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Van Marwijk gains credibility by selecting Van Bommel

August 28th, 2008 | By: Jan | 12 Comments »

Johan Derksen’s column in www.vi.nl

It was a point of discussion immediately after his appointment. Would Bert van Marwijk, the new Oranje team manager, select his son in law Mark van Bommel. Everyone said: oooh…Bert will become vulnerable as his coach and his father in law.

But I ask, how is that the case? Mark van Bommel is 31 years old and plays his third season at Bayern Munich. His new coach Jurgen Klinsmann gave him the skipper’s band and Mark is the first foreigner in 108 years to be the captain in Munich. The former German team manager has a lot of faith in the ex-PSV star. Like all his former coaches – no slouches – were fans: Erik Gerets, Guus Hiddink, Frank Rijkaard and Otmar Hitzfeld.

Louis van Gaal selected Van Bommel for Oranje and Dick Advocaat never left him out of his squad. There is only one coach who criticized the Limburg born midfielder and that was Marco van Basten. This coach basically committed character-murder on the player, who had earned the title of best midfielder of the Netherlands. In 2004, Van Bommel was the undisputed leader of PSV. He actually stayed too long in the Dutch Eredivisie, was the common opinion in Holland.

Mark won four titles and a national cup in six years. He was chosen Talent of the Year in 1999 and in 2001 and 2005 he was picked as Dutch Player of the Year. He won the CL with Barca in 2006. In Germany, the Bayern fans voted him as Player of the Year in 2007. And last season, Mark won the double in Germany; the title and the national cup.

Can a team manager select his son in law? Wrong question. The question should be: can a team manager ignore his son in law when he is one of Europe’s leading holding midfielders. Van Marwijk would be vulnerable and uncredible if he hadn’t selected him.

Even before Oranje plays a serious game, the Bayern captain is being assessed and in some cases judged. This clarifies one thing: Bert van Marwijk is more capable than others in judging and handling this situation. This non-issue will become a real issue when Mark van Bommel doesn’t deliver in Oranje and he keeps getting a starting position. That is the only criterion for us to use in judging Van Marwijk – Van Bommel and their family connection. Mark has only one special task. He has gotten the chance to prove his worth. The only thing he needs to do is prove it.

Tags: Bert van Marwijk, Hiddink, Holland, Mark van Bommel, Oranje, PSV, Rijkaard, Van Basten, World Cup 2010

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Comments

By Carlos | August 28th, 2008 at 7:58 am

Am a big fan !Watched the second yellow card he got last week…was rather tame… Does anyone remember Cocu and vB absolutely destroy the England team and vB scored from 30 metres at Wembley? 0-2!

Posted from Singapore

By Miguel Rosado | August 28th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

@Carlos: What a goal!!!.

Mark has to be in the national team, he has proved his worth before and will do it again. In the EC against Russia we lacked a player with balls, a player who wouldn’t let his opponent run free. The fact that he’s the new captain of Bayern will only benefit Holland because he will learn much more.

By Ovi | August 28th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

i remember this goal awsomexD mark is a strengh player we didnt haveing that player how mark in match with russland

By goose | August 28th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

Derksen is right on the money

the interesting thing to watch now is the clash of personalities; Sneijder and vPersie clash and with vBommel in the team another big ego has arrived who will stand his ground

i reackon vBommel would take out both vPersie and Sneijder in a fistfight with one hand tied behind his back!

Posted from Netherlands

By Carlos | August 28th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

Ouch !PSV in a tough draw! Liverpool – Atletico and we know who plays for both those teams !

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | August 28th, 2008 at 8:22 pm

Olympique can be had, I suppose. They had trouble qualifying. Atletico is a strong opponent. They trashed Schalke 04. For my money, I’d say ‘Pool and Atletico go through, but it won’t surprise me if this season would be Liverpool’s off-season (Benitez leaving and all that jazz)…

By finnster01 | August 28th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

Love to see my man Torres play his old friends. This will be fun. I think the PSV “superior defense” will have some work cut out for them too.

Pool all the way mate!!!

Posted from United States

By Alex | August 29th, 2008 at 6:19 am

V.Bommel should always be in Oranje, i thought the midfield pairing of De Jong and V.Bommel was a perfect match, they impressed me quite a bit during the game, at times it was still a bit uneasy but, it was the first in a long time they played together, so it can only get better.
But i’m still unhappy to see Henk Timmer and Andre Ooijer in the selection, WHY!!!, Timmer isn’t better than Velthuizen or Vermeer, and Ooijer is getting slower every week, what about Zuiverloon, Marcellis, Loovens, Pieters, Braafheid and Vlaar(when recovered from injury), at least one of them should get a chance.

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | August 29th, 2008 at 8:07 am

Timmer apparently is gold in the dressing room. A switched on guy, good for morale, keeping everyone awake. Timmer also has quite some experience under his belt. Van Marwijk worked with him at Feyenoord and San Marco also praised Timmer’s influence. Sometimes, it takes more than being a talented goalie to make it to the squad.

Ooijer will definitely make way for Marcellis and/or Vlaar. Give Bert some time…

By Miguel Rosado | August 30th, 2008 at 2:37 pm

@Alex: I totally agree with you, Ooijer should not be selected anymore, I think Marcellis would be the ideal central defender for the future he has impressed me a lot.

Today I watched Arsenal-Newcastle and Robin is recovering his top form, he scored 2 goals, had a great free kick and was very involved in the game.

By finnster01 | August 30th, 2008 at 2:51 pm

@Alex & Miguel: You are both right OOijer is getting so slow and he is very injury prone. Time to move on. I don’t think he should be playing for Oranje anymore. He is struggling to keep his starting spot at Blackburn anyway. How old is he now, 34 or something?

Must admit I didn’t watch Arsenal game today so cant really comment, but Van Persie having a good game is like playing the lotto these days. The last two games he played was completely crap. May we have some consistency please?

By Miguel Rosado | August 30th, 2008 at 5:00 pm

@finnister01: I understand why you say that Robin has been playing very bad lately because I was also very disappointed with his performances but we have to remember that he had a very bad injury and is just getting back so he needs to play to get back to full fitness. I’m confident that he’ll be the Robin we all know very soon.

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