Marco van Basten plans to make an early decision on which players to send home as he cuts down his Holland squad ahead of next week's deadline for Euro 2008.

Van Basten has until Wednesday to cut three players from the squad at a training camp in Katwijk this week, but plans to break the news to at least two of the unlucky trio over the weekend.

"To make things clearer we will tell them as soon as possible," van Basten said. "Then everybody knows what they are doing."

Van Basten is expected to make the cuts in defence and midfield. At the back, his choice is likely between Mario Melchiot, Andre Ooijer and Khalid Boulahrouz, but with Melchiot expected to miss Saturday's friendly against Ukraine with an injury, he may take longer over that decision.

The midfielders most likely to get the bad news are Orlando Engelaar, Nigel de Jong or Denny Landzaat.

Engelaar is expected to get a chance to start on Saturday. During training, Van Basten moved Giovanni van Bronckhorst into defence in order to get a look at Engelaar on the left-hand side.