Owen Wijndal – AZ Alkmaar’s precocious left-back
Owen Wijndal was one of the most highly regarded talents in AZ’s youth academy, being an essential facet of a Jong AZ side that gained promotion to the Eerste Divisie when he was only 16. He is a product of AZ’s ability to scout and harness young talent as he was released from Ajax after only a few training sessions. He is also a product of AZ’s vision of making multi-faceted young footballers as he also played in midfield at youth level. Now at 20-years-old, he is finally having the breakthrough season that was promised when he made his debut at 17-years-old against PSV Eindhoven. He has quickly become one of the best left back’s in the Eredivisie and could make his Dutch National Team debut in a problem position for Ronald Koeman.
His parents divorced when he was only 4-years-old as he has a good relationship with both of his parents while his agent acts his mentor in carefully guiding him through his football career. Wijndal was frustrated at not making the step to the AZ first team as Ridgeciano Haps then Thomas Ouwejan were John Van den Brom’s first choices in the position. Wijndal started to seek a move or a loan to another Eredivisie club but AZ made sure to feed their critiques to his agent, Jose Fortes Rodriguez who would relay them to his client. The main critique was that Wijndal had a jovial and playful street footballer’s mentality in the professional atmosphere of Eredivsie football, celebrating when players were nutmegged during training sessions instead of getting back into position.
Wijndal listened and amended these issues as Arne Slot promised him that with hard work, he could earn a starting role. Ouwejan was injured during pre-season and Wijndal has not looked back, basically being unchallenged in the left-back role as Ouwejan has played in midfield but has not supplanted the 20-year-old from his starting spot. Wijndal is an extrovert and has been very close friends with Calvin Stengs and Myron Boadu since they went to high-school together as the youthful trio have driven AZ to second place in the Eredivisie, only a few points behind league leaders Ajax. Stengs and Boadu have made their Dutch National Team debuts as Wijndal is not far behind his compatriots.
When Wijndal made his debut against PSV in the 2016/17 season, he showed traits of being a talented overlapping fullback as he did not take long to play some brilliantly weighted accurate crosses. However, his past as a midfielder allows him to garner more influence in Arne Slot’s system as he frequently ventures from the left flank to the more central positions to act as an auxiliary midfielder. Against deeper blocks, with the AZ two-chain struggling to find passing avenues into the six space, Wijndal will drop next to his centre-backs creating a three-chain as he will receive the ball and drive inside to attract pressure and connect play between the defensive midfielder and the centre-backs.
Wijndal’s positioning in establishing width is pivotal for AZ as he positions himself in the wide areas and regularly switches with Oussama Idrissi as he is capable of moving into the half-space. Idrissi thrives at cutting inside off of the left flank as Wijndal makes brilliantly timed overlapping runs to attract the fullback and create space for Idrissi as well as acting as a passing option. The young left-back’s overlapping runs are so well-timed that he is rarely caught offside while he has developed a knack for playing well-weighted low crosses for teammates in the box. Wijndal also has a lot of shooting opportunities in and around the box when he is positioned in the half-space as he has the skill and power to drive into the box. However, his finishing in most of these situations has been poor as he has blasted wide and over in high quality positions.
At the beginning of this season when Ouwejan was deployed in attacking midfield, he was adept at shouldering the defensive and counter-pressing responsibilities in the position, being an effective ball-winner. However, in possession him and Wijndal would switch as the 20-year-old had better ball-playing capabilities as AZ’s wide build-up also thrived as Ouwejan would move to the left flank to create overloads. The movement and tempo were quicker with two-touch passing interchanges from the wing to the pockets.
AZ’s 20-year-old talent also has highly developed upper body strength to go with his pace and positional sense as he frequently nudges past markers to get into crossing positions. At home to Groningen, he used his upper body strength to win possession from Deyovaisio Zeefuik in a shoulder to shoulder before prodding the ball through the former Ajax’ fullbacks’ legs and crossing. The two then shared a joke and jovial tussle in jest afterwards. His upper body strength and athleticism does not just help in attacking situations as he can also 1v1 battles in defensive situations while making integral blocks for opposition shooting opportunities.
A big facet of AZ Alkmaar’s attacking play under Slot and under Van den Brom last season was stretching the pitch and using positional play to work low crossing situations to create high quality opportunities for striker’s in the box. At home to Ukranian side, Mariupol FC, Idrissi received the ball and played Wijndal in on the overlap for the fullback to cross for a defender to smash in AZ’s fourth goal of the game. Away to Feyenoord, it was a similar sequence with Stengs creating space in the middle and working a pass to Wijndal who had perfectly timed his overlapping run to receive the ball and play a low cross that Myron Boadu failed to get on the end of. In the same game, he had a similar type situation where Stengs worked a long pass to Boadu who dropped deeper to receive the ball and spread a pass for Idrissi to play in Wijndal who squared for Boadu to tap in.
"In the second half of last season we saw a change at Owen in training work and development," said Arne Slot to Voetbal International in October last year. “With the advantage that Thomas had played left back for two years in the first and he did well. There was no immediate reason to change that. Just as there is no reason to choose another. Owen knew exactly when his chance was coming. From that moment he did not let go. He has optimally benefited from his competitor's injury, no matter how annoying that may be for Thomas. "
The 20-year-old has accrued 6 assists in the Eredivisie this season as he has shown the passing range to be a press resistant fullback while being influential in multiple positions in the final third. It is still his first full season as the starter at AZ, but he has quickly made the left back position his own and is now waiting for a Dutch National Team callup. Jetro Willems is out for the rest of the season with an injury while Daley Blind has had issues with his heart. Wijndal possesses the speed on the overlap as well as the metronomic passing ability to evade pressure in order to be an asset to Koeman. It is highly plausible that we could see as many as four AZ Alkmaar players in the Dutch National Team in the lead-up to Euro 2020.
