Ajax defender Jurrien Timber says he's ready to "be the boss" of Liverpool's Darwin Nunez when the pair come face-to-face in the Champions League.
Liverpool were drawn alongside Ajax, Napoli and Rangers in an attractive looking Group A on Monday, with the Reds seeking to go one better in this season's competition having lost in the final to Real Madrid last season.
The Reds faced Ajax, then managed by Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag, in the group stages during the 2020-21 season, registering 1-0 wins both at home and away, but Timber has more recent memories of facing Liverpool's summer signing Nunez.
It was the Uruguayan's goal for former club Benfica in the second leg of last season's last-16 tie in Amsterdam which sealed a fairly surprising 3-2 aggregate win for the Portuguese side, knocking out Ten Hag's well fancied Dutch champions.
Timber - who was strongly linked with a reunion with Ten Hag at United earlier this summer, before deciding to sign a new Ajax deal - hasn't forgotten that moment, and after being paired with Liverpool his mind turned to Nunez.
“I immediately thought of it [Nunez’s goal]," he told Dutch outlet Voetbal International. "The intention is that I will be the boss of him now.”
Nunez is still serving the three-match ban he picked up following a red card on his home debut for the Reds against Crystal Palace, after previously scoring in the Community Shield against Manchester City and on his Premier League bow at Fulham.
He will sit out this weekend's home game against Bournemouth and the midweek clash with Newcastle, before returning for next weekend's Merseyside derby.
Reflecting on the draw, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp told the club's website : "The first thing to say is this is a proper, proper challenge.
"All of the clubs have quality, they all have pedigree and I would say they all have a chance. The good thing is that we do also, so it makes sense for us to look forward to the challenge and give it a try.
"We did not ask for any favours and we have not been given any but this is not a competition where you can look for easy ways through because the standard is always unbelievably high.
"The difference this year is that the group stage will be shorter than usual, so we will have to be ready not just for the quality of the opposition but also for the different demands and rhythms.
"We will not have to look too hard to find information about our opponents, though.
"It was only a couple of years back that we played two really tough matches against Ajax and we get drawn against Napoli pretty regularly, so we know quite a bit about both of them and they know quite a bit about us. I know there will also be some new lessons to be learned, though. There always are.
"Rangers are a new opponent for us but we know them, too. Their story over the last few years has been really interesting and they did really, really well to qualify for the group stage, given the teams they were up against in the qualifying matches.
