Van Basten keeps course
In the last five months Robin van Persie had intensive phone contact with the Dutch team manager about the new team tactics. The injured Gunner couldn’t be present at the meetings between key-players and coaching staff but next week Robin will be present, for the first time since October last year.
Marco van Basten: “Robin has trained hard last weeks to be physically fit for the most important phase of the season. Arsenal has a lot of tough matches to play and I hope he’ll play a lot and gain rhythm for the EC. It’s good for him to be part of Oranje again, so we can determine which role(s) fit him in the new style of play.”
Now Oranje plays with three creative midfielders and one deep striker, Van Persie could actually play on all four positions. Although Van Basten rather not use Van Persie as deep striker.
Arjen Robben is not yet part of the selection. “We want to wait a while with Robben,” said Van Basten. “A fit Robben is a strong contrubutor for us, but he has been plagued with injuries and we don’t want to put pressure on him.”
Another remarkable name in the selection is Piet Velthuizen, the Vitesse goalie. Both Van der Sar (injury) and Stekelenburg (family circumstances) are absent.
“Van der Sar isn’t in a very good place, physically. We want him to focus on Manchester United. We know what Edwin can and can’t do. For us, the main thing is that Edwin is fit on May 20.”
“Piet Velthuizen is a great option,” stated Van Basten, who selected him in favour of AZ goalie Boy Waterman, who lost his starters’ spot in Alkmaar.
Henk Timmer will be starting in the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna. “The idea is too change as little as possible with regards to the Croatia line-up.”
Huntelaar will most probably replace Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Dirk Kuyt’s chances on EC participation are getting slimmer. At Liverpool, the former Feyenoord star plays on the right flank now. Rafael Benitez seems to rotate less with his team and Kuyt has extensive defensive tasks in the current Liverpool style of play. “But for me, Dirk will always be a striker,” commented the Dutch team manager. “But the other strikers are currently better. Bakkal is another player we will keep following. He shows he has great potential as a midfielder with penetrating abilities. We don’t have enough of those type of players.”
Bakkal is not longer pre-occupied with the decision between Morocco or Holland. The PSV midfielder played for Oranje U21 already after becoming 21 years old, so formally he has chosen for Oranje.
source: www.ad.nl
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@jan do u remmber earlier i mentioned abt him(bakkal) in my team.
At present this guy seems to be the best reserve for us.
hoping for roban comeback.
@enemies of roban. You guys remmeber no body in this current squad done better than him except vandersar




van persie could play best on the right wing with van der vaart in the center behind the striker(like in hamburg) with snijder or robben or babel on the left.This is so hard because they camn all play well everywhere. and with emerging talents such as affelay and engelaar it makes it so much harder. Where can i see live interviews of van basten?
Posted from
Switzerland




Marc, do you understand Dutch? There are some interviews on http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl I’d say…
Posted from
Australia




where is goose? i’d like to see his comments and his oranje squad
Posted from
Hungary




It is also interesting if you write rumors here. I read news in a local newspaper here that VdV is being approached by Chelsea, to replace BOTH Lampard and Ballack. Is there any news about that?
Posted from
Indonesia


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