It looked like the perfect example of Justin Bijlow’s modern goalkeeping skill set. While defending a lead against FC Twente in January last year, the Feyenoord ’keeper came flying out to intercept a ball that Virgil Misidjan was chasing.
Bijlow slid and put the ball into touch but the Twente winger attempted to take the resulting throw quickly. Realising he had left his goal gaping, Bijlow did what any street-smart goalkeeper would do and gamed the Eredivisie multi-ball system by grabbing a spare one and chucking it onto the pitch first.
Misidjan lost his temper and launched a dodgeball-style throw at Bijlow, who was shown a yellow card for his bit of sharp, but sneaky, thinking.
Bijlow is suited to a short passing game. According to fbref.com, he had the shortest average pass length of all Eredivisie goalkeepers this season at 25.6 metres and launched (defined as balls that travelled over 40 metres) just 17.8 per cent of his kicks.
A key part of Slot’s style of build-up play revolves around baiting the opposition into pressing high, then quickly playing through or around them.
One of Bijlow’s tricks when he has the ball in hand is to give the impression to the opposition that he is about to drop it.
Here against PEC Zwolle he slowly lowered it, which triggered the striker to spring towards him. He kept his hips facing straight to suggest he was about to play the ball centrally before, at the final moment, using his weaker foot to pass to the wide centre-back instead. By this point, the opposition have jumped forward in expectation of one pass and Feyenoord quickly play down the outside.
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