Van Gaal's men thrash visitors, Depay strikes twice: Netherlands 4-0 Montenegro

Barcelona forward Memphis Depay continued his fine start to the 2021/22 season by bagging a brace for the Netherlands in their 4-0 defeat of Montenegro on Saturday evening.

Having hit the ground running in LaLiga Santander with the Catalans, the Dutchman appears to have carried that form over to international duty, and he put away a first-half penalty to open the scoring before grabbing a second shortly after the hour mark.

That then killed the game as a contest, and the Dutch started to run away with things.

Georginio Wijnaldum made it three with around 20 minutes to play before Cody Gakpo grabbed the Netherlands' fourth and final goal on the night to seal an impressive win.

De Jong impressed

Barcelona's Frenkie de Jong was key to everything the Dutch did, even if he showed less mobility than we're used to seeing from him with the Catalans. With Louis van Gaal now in charge, the midfielder looks likely to play an integral role for his national team.

Alongside him in the middle, Davy Klaassen and Wijnaldum were afforded more freedom and with more pressing responsibilities.

Memphis' evolution

PSV Eindhoven's Memphis was a tricky winger who liked to be glued to the wing. At Manchester United he didn't get much of a chance to live up to the hype that had surrounded his signing, and it took a move to Lyon for him to discover his goalscoring touch.

That has continued at Barcelona and with the national team this season, and he has now achieved the same number of international goals in a calendar year - eight - as Robin van Persie once managed.