Netherlands

Ronald Koeman must be tearing out what hair he has left trying to pick this team; every week a new injury dilemma seems to crop up for him to deal with. Xavi Simons, Matthijs De Ligt and Jurriën Timber, all expected to feature regularly, have been left behind due to injuries. Even among the players going to the World Cup, around half the expected starters missed time during the season or are currently working through fitness issues.

With the constantly shifting availability of the player pool, perhaps it's a good thing that this Netherlands play a more structurally rigid style of football than one might typically associate with Oranje. The general shape is a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, but the build-up phase heavily leans on one of the full-backs to push forward and function as an attacking outlet in more of a 3-2-5 shape. The vast majority of the time, this will be Denzel Dumfries; although Micky van de Ven has the pace and ball-playing skill to do the same if needed, Dumfries' dribbling ability is much more suited to this pattern. The selection is otherwise straightforward; the midfield three of Frenkie De Jong, Tijjani Reijnders and Ryan Gravenberch are effectively nailed on and Jan Paul van Hecke is the only healthy central partner for Virgil van Dijk. Up front, however, Koeman's love for Memphis Depay as the lone striker will be tested due to - you guessed it - injury.