The Wonderkid Files: Jurriën Timber - £44m-rated Dutch defender on Man Utd’s radar

Welcome to the latest edition of The Wonderkid Files, our weekly column delving into the stats and scouting reports to give you the lowdown on one of world football’s brightest young prospects – and this week, we make a return trip to Ajax to look at Manchester United transfer target Jurriën Timber.

Starting his youth career at Feyenoord before moving to Ajax at the age of 13, the now 21-year-old Timber has become a fixture of Ajax’s first team over the past three seasons, winning two Eredivise title and the KNVB Cup as well as last year’s Marco van Basten Award for the most promising talent at the club. He’s also collected 15 caps for the senior Netherlands squad – and now reports suggest that Erik ten Hag is keen on a reunion with his former player.

Aside from his links with the manager, it’s easy to see why Manchester United would be interested. Capable of playing at right-back as well as his more usual centre-half role, Timber is every inch the modern defender, confident and competent with the ball at his feet, a strong passer and used to pressing high up the field.

His passing statistics are immediately eye-catching – a 92.0% completion rate with over 80 passes per game puts him up there with the best defensive ball-players in Europe, and his dribbling and progressive pass and carry numbers are not at all far behind. He’s a gifted dribbler as well as passer, and used to taking the ball out of defence or winning it in the middle of the field and moving the ball swifty upfield. He makes his plays in the middle of the park as often as he does in the defensive third, a sure mark of a player used to a system which holds a high line and looks to keep pressure on opposing possession.

He’s also a hugely intelligent defender, well-versed in Ajax’s system, whose positional sense and movement suggest a deep understanding of the game. He rarely gets caught out in bad positions and rarely makes mistakes – this season, in the Eredivisie, he hasn’t made a single individual error which has allowed a shot on goal from an opponent. Not many defenders can boast a completely clean slate on that front.

That list of attributes has seen a price tag of up to €50m slapped on him and has made him a fixture of the Dutch national side, where he played every game of the 2022 World Cup run on the right side of a three-man defence – although he shouldn’t have any problems with slotting into Manchester United’s back four, as that’s the same system Ten Hag used at Ajax and which the club continue to operate with since he departed for Old Trafford. He also complemented Lisandro Martínez superbly well during their time together at the Johan Cruyff Arena.

None of this isn’t to say that there aren’t some red flags against his name. At just five-foot-eight, he’s very small for a centre-half and wins less than half of his aerial duels, making him ill-suited to withstanding route-one bombardments – although he is relatively strong for his size and possesses good recovery pace, so he isn’t a physical liability in other departments.

He also has a weakness for one-on-one situations, often giving opponents too much room to manoeuvre when the system breaks down and he’s asked to plug a gap – and although he does have a pretty solid success rate when it comes to challenging dribbles and putting in tackles, he doesn’t make as many attempts as most comparable players. He’s used to acting as one cog in a larger machine and can be vulnerable when isolated.

His passing stats also mask a relatively small passing range, and his numbers fall off heavily when attempting to play longer balls, so he’s better at starting passing moves than he is initiating quick counter-attacks. Given that those type of plays are well within Martínez’s skillset, however, it arguably means he would complement his former clubmate rather than shackle him if they were played alongside each other.

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The final word on Timber – at least from the perspective of a Manchester United fan – is that Ten Hag knows the man, knows his game, and knows how to get the best out of him. And that game is both very modern and reasonably well-rounded, and apart from his height there is plenty of room to coach out the imperfections that exist. A team that want to win the ball with structured pressing and use possession efficiently from there could do a lot worse than splash out on Timber – and Manchester United seem like a pretty good fit on the surface. Besides, they love a good Dutchman at Old Trafford, don’t they?

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