Former World Player of the Year Marco van Basten says the Dutch defence is incapable of reaching the standard required for a major international championship like Euro 2004.
The former Ajax and AC Milan striker also says that players should stop behaving like movie stars if they want to perform well at next year's tournament in Portugal.Speaking with weekly magazine Voetbal International, van Basten, whose playing career was ended by an ankle injury in 1995, criticised the attitude of the current Netherlands players."A lot will depend of the atmosphere in the squad. Order and discipline, that is often the problem in Holland. Players have to go to Portugal as sportsmen and not as superstars," Van Basten said."Some of the players behave like movie stars and that has to be handled directly. You are going for honour and country. Players should convince me that they are only thinking about soccer."Van Basten, World Player of the Year in 1992, helped his country win the 1988 European Championship but he is not optimistic about a repeat victory in 2004.The current team, who failed to make the 2002 World Cup finals, struggled to survive the Euro 2004 qualification campaign before going through with a 6-1 aggregate rout of Scotland in the play-offs.With Ruud van Nistelrooy, Patrick Kluivert, Roy Makaay, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Pierre van Hooijdonk, Dick Advocaat has five quality strikers but he has struggled to find the right combination."We have some good strikers and the right players in midfield. But defensively we don't have a strong team," said Van Basten, who now works as a youth team coach at Ajax after several years away from the sport."The only good defender is Jaap Stam while the rest are hardly capable of fulfilling their attacking and defensive tasks," he added.Van Basten is looking forward to young Ajax defenders John Heitinga and Nigel de Jong playing for the national team."But as well John as Nigel have to prove in the coming months that they are ready for the big step," he said.