Arsenal should unleash star who’s not been seen in 2024

Some might imagine that Arsenal are the place they’re this season due to the consistency they’ll area with their beginning XIs.

Sat high of the Premier League and into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, there’s some fact to the truth that Mikel Arteta does not make too many modifications.

However to recommend the membership have not acquired many accidents this time period could be fallacious. Thomas Partey has been seen simply twice within the league since October. No.1 left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko has missed the perfect a part of 5 weeks of soccer whereas Gabriel Jesus has sat out 16 matches by harm.

They have been three key parts of the squad final season however there’s one man we’re forgetting about, is not there? An thrilling summer season signing through the 2023 window who has been seen on solely two events in Arsenal colors so far.

The person we’re speaking about is Jurrien Timber.

The most recent on Jurrien Timber’s harm

Timber starred through the opening two weeks of the marketing campaign just for his debut time period in north London to be reduce brief courtesy of a horrible harm.

The Dutchman, signed from Ajax final summer season for a £38m payment, started the Group Defend victory over Manchester Metropolis at left-back and was then fielded there once more on the opening weekend of the Premier League season towards Nottingham Forest.

Nevertheless, the defender was hauled off simply 50 minutes into his league bow for the membership. The injury was revealed later. It was a crippling ACL blow, that means he would miss the following six to 9 months of motion.

So, what is the newest? Nicely, TImber has been again on the grass on the Sobha Actuality Coaching Centre in current weeks and has stepped up his rehabilitation with the remainder of the first-team squad.

Chatting with the media on the again finish of February, Arteta famous of the Netherlands worldwide: “He’s doing rather well. He’s been with some gamers on the pitch. He’s going to do some bits with us on the pitch within the subsequent week or so. Then now we have to see how that evolves, his confidence ranges, his health ranges and hopefully then the reply is ‘sure’.”

With the worldwide break now in full swing, the hope is that the 22-year-old can be prepared for some minutes as soon as the home motion recommences in per week.

Forward of a busy climax to the season, wherein Arsenal nonetheless need to face Man Metropolis and a double-legged tie with Bayern Munich within the Champions League, it is a seismic enhance for the membership.

What Jurrien Timber might add to Arsenal

Within the transient 126 minutes we have seen of Timber in Arsenal colors we have already been in a position to collect a way of what to anticipate as soon as he returns.

This can be a remarkably composed participant who suits Arteta’s system like a glove. What’s extra is the Dutchman’s versatility. Principally a central defender, he can even greater than do a job at left-back or right-back.

That stated, with Ben White’s seemingly undroppable kind on the precise – contributing a objective and two assists in his final two league video games – it’s probably we’ll see him on the left. In any case, nobody is eradicating William Saliba and Gabriel from their central roles.

You could properly surprise what Jakub Kiwior has achieved to deserve being dropped however systematically, Timber is ideal for that inverted function. He is cool and crisp in possession, boasting some immense statistics when in comparison with positionally comparable gamers.

As per FBref, the previous Ajax man ranks inside the easiest 2% of central defenders in Europe’s high 5 leagues for the final three hundred and sixty five days in passes tried (82.45) and passes accomplished (74.14) per 90 minutes. It will maybe be straightforward to query why that is spectacular. Nicely, when you think about what these passes imply it highlights issues very properly.

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Timber is supreme at breaking the strains, notably rating among the many very elite centre-backs for progressive passes per 90 (7.30) and passes into the ultimate (9.69), metrics the place he sits within the high 1%. He is additionally among the many high 2% once more for key passes (0.63).

What the above means is that just about 9% of the cross makes an attempt Timber makes are progressive. Evidently at all times forward-thinking, this is able to little question go well with Arteta’s ploy to dominate possession and get the ball into the ultimate third.

For some extra context, above is how he ranks alongside Zinchenko and Timber for a number of the very important metrics we have simply mentioned. It is clear to see simply why teammate and fellow summer season addition Declan Rice thinks he is a “monster.”

It is considerably of a cliche to recommend a participant getting back from harm is sort of a new signing however that is actually the case right here. We have seen nothing of Timber since final August. His return is thrilling and can provide a lot to an Arsenal facet difficult on two fronts.