\n<\/p>\n
The Netherlands are one of the World Cup\u2019s eternal bridesmaids. Despite being one of the most famous footballing nations on the planet, the Dutch have never won a World Cup trophy.<\/strong><\/p>\n In 2026, they will be looking to rectify this. Here is how we think the Netherlands might line up for their first game at the tournament \u2013 including Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur stars.<\/p>\n There is some solid competition for this spot, but Bart Verbruggen\u2019s existing international experience should be enough to give him the nod. <\/p>\n Verbruggen has been excellent for Brighton this season \u2013 at 72.3%, he has the second-best save percentage ratio in the Premier League in 2025\/26.<\/p>\n The Netherlands\u2019 back four seems to be set in stone. Generally, Ronald Koeman likes to play Denzel Dumfries on the right, given his penchant for marauding full-back runs. <\/p>\n Dumfries has been an integral member of The Netherlands\u2019 setup for well over half a decade now. With 69 caps under his belt, you can bet that he\u2019ll have a major part to play at the World Cup.<\/p>\n Jurrien Timber has played predominantly as a right-back for Arsenal this season, but he almost always features at centre-back for his country.<\/p>\n An adaptable player, Timber will have no problem with the transistion \u2013 he began his career playing at the heart of defence. While not the tallest defender in the world, he makes up for it with his rugged physicality.<\/p>\n Virgil van Dijk\u2019s place in this XI will certainly be debated, but as the current Netherlands captain, it\u2019s hard to leave the Liverpool man out.<\/p>\n His mistakes have been frequently highlighted this season \u2013 Van Dijk isn\u2019t the player he used to be. Nevertheless, at 34, he knows this is his last World Cup. As such, we\u2019re expecting him to go out with a bang. <\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Netherlands are one of the World Cup\u2019s eternal bridesmaids. Despite being one of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}GK: Bart Verbruggen<\/h2>\n
RB: Denzel Dumfries<\/h2>\n
CB: Jurrien Timber<\/h2>\n
CB: Virgil van Dijk<\/h2>\n