Satisfied Van Marwijk: "They lack rhythm"

Thursday 13 August 2009

According to Holland boss Bert van Marwijk Holland played a fine match against England on Wednesday, but his team never reached the high level of the last two qualification games.

"For that we lack the rhythm," the coach said.

But Van Marwijk didn't complain.

"During the Confederations Cup I have seen a number of the top nations in actions and I believe England are certainly one of those nations. But especially before the break we played well. That gives us confidence."

That his side played rather poorly through stretches of the game was no surprise to Van Marwijk.

"They had a physical advantage due to all of their players playing in the strongest league in the world. It gives them more players to choose from and you could see that when they substituted. It's not a coincidence that our best players were Dirk Kuyt and Robin van Persie, who play in that same league."

But Holland are faced with some problems.

One of them is that not all players see weekly action at their clubs.

Van Marwijk: "Van der Vaart and Sneijder are important at a central position. But the two of them don't play regularly at Real Madrid. That situation is far from ideal."

In spite of the fact that Van der Vaart hasn't even received a shirt number for the new season Van Marwijk put him in his starting lineup.

"Well, he played great during the last two games we played. Besides Wesley hasn't played that much either, he had a jetlag and he was injured as well. That is why I started Van der Vaart."

Despite the many handicaps Holland took a 2-0 lead.

"Of course we made the most out of the mistakes they made, but we lacked the form to extend that lead. Even though we did get the space we needed for that. After the break we came under pressure. England were the better team then."

Have a look at the head-to-head record.