Van Basten vs Jack van Gelder and Hugo Borst

Dutch team manager Marco van Basten was the guest in the discussion program Studio Voetbal, hosted by Jack van Gelder and with analyst (and former friend of Van Basten) columnist Hugo Borst.

The interview started off pretty low-key, discussing the situation in the Dutch Eredivisie (remember, PSV and Ajax slipping points and maybe allowing AZ to win the competition).

After that, the focus was on the Dutch team. This is what Marco had to say (ad verbatim, mind you….):

On the question why Marco doesn’t have a more experienced coach in his team:

“I work with John van ‘t Schip, Rob Witschge, Ronald Spelbos, Kees Jansma and Hans Jorritsma. That’s my team. All of them seasoned football-people, with a good head on their shoulders. I don’t need any other people on board. We share our football vision and we have a lot of healthy discussions. John and Robbie played at high level and both have coaching experience. Ronald Spelbos, to me, is an experienced coach and former international, so I don’t see why you actually ask the question.”

On Marco’s mistakes:

“Of course you do think about what you could’ve done differently. You analyse all the time. But we make choices on the basis of what we feel we need to do. If I play Sneijder, van der Vaart and Landzaat (against Rumania) we do that to keep the balance on midfield healthy. Some people want to see Seedorf instead of Landzaat, but to me, that’s too risky. And then people say: but you could play Seedorf instead of Sneijder.. Of course I can. I know that. But I chose Wesley.”

On the quality of play:

“It wasn’t good against Rumania. I never said it was. I did say I was at least satisfied with our organisation. We didn’t give a lot away. We also didn’t create enough. I wanted to change that through Urby (Emanuelson). He has a good pass and drive to get the ball. The problem was not that Huntelaar was playing bad, or something. Bringing Kuyt wouldn’t have changed a thing. We needed to involve Sneijder more, and with Emanuelson, that’s what I wanted to do. But it didn’t result in goals.”

“The problem with national teams, whether it’s us, England, Spain, Germany, Italy… it’s hard to mould the team and get automatisms going. See, van Gaal does an excellent job at AZ, but he has his boys there everyday! I can’t work like that with the internationals, and neither could Louis when he was team manager. So, it’s hard. Whatever system you play. I don’t want to change the system because we do have the wingers. Now, van Persie is injured but even without him, we have Robben, Babel, Kuyt can play the wing… We just don’t have the material that bigger countries like France, Germany or England have and we need to be smarter.”

“Against Slovenia, I think we did ok. We could have scored 4 or 5 times. The fact that we didn’t, doesn’t change that.”

“We need better build up from the back, but that’s hard. We don’t have those players. And I’m happy with Mathijsen and Bouma, because at least they are very good defenders.”

“We played some bad matches, but that’s not just now. Go back in time. We all played dreadful matches. I remember some I played. That’s part of it. Qualifying for big tournaments was never easy for Oranje.”

“The reason why AZ plays great football, is because all players know exactly what’s needed. Which tasks they have. And if that organisation is fixed, they can use their individual skills to excell. And you get that when you can work extensively with your group. I can’t. I get them a couple of days every 6 weeks, on average. First day is doing some loose physical stuff. Than we train and talk. And that’s it. In three days, the game is on and after the game, they leave. And at AZ, another thing, is they have interchangeable players for all positions. We at Oranje do not have that today.”

“Do I think we lack quality? Do you want me to say that here on national tv? That we don’t have quality enough. Listen, I am happy with the players I work with and we’ll try to do the best we can.”

On players:

“Some people said Sneijder should play mid midfielder just in front of the defence. That’s funny. I did that at the WC2006 and the same people said that didn’t work.”

“Mark van Bommel is a great guy, but he didn’t perform well. I talked to him many times. I left him out of the group, and later he came back. He was in the starting line up on the WC, don’t forget. But he couldn’t handle that and resigned from Oranje. That’s his choice.”

“Ruud is always in the picture. I am following him, just like I follow Edgar Davids. But Ruud doesn’t feel the warmth he wants, and that’s too bad. But he is the one that said to me he doesn’t want to play for Oranje. I am not leaving him out, it’s not that I don’t select him. He himself made himself unavailable.”

“Denny Landzaat is not a popular player, I know. But I see a lot in him. He does a lot of very important tasks for the team, but most people don’t see that. I didn’t send him home (after Rumania) because he failed. I just didn’t need him against Slovenia. I will call on him later again, for sure.”

On the EC2008:

“I will not comment on my objectives there, because first we need to qualify. I hate it when people think we will easily qualify, because there is no easy in football. Of course, if we qualify, I want to become the champ of Europe and win the cup. What if we don’t? We’ll handle that when we get there…”

On Cruyff:

“I talk to him regularly, about all sorts of things. Oranje, football in general, golf, the weather… I don’t think Cruyff is very pre-occupied with Oranje to be honest.”

On his future:

“Do I ever think of quitting? No, never. I like what I do. I do tend to avoid the sports programs and papers when we played a difficult game. It’s too exhausting to take in all that criticism. And yes, it hurts when I read “Marco rot op” (Marco piss off) on flags and stuff. Of course. But it’s part of the job.”

Sometime in the interview, Hugo Borst and Marco van Basten almost had a go at eachother. Borst said he knew from his sources that Marco never ever put Mark van Bommel down on his list of fave line-ups when Marco and his team went through the potential line-ups. Marco said that was a lie and how could Hugo Borst know that? Could he prove it? Hugo said, no I can’t. But my sources tell me. And Marco: so who are those sources? It’s bullshit. Either prove it or shut up. I am not gonna talk about this with you, it’s ridiculous and you’re lying.

To me, Marco won on points.