Jurriën Timber managed to make a big impression on Henk Spaan. The sports journalist describes the performance of the center defender of Ajax in the Champions League match against Sporting Portugal (1-5 win) as ‘bizarre’ in his column for The watchword. Not only in terms of play, but also in terms of numbers, as Spaan emphasizes.
“Optically he did things like silently passing one or two men, almost invisible, after closely disguised feints and shortly before there was a deep ball from a Portuguese that looked very dangerous. Suddenly Timber appeared, ‘like a jackass out of a box’ and put the side of his foot against that dangerous ball. Where did he suddenly come from, I thought.”
“Timber had the most touches of anyone, 78, and lost three. The buzzword bizarre comes to mind. He dribbled six times and succeeded one hundred percent of the time. He won ten of his fourteen personal duels,” Spaan bases himself on statistics from opta. “Again the urge to say ‘bizarre’ overwhelms me. The development of Timber is sensational.”
“We’ve talked a lot about (Trent) Alexander-Arnold. I prefer Timber,” Spaan refers to the versatile right leg of Liverpool and the England national team. Twenty-year-old Timber is an undisputed basic force in Erik ten Hag’s team this season. The defender did not miss a minute of six games in all competitions.
Related
More sports news