Arne Slot is not worried about Guus Til. The attacking midfielder scored continuously in his first months at Feyenoord, but now finds the way to the goal less easy. Slot doesn’t seem to think of putting Til on the couch. At the press conference prior to Sunday’s game against Fortuna Sittard, the trainer mentions various reasons for placing his pupil in the base.
“That is in the first place because he scores goals, has a return and gets into scoring position,” Slot makes clear. Til has scored 14 goals in 25 official games this season, although 13 of those goals came in his first 16 games. “What he also brings is an unprecedented running ability when the opponent has the ball. He can almost stop two opponents on his own. He often takes balls away, so that we end up in counters. In the match against FC Twente, for example, he took the ball from Wout Brama and he managed to give Bryan Linssen a huge chance.”
Guus Til gave a nice assist to Luis Sinisterra against Heracles Almelo (from minute 1:44).
Slot is not concerned that Til is less accurate than in his first months. “Guus is a player who has the ability to score. That always goes in wave movements: one time you shoot more than the other. But he also has an incredible amount of value if we don’t have the ball.” Slot also left an incident in the match between Feyenoord and Heracles Almelo on Wednesday. The midfielder couldn’t contain his emotions after Luis Sinisterra’s 2-1 and sought out opponent Navajo Bakboord to rub in the goal, after the two had previously clashed.
“Afterwards in the dressing room I also thought: Guus, what are you doing?” Til responded to the incident. “Not smart. It’s frustration too, sure. I’m not that way and I don’t want to be that way.” Slot is satisfied with his pupil’s explanation. “It could have been a snapshot in the game, maybe he was annoyed by something. I do know that it doesn’t take much with Guus to get irritated. He already said that he didn’t fully recognize himself in the way he reacted. I completely agreed with him, because you shouldn’t give that kind of reaction to the opponent when you score.”
The reaction of Guus Til at Navajo Bakboord can be seen from minute 10:18.