The Netherlands national football team lacks the depth and top-tier talent required to compete with the world’s elite under newly appointed head coach Xavi Hernández, according to former international and technical director Danny Blind. Speaking during a broadcast on Ziggo Sport alongside presenter Noa Vahle, Blind offered a blunt assessment of Oranje’s performances during the opening international window of the Spanish manager’s tenure, Soccernews.nl reported.
Xavi’s first three fixtures at the helm yielded a mixed set of results in the UEFA Nations League, featuring a victory over Serbia paired with draws against Germany and Greece. A subsequent 2-1 return-fixture win against Serbia closed out the initial block of matches, leaving pundits and analysts to scrutinize the structural adjustments and tactical growing pains of the squad.
Blind Says Dutch Side Fails to Dominate Matches
Analyzing the early matches of the Xavi era, Blind pointed directly to sustained periods during games where the Dutch side simply vanishes from the pitch. He noted that the team failed to completely dominate any of their fixtures as a cohesive unit.
We still do not belong to the top,
Blind stated on Ziggo Sport, pointing back to the team’s disappointing World Cup campaign. You have to reach the quarter-finals there; that is a bit of the status we appropriate for ourselves. But you have been able to see in all three matches that we cannot dominate a match in total, as a whole. There are simply parts of the match where we are not there.
Blind attributed part of the instability to a long-standing issue with squad depth. When the coaching staff turns to the bench, the overall quality of the team drops noticeably. He highlighted Quinten Timber’s difficult outing against Greece as an example of the strain placed on the roster.
It has been known for years that we are not broad enough,
Blind said. But what you see in the first half against Greece, that is unacceptable. We created nothing ourselves, and they had seven attempts that yielded two goals and two near-goals.
Pundits Question Player Caliber After Serbia Match
The debate over Oranje’s ceiling extended beyond Blind’s remarks on television. During post-match analysis on the NOS network, former internationals Youri Mulder and Theo Janssen raised deeper concerns regarding player caliber and tactical spacing after the narrow victory over Serbia, Voetbal International reported.
We always expect a lot from the Dutch national team,
Mulder said in remarks reported by VoetbalPrimeur. I mean, we all have good football players, but against a fairly not-so-good country like Serbia we already have a hard time. That is just the way it is. We are not a top country, we don’t have real top players, that’s just not the case.
Janssen analyzed the tactical risks of Xavi’s high-pressing system, noting that the immense distances between defensive and midfield lines left the back line exposed. According to Janssen, the team attempted to keep a plus-one player free in central midfield, but that tactical choice regularly left defenders overwhelmed against on-rushing opponents.
If we press high, then we want to keep a plus-one player in midfield, which causes us huge problems at the back,
Janssen explained on NOS, pointing out that four matches in eleven days left the squad with minimal training time to master the new tactical demands.
Xavi Takes Responsibility Amid Disallowed Goals
Despite the criticism, Blind praised Xavi for fronting the media and taking full personal responsibility for the lackluster first half against Greece. By absorbing the blame early, Blind suggested the manager successfully deflected a portion of the incoming press criticism.
Blind also noted that Oranje suffered from a lack of fortune during the matches, pointing to four disallowed goals across the fixtures—three of which he judged to be entirely legitimate conversions by Denzel Dumfries that could have shifted the momentum.
The team now turns its focus toward upcoming Nations League fixtures as Xavi works to refine the squad’s tactical shape and build competitive depth ahead of future qualification cycles.
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