'The Boss': Marco van Basten

[Over Pasanens Head]

Very negative and far too critical of a coach in his first season. I am not convinced with Marco and certainly not over keen with some of his signings.It will be interesting to see who he brings in this summer.Finishing second will be a boost and hope being in the CL may keep Suarez for 1 more year.If we
are struggling by December then I think Marco will go. This club made a hugh mega mistake 4 years ago in letting Van Gaal go and not making him coach.

Negative it may be, but I am still left wondering what are the positives that we can take from his first season.

Improved defence ........No
Improved attack .......... I think that we have scored less goals this season, so No
Consistent play at a good standard ............ No
Improved tactics ........... No as for most of the season they have been a mystery to all of us.
Increase in entertainment value (on the pitch) ....... No
Good purchases ......... No
Good substitutions ...... Not really
Playing people in their correct positions ........... No
Holding onto a great goalscorer ........... No
A leader on the pitch has come forward ......... No

Good Players coming through from the reserves .......... Yes
Suarez .............. Yes

But apart from the last two I am struggling with finding positives.

[DanK]

I stopped reading after this: "And Marco van Basten is no manager. That we already knew".

Did we? Who is 'we' Mr Schaerlaeckens?

That's the problem with the internet, everyone is a writer.

And apart from the few bad results this season, his overall record is pretty good if you include the Dutch team, but that 'we' already knew...

[bryan]

Well we all knew he was a total novice. He's using Ajax to learn how to manage. Once he's learned he'll fuck off to AC Milan and Ajax will appoint another novice.

We're being used.

[Kowalczyk]

Our last two away games:

PSV vs Ajax: 6-2
Sparta vs Ajax: 4-0

We conceded almost as many goals af Feyenoord now (41; they conceded 43) and PSV can actually leapfrog us if we fail to beat Twente.

I'm sorry, but Van Basten can't stay. There is no way the club can start a new season with this man at the helm. You can't start a major summer offensive with a wounded commander.

K.

[Cedric]

And then? Who is the crazy commander that wants to pilot a ruined aircraft?

Please not a former Ajacied. Enough legends have been destroyed...

[DanK]

This is the problem. And has been for years. If we cannot get a decent (non trainee) manager what's the point?

[SPL]

I was for giving him a 2nd season as I did believe we would finish 2nd but he must now go as we need to rebuild.We have a very poor defence a lightweight midfield and Suarez has carried the attack on his own.

Who to bring in is the problem maybe a non dutchman!!

[Orange14]

Here is what our manager had to say following the match (on the Ajax team site):

This was a very painful afternoon”, coach Marco van Basten concluded. ,,Of course I ask myself all kinds of questions after this defeat. How in God's name is it possible that we can not defeat Sparta when we have to? I had much faith in a good result, but again the team seemed scared. We did not succeed in getting the team ready. That is very annoying and surprising.

He really may be clueless!

[Orange14]

To add on to the earlier post, what really steams me is that we did not pick up 3 points against the following teams: Vitesse, Gronnigen, Heracles, Willem II, Vollendam or Sparta. I you cannot have your team ready to play against teams at the bottom of the table, something is dreadfully wrong. We win those matches and we are in business, but no it didn't happen.

[jamie]

Something sure as hell needs to happen. You know what really pisses me off. Its the interviews with Marco after the games we lost. He clearly mentions that he has no idea what went wrong. How the hell can a coach get away with such utter crap. If he does not know whats going wrong with the team then how the heck can he fix or adjust the game plan. Find someone who can do. His two buddies are most likely just as clueless as he is so fricking fire the whole bunch and get some proper experienced trainers in their places.

[Philippe]

I think we should keep Marco van Basten. He had a hard time because KJH was sold. He did make some wrong choices too, but hopefully has learned from his mistakes.

Changing coach would mean starting over, once again, and therefore losing time.

[Manneken Pis]

Anybody still want to say that Leander Schaerlaeckens' article in the Guardian was sooooo far off base?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... basten-psv

I don't think so....

[Cedric]

I still maintain this is utter crap and I wonder what this dear Leander will invent now. I mean: if Ajax already "looked uninspired, uninterested and unable" against AZ, how can you compare this with the Sparta game then.

[Kowalczyk]

Exactly. It feels like he expected AZ to destroy Ajax - and had already written his piece. Instead, Ajax did not lose and were in fact rather unfortunate against AZ. But it was too late for Leander to change the article.

Or something.

K.

[Manneken Pis]

Agree that sentence was wrong (perhaps he had written it in advance, as you suggest Ko).

For the rest, I'd say he's on the money;
- Terrible track record in the transfer market
- Weird personnel decisions
- Lack of consistency in team performances
- Not knowing what was wrong after defeats
- Uninspired football from the national team when in charge (Italy and France excepted)

[bryan]

Changing coach would mean starting over, once again, and therefore losing time.

We will probably end up keeping Van Basten, he'll spend money during the summer on the wrong players... be just as shit and uninspiring, get sacked in December 2009. Then we'll have an interim coach for the rest of 2009/10, miss out on Champions League football, and in the summer of 2010 some former legend with no management experience will be appointed manager. It's the Ajax way.

My way would be to sack MvB now and have an open round of job interviews. The best CV submitted gets the job. That's how they do things at properly run organisations. Then the new guy gets to spend the money during the summer to get the ball rolling (not that we have any money to spend, cos we're not going to the Champions League. Again.)

[martinkohout]

I note that MvB has received the dreaded vote of confidence from Rik van den Boog (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... pe&cc=5901). I've tended to think he needs more time, but I confess this latest result really makes me wonder. How could they have fallen so flat in such an important match against such a weak opponent?

Sigh. At least I still have my Ajax: De Gouden Jaren DVDs.

[Philippe]

lucky you, the pathetic online shop is still closed

[The Purple Cow]

I think Leander was spot on as usual, his is the best Eredivisie round-up out there, he's also routinely excellent on the Guardian football blog.

van Basten is clearly out of his depth at this level, he has no idea what has gone wrong, and is clueless about how to put it right. Next season will be no better, and then we will have gone 6 years without winning the title for the first time in our professional history.

[Orange14]

Well I've taken a couple (more than a couple of deep breaths) since yesterday's disaster. We are not going to be able to channel Rinus Michels or Jack Reynolds to come back from the dead to take over this team. We are not going to get Van Gaal (he's either at AZ for next year or Bayern depending on who you read; and certainly won't be coming back to Ajax because of what happened several years ago). Cruyff has probably washed his hands of the club (and I don't think he wants to leave Barcelona for life in Amsterdam). The only former player who has had top flight management experience, Frank Rijkaard, certainly doesn't want to set foot here. Would we be able to attract a big time manager with experience in Spain, Italy, or England to come in (Mancini has been unemployed since departing Intenazionale last summer); I doubt it.

Who else would even be a possibility given the turmoil of the past six years? I presume given the announcements today that Van Basten will be staying much to my (and this group's) dismay. Will he learn from this year? If he doesn't his managerial career is over, kaput, finished for good. I guess we will have to see.

Oh by the way, Leander's blog this week is actually quite good; about both Suarez and Steve McClaren.

[SPL]

Big problem next season is that PSV and the F word will challenge again and Twente will still be a good little team,I doubt AZ will maintain their form of this year especially as Van Gaal wants away(to BMunich with Frank de Boer according to rumours) so it wont be easy.

If van Basten were to go who would you want?? A non Ajax man is a must. My main concern is that he has made some moderate buys and we will probably need at least 5 new players so will he still get more poor players in?

[Cedric]

Agree that sentence was wrong (perhaps he had written it in advance, as you suggest Ko).

For the rest, I'd say he's on the money;
- Terrible track record in the transfer market
- Weird personnel decisions
- Lack of consistency in team performances
- Not knowing what was wrong after defeats
- Uninspired football from the national team when in charge (Italy and France excepted)

- Terrible track record in the transfer market: I disagree with this and I find it unfair. If I remember well, quite a lot of people here were enthusiastic about the purchases last summer. Finally Ajax had some ambition again, they stopped to buy average players on the cheap, they wanted to reinforce the defense and even dared to scout outside the subtop and the Netherlands! Of course, Sulejmani was way too expensive but in the long run it can still be a wiser purchase than Rommedahl, Kennedy, Luque, Colin, etc. all together. In fact, excepted Sno I don't think the new players were terrible. They were curiously injury prone (again, Sno excepted...) and as inconsistent as their new team (see point 3).

- Weird personnel decisions: Which ones then? Vermeer instead of Stekelenburg? Ajax lost the championship with the captain anyway, and he then showed he has no fighting spirit whatsoever. The weird decisision was maybe to appoint him captain.
And then? Sulejmani on #10? I don't think it was that weird at the time, but indeed, I prefer him on the left.
Well, at least Van Basten saw that Urby wasn't a left back. He can't be that weird...

- Lack of consistency in team performances: That's not new and it's obvious that Van Basten didn't improved the thing (euphemism inside). That's the big issue. I must say I'm not convinced he will manage to fix the problem, but then, who's able to do that? A good CV is never a guarantee of success. So unless Ajax can find a real genius this summer, I'm willing to give Van Basten 1 more year. And a little bit of stability would also be nice, for a change.

- Not knowing what was wrong after defeats: Agreed. But did the great and experimented Van Gaal had a clue of what was wrong last season after each loss of points? I've only heard about the referees but unless I've missed something, he only saw the light this season when he chose for a "more appropriate style of play". Of course, Van Basten is not Van Gaal and even if he manages to identify the problem, he still have fix it in a proper way. Tough challenges but maybe he'll see the light too.

- Uninspired football from the national team when in charge (Italy and France excepted): At least that was somehow effective, which is sadly not the case anymore.

[Cedric]

Oh by the way, Leander's blog this week is actually quite good; about both Suarez and Steve McClaren.

Indeed, this one is a lot better than last week.

[bryan]

Well I've taken a couple (more than a couple of deep breaths) since yesterday's disaster. We are not going to be able to channel Rinus Michels or Jack Reynolds to come back from the dead to take over this team. We are not going to get Van Gaal (he's either at AZ for next year or Bayern depending on who you read; and certainly won't be coming back to Ajax because of what happened several years ago). Cruyff has probably washed his hands of the club (and I don't think he wants to leave Barcelona for life in Amsterdam). The only former player who has had top flight management experience, Frank Rijkaard, certainly doesn't want to set foot here. Would we be able to attract a big time manager with experience in Spain, Italy, or England to come in (Mancini has been unemployed since departing Intenazionale last summer); I doubt it.

Why do we need a big name? We just need a good manager. In 1996 Arsenal appointed a French manager that hardly anybody had heard of. "Arsene who?" was the headline.

[Monkey Tonk]

Well I've taken a couple (more than a couple of deep breaths) since yesterday's disaster. We are not going to be able to channel Rinus Michels or Jack Reynolds to come back from the dead to take over this team. We are not going to get Van Gaal (he's either at AZ for next year or Bayern depending on who you read; and certainly won't be coming back to Ajax because of what happened several years ago). Cruyff has probably washed his hands of the club (and I don't think he wants to leave Barcelona for life in Amsterdam). The only former player who has had top flight management experience, Frank Rijkaard, certainly doesn't want to set foot here. Would we be able to attract a big time manager with experience in Spain, Italy, or England to come in (Mancini has been unemployed since departing Intenazionale last summer); I doubt it.

Everybody has plans. What happened to the managers with the negotiation skills to change people's minds? Van Gaal loves Ajax. How hard could it really be to reel him in? It may be too early yet, but eventually he has to come back for another round. Since we all know that, why wait? ;)