Virgil van Dijk. Matthijs de Ligt. Micky van de Ven. Nathan Ake. Jurrien Timber. Denzel Dumfries. Jeremie Frimpong. Frenkie de Jong. Ryan Gravenberch. Tijani Reijnders. Xavi Simons. Cody Gakpo. The current Netherlands squad is absolutely full of quality.
They may not have as much attacking firepower as Oranje sides of the past, but very few - if any - have had as much strength in depth across their midfield and defence as this one.
And yet, it would take a brave man to say this group of players is the one that will finally make their nation world champions.
Why? Because of the man leading them.
One step forward, two steps back
For the first time since he started his second spell as the Netherlands manager in late 2022, it looked like Ronald Koeman was taking his nation in the right direction when he led them to two draws with Spain in the Nations League quarter-finals back in March.
An injury to Denzel Dumfries forced him to swap his usual system, in which Dumfries would bomb forward and Xavi Simons would play - and usually struggle - as an inverted winger, for one that saw Lutsharel Geertruida tuck into midfield from right-back and Jeremie Frimpong stay wide ahead of him, and it worked excellently.
Frimpong wreaked havoc, and the presence of an inverted wing-back behind Reijnders allowed the midfielder to get forward and add some real dynamism to the side.
They were unlucky to lose on penalties after a 2-2 and a 3-3 draw, and if not for a red card to Jorrel Hato in the first leg, may well have gone through.
They'd held their own against the best team in Europe, and the future looked as bright as their shirts ahead of World Cup qualifying.
And then Koeman went and ditched the new system.
Insistent on getting a fit-again Dumfries into the side for the first qualifier against Finland, he returned to playing with two outright holding midfielders, with Gravenberch coming in and Reijnders being moved into the number 10 position. What followed was an unspectacular 2-0 win.
After an 8-0 win over Malta, Koeman then doubled down for a key clash with Poland, and while the Dutch controlled possession, they weren't able to create a huge amount of chances and were punished when their opponents equalised in the second half to snatch a 1-1 draw.
In both matches, the midfield was far too static, the winger ahead of Dumfries was ineffective and the team as a whole was far less impressive than in the matches against Spain.
The decision to go back to his usual system is one of many problems that has been caused by him being a coach very much set in his ways, and more of them were on show against Lithuania.
Set in his ways
In that match, Koeman decided to start Stefan de Vrij and Nathan Ake, both of whom are in their 30s and both of whom have barely played so far this season. They were picked ahead of Jurrien Timber, who has been excelling at Arsenal.
At the other end of the pitch, 33-year-old Wout Weghorst was the only striker on the bench in a match that would've been a perfect opportunity to take a look at a younger option such as Mexx Meerdink or Emanuel Emegha. They're impressing for AZ and Strasbourg, but have yet to be called up despite the need for a better alternative to Memphis Depay, who became the Netherlands' all-time top scorer over the break but is past his best.
In the match that followed, those decisions to stick with the old guard so nearly led to what would have been the nation's most humiliating result ever.
They allowed Lithuania to draw level after taking a two-goal lead, partly due to De Vrij's struggles, and couldn't restore that deficit after going 3-2 up with Weghorst failing to make any impact off the bench, having just seven touches.
Koeman's side may have held on to win, but with Lithuania becoming the lowest-ranked nation to ever score against the Netherlands, he could hardly return home with his head held high.
Despite that though, don't expect him to start moving on to younger players. In the last year or so, he's tended to only add new faces to his established group if they've done something truly remarkable at club level.
Gravenberch didn't play a single minute at the Euros last summer, only being given a shot once he'd been developed into one of the best holding midfielders in the world at Liverpool by Arne Slot.
Sem Steijn was given his first call-up and cap against Lithuania, but only after following up his 30-goal season with FC Twente by moving to Feyenoord in the summer and being made captain.
Rather than proactively discovering and developing talents himself, Koeman prefers to sit around and wait for them to make it impossible for him to ignore them.
The bare minimum
All of the above has led to the vast majority of Netherlands fans wanting their manager to be sacked, fearful that he's about to waste their best tournament squad in well over a decade.
However, while he's unlikely to lead the Dutch to glory next year, Koeman not leading them at all at the World Cup is even more unlikely.
Wins against Malta, Finland and Lithuania and a draw with Poland are all that's required for a spot there to be secured, and for all his flaws, he'll most likely manage that. Even if he doesn't and gains qualification through the playoffs, the KNVB won't be bold enough to replace him.
He's not good enough to make the most of the best Netherlands squad in years, but not bad enough to make way for someone else to try and do so.
As a result, it's hard to see there being too much in the way of Dutch delight in North America next summer.
