I've been quiet for a while, but with a new fight going on between the coach of my lovely country (Marco van Basten - Holland) and one of Holland's best midfielders (Marc van Bommel), I feel an urgent need to write something about the Dutch squad. Lately, Marco and Marc (funny, as names could be quite the same as opinions of those men are not) are fighting each other (figurative that is) over Marc van Bommel's performances and behaviour in the Dutch squad. However, I'm not about to write on that specific topic, but Marco van Basten's complete behaviour to Dutch players...

In his career as coach of Holland, he used no less than 52 Dutch players ofr Hollands international matches. Of these 52, he let 30 players made their first appearance as Dutch international. Remarkable fact is, that quite a lot of these 30 débutantes play(ed) for average Dutch clubs (so not Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV and AZ). Nevertheless, Marco van Basten got one nice achievement, by being unbeaten the very first 16 matches... A 1-3 loss to Italy made this nice stroke end...
Also, Marco van Basten is known for his cold relationship with players. Barry Opdam (8 caps) thought he should be polite by saying: "Hello, I'm Barry Opdam.", on which Marco answered: "Yes, I know that. I selected you." And he was NOT being funny or clever...

But this is not what I want to talk about either... It's mainly about the way Marco van Basten used and misuses Dutch players for the National squad. 52 players is quite a lot, if you want to build a team for Euro 2008 (his final goal is winning this cup). Also, for his lack of good relantioship with players, a lot of important, excellent players, caused a lot of damage. Players like Ruud van Nistelrooy and Marc van Bommel should always play for the Dutch team, but stated they won't as long as van Basten will be coach of Holland.

The last match, against Slovenia (EC-qualifying game - 0-1 win), the starting-11 was:
Edwin van der Sar
John Heitinga - Wilfred Bouma - Joris Mathijsen - Urby Emanuelson
Ibrahim Afellay - Giovanni van Bronkhorst - Wesley Sneijder
Ryan Babel - Dirk Kuyt - Arjen Robben

Ok, I can live with most players being in this line-up, but why the h*ck is Bouma playing right center-back? He's left-footed!!! Why's Babel playing right winger, if he's left winger at Ajax?

If Marco van Basten would put his 'goddessy' a-side, have a nice chat with Davids, Seedorf, van Nistelrooy and van Bommel, you could create a team, which would be able to compete other top countries as well. Now, they'll just lose every single match against e.g. Italy, Spain, Brasil, etc...

My cup of tea(m):
Edwin van der Sar
Khalid Boulahrouz - Joris Mathijsen - Gio van Bronkhorst
Clarence Seedorf - Marc van Bommel - Wesley Sneijder - Rafael van der Vaart
Robin van Persie - Ruud van Nistelrooy - Arjen Robben

Ok, this might be a bit attacking, but change one of the attacking midfielders or even an attacker for a right back, and you've got a team which is surely able to compete top countries (e.g. John Heitinga for Arjen Robben or Rafael van der Vaart).