

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