Van Basten: satisfied, but….

Team manager Marco van Basten was happy with the qualification for the EC, but less satisfied with the lack of goals.

“We started well. We created many chances but only scored once. And that is a disappointed. We wanted a nice fiesta and lots of exciting goals. With our skills and capabilities, I think we needed to make more goals. I counted at least 10 big opportunities. But, the ball just didn’t want to go in.”

“Koevermans did very well. He scored a good goal. That was why I played him and not Kuyt. Dirk needs space to go from left to right and surprise defenders. Koevermans feels very comfortable hanging in the box and I knew we would see a lot of action there. We are happy with Koef’s contribution. He is a good passer and bouncer. He did it well.”

Van Basten was also happy with the four-man midfield with Vaart, Sneijder, Gio and Seedorf. “I gave them the freedom to play from their position. And I liked the way they came up with ideas and solutions. All these boys are extremely skilled. If we have possession, they are the ones that need to do it. And when we play stronger opponents, we will get even more space. If you see how many good opportunities they created against this opponent, we can only expect more.”

Van Basten did go in on his future plans for the team. ” I can’t see us play 4-4-2 from now on. Not every match. I want to assess it fixture by fixture. And we will need to find a compromise with the players for that. It’s great if we can play all our big guns, and then we have Van Persie, Babel, Robben, Afellay…. Some players will have to be disappointed in some cases. That’s a luxury problem.”

Tenslotte liet Van Basten weten dat hij niet van plan is altijd met een 4-4-2-formatie te spelen. Hij wil per wedstrijd bekijken hoe hij zijn elftal neerzet. ‘Daar moeten we met de spelers tot een compromis over komen.’