Manchester United had a disappointing Thursday evening, as Erik ten Hag’s side lost to Brighton & Hove Albion. The match had been heading towards an entertaining 0-0 draw before Luke Shaw handled the ball and gave away a penalty.
Champions League qualification still looks likely for the Old Trafford club, but it’s clear Ten Hag needs to improve his squad ahead of next season. There’s a tiredness throughout much of the team due to the number of matches the side has played across multiple competitions.
Ajax star Jurrien Timber is one of the many players to have been linked with a summer move to Old Trafford. The 21-year-old central defender has been winning fans this season, and it’s possible he could be leaving the Eredivisie club in the coming months.
Dutch newspaper AD have a feature on the player’s potential future club, and they’ve spoken to Jaap Stam to ask his opinion.
When it came to speaking about moving to Manchester United, the former Red Devil said: “The big advantage of United for Timber is that he already knows Ten Hag and vice versa. The intentions of the trainer are molded to Timber, but make no mistake: this is the Premier League. There you can’t always be dominant, you have to duel much more and that against strikers like Harry Kane and Erling Haaland.
“You also have to look at combinations and chance of playing time. United can still use a defender, also because Raphael Varane is prone to injury and Harry Maguire is still disappointing. In England I therefore see United as the most logical option. And what I would like to see more often is Timber as a right back. There are at United, where Dalot without the ball and Wan-Bissaka on the ball don’t quite convince me yet.”
Timber hasn’t played at right back this season, and has very much been used by Ajax as a central defender. If Manchester United want a right-back specialist they’d probably look elsewhere, but if they’re keen on a squad option who can cover both roles then Timber may make sense.
