Timber is finally back
After what has seemed like forever, Jurrien Timber was granted 20 minutes of football last night against Everton after being out with a serious ACL injury for almost the whole season. Timber has been working on getting back to full fitness for months, and after playing for the U21s and scoring a incredible goal, every Arsenal fan was wondering when, and if, we would get to see him play before the season ends and last night we got a little taste of what he’s all about.
Coming on for White in the 70th minute, Timber received a standing ovation after being out of first team football for the whole season. Joining the club from Ajax last summer, Arteta and the fans had high hopes for the future of Timber at Arsenal but after a very good pre-season, he picked up an ACL injury against Nottingham Forest that was set to see him miss the whole campaign.
Having a new player come in is always special, and it always takes a player, especially one from a different league, to settle in and get going. With the injury to Timber it felt like a big smack in the face and was bound to be a struggle for the defender to get back to full fitness. Being in a new country and city and being surrounded by things you don’t know is one thing, but to then pick up an injury like an ACL so early into being somewhere new, would have been devastating for the young defender, but the squad and the manager seemed like they rallied around him and tried to help him with his recovery the best they could.
As soon as I saw he was named in the match day squad, I knew he’s get some minutes, and for Arteta to bring him on, for the last 20 minutes, in a game that at that point felt like it was going to end with both teams sharing the points, is a big deal. He clearly trusts him and coming into next season, I expect Timber to be playing in almost every match.
For the 20 minutes he was on the pitch, he looked electric and didn’t seem to put a foot wrong, having 30 touches, and managed to walk away with 20/22 (91%) accurate passes. Looking calm and collected whenever he was on the ball and gave us a little bit more security and freedom at the back. Being such a versatile defender, he’s going to be massive for Arteta and this Arsenal squad and as long as we can slowly make sure he’s 100% and watch his fitness, it’s going to be like a whole new signing next season.
What’s your thoughts on Timber’s performance Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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I’d love to see us buy Robinson from Fulham(realistic target) and move Timber to DM which will allow Rice to play CM.
He has all the qualities to be a fantastic CDM. Another important thing is that MAs system seems to favour fullbacks that don’t overlap as much as most, I’m not sure if Timber fits that mokd now
I agree wholeheartedly with using Timber as our main DM next season and while I do like Robinson , my preference for LB would be Hato of Ajax.
Risky. He isn’t a DM. Let the guy come back to football before you try to remake him. Buy a worldclass Number 6 and a world class number 9 – and throw out the organized crime from EPL. Then Arsenal FC will win the league for years to come.
Call me delusional but I believe if we had Timber and Partey fit for most of the season we’d have won it. I think both players were intended to be key pieces in what Arteta was trying to build for the just concluded season. You could argue Arteta really never got to field his best 11 once…but such is the nature of sports.
We had 1 of the best injury records this season so no excuses, imagine if City had Kevin the whole season.
Difference is Foden has been great for City in terms of carrying the creative burden in the absence of KDB-he was hardly missed.On the hand,Timber likely would have been better than any of the options we’ve had at LB. The left back area has been problematic for us throughout the season.Both Timber and Partey are also two of our most press resistant players. They offer something no one else can in terms of the first phase of build up which is key to unlocking teams that set up mid blocks like Villa,Porto and Fulham.Hardly an excuse, just a theory. It doesn’t matter anyway,what’s done is done. We focus on what is to come.
Partey is in decline, too slow in recovery and often gets robbed of the ball. I don’t trust him for our starting DM anymore.
Injuries don’t affect every team equally. Mancity don’t care about injuries, they have equally good players in all ranks. They didn’t even miss Debruyne that much when he was out. In fact he has been shades of his former self this season. When they didn’t have Rodri, that’s when Man city looked ineffective, vulnerable even. It’s just one personnel out, but the impact on a team can be so different. For, Arsenal, not having Timber, who was basically signed to have an immediate impact this season, considering we we’ren’t assured there last season as well, but it didn’t happen. We had a makeshift LB for the whole season. And Partey, who can deputize for him? None. Imagine if Martinelli was out of the game last season instead of Timber, If Jorgi was out instead of Partey, and Partey played all season (only a dream though), things would be different. So counting number of injuries isn’t an effective measure of the impact it can have on a particular team, IMO.