Probably play at RB or maybe in a 3 at the back.
Anyone know if this account has actually been right when it goes off the rails like this?
I think we've got this one mate.
What a performance. Absolutely everywhere. CB, CM, down the right. Even won a penalty dribbling in the oppositions box.
Also, that feint and turn under pressure @ 3:10 that sold the entire opposition was de Jong-esque
He will surprise a lot here. We can’t pass up the opportunity if he’s available.
He could definitely be utilised as a inverted RB (half back) because ten Hag has shown a propensity to want his fullbacks to tuck in and wide forwards to stay wide. And Timber is hands down the best player we could potentially have in such a role, from our current options.
But we don’t have wide players who can play that role. Most of our wide players like to come inside.
They would still come inside but their starting position would be to stretch the pitch horizontally, which would potentially open up space out wide or centrally due to the forwards, midfielders and fullbacks overloading the half spaces and centre space.
It'll be interesting to see what he does, but if we sign Timber, then the potential to play Timber/Shaw as inverted fullbacks might be the way to go. It would probably suit Shaw as well.
What a performance. Absolutely everywhere. CB, CM, down the right. Even won a penalty dribbling in the oppositions box.
Also, that feint and turn under pressure @ 3:10 that sold the entire opposition was de Jong-esque
He will surprise a lot here. We can’t pass up the opportunity if he’s available.
We don’t have wing backs and our statement signing from the last few years was a £73 winger so wouldn’t have thought so.
Unlikely but he has his players build up in different ways as others have said. He used to have De Jong drop deep and build up as part of a back 3 and then roam around, and then he liked having Blind central to do it, but this season with Timber and Martinez he moved Blind to left back and has him build up from there as an inside fullback almost. So he could do the inverse with Timber at right back, but bring an inverted full back kind of. Depends who our right winger is too though.
A permanent Back 3, rather than his customary transitional ones? Probably not given the evidence at hand, but never say never; Cruyff played with a lot of 3—4—3 diamond base setups in his time as a coach, and ten Hag could be inspired by them.
Talk about intentionally ignoring all the context. He is a 20 years old whose position is still not set in stone. A versatile player who is good at cb and good at RB. A 5’10” 20 year old cb coming from dutch league and playing for united is a huge ask. On top of that Man Utd have many cb’s but don’t have a good RB. And Timber is good at RB. Also, Man Utd has a limited budget where they need to cover a lot of positions. So, if we don’t sign a RB, there is NO chance Jurrien timber plays as a cb whilst we keep ignoring the RB issue and continue playing dalot there.
It's (fbref stats) only CL games, I think. It counts only top-5 european leagues.A permanent Back 3, rather than his customary transitional ones? Probably not given the evidence at hand, but never say never; Cruyff played with a lot of 3—4—3 diamond base setups in his time as a coach, and ten Hag could be inspired by them.
As regards Timber, there's a historically significant convention of defenders transitioning into more center-of-the-pitch roles (and vice versa): Neeskens (fullback to midfielder), Rijkaard (stopper to midfielder), Breitner (fullback to midfielder), Júnior (fullback to midfielder), Desailly (stopper to midfielder at Milan), Fabinho (fullback to midfielder), at times even de Jong featured as a central defender with de Ligt. This lad could potentially trend along similar lines too, given his technical level, maneuverability/dynamism in tight-ish spaces, obvious footballing intelligence and the fact that he does not mind putting in the legwork. While relatively short central defenders can be successful to varying degrees (from meh like Ben White and Nathan Aké to imperious like Fabio Cannavaro and Roberto Ayala), he has some attestable fragilities in the air (which could be magnified and exploited in the Premier League, vis-à-vis the Eredivisie or Europe):
That being said, what he brings to the table as a ferocious Swiss army knife type of central defender (especially in a possession-focused team than employs an aggressively high defensive line) is undoubtedly more special and peculiar and valuable than what he would bring to the table as a midfielder — and if successful in the former role, he could emerge as a reference point and minor trend-setter in the Premier League and open the door for more vertically challenged central defenders (as there's a lot of monkey see, monkey do escalation and general destigmatization in the quest for success/relevance). For that possibility alone, we should probably persist with him as a central defender through the early goings (if we sign him, of course).
Seems most likely for me if we did sign him. Like the 'man of the match' video above where he started at right back. Also obviously covers centre back but is unlikely to play over Maguire or Varane.
From that video he looks like he's being used similarly to how Cancelo is used by Pep. He does have the skillset for it.
And that stat shows aerials won, not aerial win percentage right?
It does. Huge step up to do the same in the PL but if we bought a hard working right winger with quality (someone like Raphinha would be ideal) it could work.
