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As recently as 18 months ago, Netherlands were within a couple of penalty kicks of the World Cup semi-finals. It didn’t quite happen, the Battle of Lusail ending in shootout defeat for them against Argentina after an epic late comeback in 90 minutes, but the Dutch looked back.
Or back on the right path, at least, after missing the 2018 tournament and Euro 2016 altogether. In between those failures and their oh-so-close moment in Qatar, Euro 2020 wasn’t much better: a last-16 exit to Czech Republic was tame in the extreme.
The winter World Cup, then, was their comeback moment, the stage-setter for future Dutch improvements and a team which would grow together, progress in time-honoured national team fashion, become challengers once more. Euro 2024 was to be the tournament where they approached a peak.
Perhaps, then, we should revisit the spine of that team, all of 18 months ago. Andries Noppert was in goal, a surprise starter at the beginning of the tournament but perhaps deserving of his place by that time. Virgil van Dijk, of course, skippered the side and anchored the defence, with the triumvirate of Frenkie de Jong, Marten De Roon and Davy Klaassen holding fort in midfield. And in attack, Memphis Depay toiled while Cody Gakpo thrived, making his name, earning a move.
Of the central seven, only three are in the squad for Germany. Only two arrive fully fit. And only one arrives on the back of a good individual campaign.
Ronald Koeman might be forgiven for cursing his luck. De Roon, after all, was injured right at the end of the season, missing not just the Euros but also the Europa League final. A potential replacement in Teun Koopmeiners now also misses out following an injury not even in a match, but in a warmup before one, while De Jong hasn’t recovered sufficiently from an ongoing ankle issue.
That’s an entire midfield in its own right, even without the long-since omitted Klaassen and the axed (and injured) Quinten Timber.
Noppert’s short-lived stint as national team No.1, meanwhile, means all three goalkeepers in Koeman’s squad have either seven or eight caps. Seven other outfielders have fewer than ten; one, Ian Maatsen, is now heading to Germany uncapped.
This is no longer part two of the Dutch rebuild project, but another new one altogether.
While that brings opportunity for the likes of Xavi Simons or Jeremie Frimpong, clearly stars-in-waiting and having enjoyed great campaigns at club level, to succeed or even progress on the international stage Netherlands need a few more established faces to pull their weight.
Some they can count on. Others have question marks over them. While Van Dijk is in the former camp, clubmate Gakpo is firmly in the latter, yet the Oranje need their 2022 hero to step up more than before.
He was not perhaps helped early in the 2023/24 campaign by being used in an attacking midfield role for Liverpool, one he was entirely unused to and, as it transpired, unsuited to. But that bore little relevance to what came later: a succession of non-event performances, months stretching by of zero impact and almost as little effort, it appeared at times.
Gakpo did, however, end the season on a more positive note. Recapturing his place in the team for the run-in, he scored two and assisted two in his final five league games.
Even his most fervent admirer could not, however, suggest that amounted to a return to top form. One possible boost to him comes in his use at national team level, where he still tends to play in his old role from the left, rather than leading the line as he has more often than not in the Premier League. Afforded more space to run into and a focal point to play off – in theory Depay – Gakpo can be involved in build-up play while also looking for his customary in-from-out runs to be a threat on goal himself.
In part, though, even his Netherlands story mirrors that of his Liverpool time. Three goals in three group stage games in Qatar were his last ones for the Oranje for very nearly a year; therein followed three in two months in qualifiers and none again since. Nine in 24 caps is respectable, if not electric; none in three this year somewhat indicative of the form he enters the Euros in.
But Netherlands need him to find form. There might be promise and pace elsewhere in this reshuffled team, but only 33-year-old Gini Wijnaldum and 30-year-old Depay have more international goals. The former has been in Saudi Arabia; injuries restricted the latter to 116 LaLiga minutes since mid-March. Neither are ideally high-value football in preparation to star at a major international tournament.
As Koeman’s unexpected second rebuild goes on apace in the middle of the pitch, it’s Gakpo who must step up in the final third if the excitement of Qatar is to translate into serious progression in Germany – or merely a return to the dismal, disappointing efforts of what came before.