Mike Verweij and Valentijn Driessen are full of praise for Jurriën Timber’s performance. The journalists of The Telegraph go in the podcast Kick off on the comparison between the center defender of Ajax and Matthijs de Ligt. “At the moment I would say that Timber is better centrally than De Ligt,” says Driessen remarkably enough.
Verweij thinks that Timber already played excellent against Sporting Portugal (1-5 win). “I thought that the attention for Timber was a bit snowed in in Portugal. That also makes sense when Sébastien Haller scores four times and Antony plays so great. But Ryan Gravenberch and Timber were also very good in that match. I also thought Gravenberch against Cambuur That boy is making great strides and I think that Ajax should talk to him very soon about a new contract (which expires in mid-2023, ed.). hammer away.”
Timber has won the competition at Ajax against Perr Schuurs. “He was allowed to come in against Cambuur at half-time,” Verweij saw. “I think that’s a bit of the Roger Schmidt idea: he has to make minutes to eventually be able to play, if Schuurs is really needed. He is also undergoing a great development, we don’t see that, because he no longer plays, but at the European Under-21 Championship he made a great impression. But he made too many mistakes in the base at Ajax and was overtaken by Timber, and he won’t let go.”
Verweij is asked whether Timber is better than De Ligt of Juventus. “I don’t think so, because Matthijs de Ligt has done a great job at Ajax, especially in that last season. But I think Timber is well on its way to becoming at least as good and maybe even better.” Driessen goes one step further. “I also have to say: I also saw them in the run-up to the European Championship. I understood very well that Frank de Boer chose Timber at some point, although De Ligt was also injured at the time.”
Driessen thinks that De Ligt has not been playing strong lately. “The Matthijs de Ligt that we see now is not the same as in that super year at Ajax. He doesn’t even look like it anymore. Then he occasionally slipped, but now he manifests himself much more as a defender, and he can just do that much less. He just has to do his tasks, but that always wanted income, and making mistakes, then I think: return to base. The great thing about Ajax that year was that Daley Blind also played football so beautifully But at Juventus it’s more: defend, surrender and leave. You just don’t see Ajax’s De Ligt anymore.”