JC: understanding Van Basten
December 11th, 2007 | By: Jan | 38 Comments ?
It’s a pity that Marco van Basten and John van ’t Schip decided to stop managing Oranje after the EC. But, I can also understand it. When you’ve done the same job for four years, you want to move on, even if it was fun.
But being team manager can also be frustrating. You can plan everyting ahead, but then players get injured, or get a form crisis or other stuff happens at club level which you can’t control. You only have the players for a couple of days, once every two/three months… And as a club manager, you can actively manage your group and sign players, as a national team manager, you have got to work with what you have got.
Looking back on four years Van Basten and Van ’t Schip, you have to say that they did will in term of results. The criticism has always been focused at the quality of play. I found that too harsh, most of the times.
When the draw was made for the EC2008, the Dutch club teams were all kicked out of their respective UEFA tournaments. Looking at the performances of Dutch players abroad, there were also only a handful of players who excelled. And still, Holland managed to get in the top of the European ranking.
I have always said, that the quality of play of Oranje is a reflection of the quality of Dutch football in general. Our quality has diminished. Not a lot of people see this, or want to see this, but for me, it’s the truth. And if most people don’t want to see this, it will only get worse.
The so-called experts keep talking about 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. This is a non-discussion. It sort of takes away the focus from the real issues. The real question is: no matter which system you pick, how will be able to execute the positioning play needed to dominate the game like we did for decades? We can’t play Total Football anymore. Our ability to execute the Dutch School tactics is shockingly absent. And believe me, it doesn’t matter if you play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. The system (which is just a piece of paper with names on positions) is not going to change that fact.
I don’t blame the players. But I do blame our coaches and youth development trainers. I recently heard Adrie Koster, who is doing very well at Ajax by the way, say that he specifically trains his players on the coaching-aspect. He wants his players to be more verbal on the pitch. Well, excuse me for saying this, but if that is lacking at a club like Ajax, something in the development phase has gone terribly wrong.
And it all comes to surface once you reach the top level. Our U21 team did well. It all looks fresh, but then it sort of gets stagnated. You can see it with all the young talents at Ajax, AZ, Feyenoord and PSV. They do well at Eredivisie level, but when they have to perform on European level, it goes horribly wrong.
That’s why I was always reserved with my criticism on Oranje. Because the problem is not Oranje. Oranje is the little bird in the mines. The problem lies at club level and particularly at development level. All criticaster talk for hours about the system and who should play left or right, totally ignorant of the real problem.
