For a player who honed his ball-playing skills at the world famous Ajax youth academy, Dundee United’s Timothy van der Meulen would have been excused for suffering something of a culture shock when he was thrown into the more agricultural environment that is the Scottish Premier League.
The 20-year-old former Dutch youth international admitted his debut at Hearts on Saturday was an uneasy introduction to the game over here, but he believes his more assured performance against St Johnstone in mid-week shows he has already got to grips with the challenges he will face as a centre-back in Scotland.
On a notoriously poor McDiarmid Park pitch, van der Meulen looked like a native as he took no risks with extra touches and dealt well with long balls from the opposition.
He said, “I found it difficult against Hearts because I just came on two minutes before half-time. It wasn’t easy to just switch on into that match. But playing from the start against St Johnstone I was able to do that and I was happy with the way I played.
“It was easier to focus and I wasn’t thinking about what happened against Hearts.
“I am not used to Scottish football but I have learned. In the SPL I will have to clear the ball quicker and look for the long ball more often.
“Teams here play with players running looking for it. Now that I know this I will be able to do it more often. I can still play my own game at times when it is suitable but not always. It won’t be too strange because I will adapt.”
Van der Meulen didn’t want to give the impression that he was running down Scottish football far from it.High levelHe pointed out, “The game here is of a high level. The players are good but in a different way to back home. Everyone in Holland knows about the SPL anyway because of the players who went to Celtic and Rangers. I came here to get game time.
“The last time I played was against Den Haag in December, so it’s good to come here and be playing at a high level. I just want to play and see what happens. I’d love to win a prize like the Scottish Cup. I think the more I play the better I will become.”
It won’t only be in Perth where van der Meulen and his United team-mates will be challenged by grassless and rutted pitches for the remainder of the season Tannadice has its own problems, as do several other grounds in Scotland.
However he insisted that the situation won’t be a handicap to a Tangerines team whose first instincts are to keep the ball on the ground, adding, “We tried to play the long ball against St Johnstone because of the pitch. It wasn’t a great game because we were not able to do anything else.
“In Holland we have fake grass if the real stuff is not good enough maybe we should import some from back home. There will be other pitches like this one but we will get used to it and will start scoring goals.”