Xavi drops Depay from the Netherlands squad: a tactical signal and a hole at centre-forward

On the morning of 22 September, my phone kept buzzing on a familiar cafe table in Guangzhou. No transfer news. No stoppage-time goal. Just a 26-man list published by the Royal Dutch Football Association for the autumn international window, and one name missing from it: Memphis Depay.

Thirty-two years old. Currently at Corinthians in Brazil. Fifty-five goals in 112 caps, the all-time leading scorer in the history of Dutch football. Left out of Xavi Hernandez's very first squad.

The group chat with my Dutch friends in Rotterdam went quiet for three minutes, then exploded. One message appeared: "He has lost his mind." I took a sip of coffee and typed back a single line: "No. He has done the maths."

After 48 years in this trade, I know these mornings well, the moment a decision on paper forces an entire football nation into argument. When grey hair talks about football, do not rush to cover your ears, because the fire is still red. This time the person lighting the fire was not me. It was a 46-year-old coach who just took the hot seat in Amsterdam, and he had just dropped the first stone into the calmest lake in European football.

A national team that had lost its way

Ronald Koeman left after the World Cup. The Netherlands exited in the first knockout round, losing to Morocco on penalties. How they lost hurt more than the result: a technically elite European side criticised for a lack of attacking ambition, playing not to lose rather than to win.

The Dutch federation chose Xavi Hernandez. He had been out of work since May 2026 after leaving Barcelona, and this is his first national-team job. What he brings is not an entirely new system. It is a philosophical reversal: control the ball, set the tempo, impose the game. He said so plainly the moment he took the job.

The fixture list is forgiving: Germany at home in Amsterdam on 24 September, away in Belgrade against Serbia on 27 September, Serbia again at home in Eindhoven on 4 October, then away in Greece. Four matches in roughly eleven days, in the Nations League.

Inside that 26-man squad are two first-time call-ups. Ruben van Bommel, 22, a left winger at PSV, back from a long-term knee injury, with two goals and two assists this season. And Gjivai Zechiel, 22, a Feyenoord midfielder with five goals in six Eredivisie matches.

There is also a detail Dutch media will chew on for a long time: Ruben van Bommel's father is Mark van Bommel, currently the head coach of Belgium.

Why dropping Depay is a tactical signal, not a punishment

No rule violation has been reported. No contract dispute. No statement from Depay. What has been removed here is a player profile.

Recall what kind of forward Depay is. He likes the ball to feet, drops deep to link play, drifts into the inside channel, slows the game down for the line ahead of him. He is a wonderful fit for a team that transitions slowly and controls matches by holding the ball securely. But Xavi wants a mobile front line, high pressing, constant positional rotation. A 32-year-old centre-forward playing in Brazil, waiting for the ball in central areas, is the piece that slows down the very machine being assembled.

This is a profile clash, and it explains the decision better than any disciplinary theory. Fifty-five goals in 112 caps is an unarguable number, but a new manager's first squad list is not a place to hand out medals for the past.

I have watched Depay's Corinthians matches through footage sent over by South American partners. His sense of space is intact, his first touch still clean. But the number of times he joins the high press across a full match can be counted on one hand. For a national team that wants to push up and squeeze opponents, that is a detail you cannot ignore.

The two new names fit the possession model

Young people look at transfermarkt, I look at a player's eyes when he walks onto the pitch. And the two debutants fit Xavi's model in a very obvious way.

Gjivai Zechiel is a late-arriving midfielder. Five goals in six Eredivisie matches from midfield is a striking number, because that is precisely the mechanism a possession side needs against a deep block: a runner from the second line attacking the space between centre-back and full-back. Xavi played that role his whole career, so this is a player type he reads instantly.

Ruben van Bommel offers something different: a left-footed wide carrier who can stretch the pitch and deliver from wide areas. In a system that overloads the flanks, he is useful. Worth noting is that he is returning from a long-term knee injury, so this call-up carries both a testing and a future-proofing purpose.

Look at the defensive and midfield names and you see an unusually deep pool: Dumfries, Frimpong, Timber, Hato, Geertruida, plus Virgil van Dijk and a technically rich midfield. With that quality of full-back, I expect Xavi to operate a shape that shifts in possession, something like a 4-3-3 becoming a 3-2-4-1, pushing full-backs high to create numerical overloads in wide areas. If so, the Serbia matches will be the clearest test.

The real hole: the centre-forward position

There is a problem the Depay omission creates, and it is not in midfield.

This squad contains no orthodox centre-forward proven at international level. Brian Brobbey is the clearest remaining option. The rest is a group of wide forwards and supporting attackers: Cody Gakpo, Donyell Malen, Justin Kluivert, Noa Lang, Crysencio Summerville. All good, all flexible, none a sharp No.9 who knows where to stand in the box when his team has 70 percent of the ball.

This is the classic trap for any possession side: sterile domination. Lots of the ball, hundreds of passes, beautiful sequences, and a match that ends with a set-piece goal or nothing at all. I have sat through enough of those in 48 years to know the feeling: the stands grow restless around the 60th minute, sideways passes multiply, and the opponent needs only one counter.

The irony is that the very style criticised at the World Cup, a lack of attacking ambition, risks returning in a different costume. If Xavi builds a controlling machine with no finisher, the label attached will be the same, only the wording will change.

I hold a stubborn view here. I believe the value of a goalkeeper's distribution has been sanctified in modern football. A keeper with declining reflexes still commands a high fee because he can ping a long pass. But when your team has nobody to score, every pretty pass from deep is the opening of a story with no ending. The Netherlands sit exactly on that line.

Serbia twice in a week: an A/B test

What I like most about this window is its structure. On 27 September, the Netherlands travel to Belgrade. On 4 October, they host the same opponent in Eindhoven. Same opponent, two contexts, exactly a week apart.

Serbia are the type of team possession sides hate: physically strong, well organised, willing to sit deep and wait. This is a direct test of Xavi's biggest question, whether his system can create goals against a low block.

The Germany match matters for pride and headlines, but it will not answer that question. Germany will play open, will contest the ball, will leave space. Serbia will not. If the Netherlands beat Germany in an entertaining game and then stall against Serbia, we will know exactly where the problem lies.

I also want to say something about how football stories get told. The romantic tale of the small town beating the giant is always appealing, but it often hides the truth about money and sustainability. In the Netherlands, the talent pipeline works, but it works partly because Eredivisie clubs are forced to sell young players early. Zechiel and Van Bommel are products of that system. Their talent is real, but the timing of their arrival on a national squad list is also tied to commercial pressure both will face right after this window.

Where I could be wrong

I predicted Croatia would reach the 2026 World Cup final when the entire online community laughed at me. Not because I was smarter, but because I was willing to sit and listen to people. Nobody believed in Croatia that year, except me and a few drinking friends. This time I have to remind myself of the same thing: let the data and the context lead, not my 64-year-old ego.

So where could I be wrong?

First, on Ruben van Bommel. Calling up a player whose father coaches Belgium inevitably creates a favouritism narrative. The media noise around this name is already larger than the professional profile of a 22-year-old. That benefits writers and hurts the player. If he plays well, the story dissolves. If his knee flares again, people will call it a mistake, whether or not it was one on the merits.

Second, on injury risk. Four matches in roughly eleven days is a real load for someone just back from a long-term knee injury. This is the asymmetry of the window: physical risk is concentrated almost entirely in the new blood, while the established core is used to this rhythm.

Third, and most importantly, on how fast the narrative can flip. One blank against Serbia turns "bold rebuild" into "mistake" within 48 hours. Football behaves like a pendulum, not a straight line. I have seen enough cycles to know that.

Fourth, on Xavi's actual mandate. He was hired to fix a stylistic problem, not just results. A 1-0 win with three shots on target will not satisfy the underlying brief. This is the most uncomfortable kind of pressure in coaching: you must win, and you must win in a specific way.

And I must admit a bias of my own. Born in Japan, I carry a Japanese football aesthetic: discipline, few words, efficiency. Sometimes I watch European football and hear too many words. But I try to stand in the middle, look at both shores, and what I have learned in Guangzhou over these years is that no football culture owns the truth. The only thing I am certain of is that you need three concrete numbers before you open your mouth.

The bottom line

Goc Nong is not a podcast name, it is how I stand in front of a storm. And this storm is coming from Amsterdam.

Here is my prediction, so it can be checked: Gjivai Zechiel will start at least one match or accumulate over 90 minutes across these four games. Ruben van Bommel will come off the bench more often than he starts, and his minutes will be managed carefully. If the Netherlands fail to score against Serbia in Belgrade, the pressure on Xavi will double within a week.

As for Memphis Depay, I think he will return. Not because of the 55 goals, but because in a forward line with no genuine centre-forward, a player who can hold the ball centrally will always have a use. But if that return comes, it will no longer be to an untouchable centre-forward role.

The storm may stop, the ball may roll slowly, but we are still here, waiting to see whether a coach who threw the first stone has the nerve to watch the ripples spread. My recorder is already on.