Timber labelled 'very poor' by Dutch pundit on historic night

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Jurrien Timber made history for his family on Thursday night, but the Netherlands' 2-2 draw with Greece in Thessaloniki has left the Arsenal defender facing criticism back home.

Timber started alongside twin brother Quinten, with the pair becoming the first siblings to appear in the same Netherlands starting XI since Frank and Ronald de Boer in 2002. Quinten, who joined Crystal Palace from Marseille in the summer, was withdrawn at half-time for Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch.

Fotis Ioannidis and Giorgos Masouras put Greece 2-0 up by the interval before Virgil van Dijk pulled one back on the hour. Denzel Dumfries had a goal ruled out by VAR for offside, and Tijjani Reijnders eventually rescued a point by lashing home a rebound in the 89th minute. The Dutch have now failed to keep a clean sheet in 11 games.

'Very poor in the build-up'

Former PSV and Brighton player turned pundit Hans Kraay Jr, 66, described the first-half display as "really dreadful" and took aim at the back line that Xavi set up to build from.

Speaking to ESPN, Kraay Jr said: "The Netherlands wanted to build up with three men, with Jurrien Timber, Virgil van Dijk and Van de Ven. I get the impression that more and more opponents of the Netherlands are leaving Van de Ven completely free, because he is not that good at building up play."

He then turned to the Arsenal man, adding: "By the way, I also thought Jurrien Timber was very poor in the build-up."

The harshest words, as reported by football.london, were saved for Quinten. Kraay Jr continued: "We had more mediocre players as well, Quinten Timber, for example. I get the impression that the fine box-to-box midfielder he was at Feyenoord, especially under Arne Slot, has turned into: everything is wild and uncontrolled."

He added: "Wild, a poor first touch of his own and then trying to make up for it with a foul. Everything about him is a bit wild at the moment."

Timber: 'I need to regain my rhythm'

The Arsenal defender has been eased back into action by Mikel Arteta following a serious groin injury, and he acknowledged afterwards that he is not yet at full sharpness.

"I am tired," Timber said. "I've been out for a while, of course, but I need to regain my rhythm and get fit."

On the performance itself, he was blunt: "It wasn't good. Very sloppy, we lost a lot of duels. But I look at myself first. Ultimately, I'm happy that we came back, but the first half wasn't good enough."

There was warmth when the conversation turned to his brother. "The ultimate dream was to stand on the pitch together, but that moment with the national anthem was also very special," he said. "That wasn't intentional, but apparently he was standing at the front too, and then suddenly we were standing next to each other."

The Netherlands sit second in Group B behind Greece and host Serbia on Sunday, with Timber's minutes over the international break set to shape how quickly he regains full match fitness ahead of his return to north London.