Frenkie De Jong Impresses In New Position At Start Of FC Barcelona’s Koeman Era
by Tom Sanderson
Frenkie de Jong has already gotten life at FC Barcelona under Ronald Koeman off to a flying start.
Recently overseeing De Jong for the Netherlands national team, the new head coach kept his word on two publicly-made promises in Saturday’s friendly encounter against Gimnastic at the Estadi Johan Cruyff.
In the same week that he was unveiled as the successor to the ousted Quique Setien, the Dutchman gave an interview to NOS from his homeland which went viral shortly after publication.
“The plan is to start playing with Frenkie de Jong in the position where he played for Ajax and he also plays for the national team,” Koeman revealed.
“I remember that I attended a Barcelona game and I saw him play in one position and I thought to myself: 'I would never put him there.'
“You have spent a lot of money on a young player,” Koeman went on. “[So] then you should play him in his own position, where he can deliver his best performance. He has shown at Ajax and with the Dutch national team in which position he feels best and that is where he will also play for Barcelona,” it was vowed.
Pulled to one side by Barça TV in the buildup to Saturday’s first preseason match, Koeman had also guaranteed that each player would get “45 minutes” against their Catalan opponents, and this was proved true when after half time the Dream Team legend put out a completely fresh first XI.
Playing alongside Riqui Puig, indeed as one of two pivots, the former Ajax prodigy was thought of as Barcelona’s best player of the second half, with Mundo Deportivo complimenting the “always elegant” playmaker for being “key in circulation” of the ball, delivering good passes and “accelerating the tempo of the game when the game demanded it”.
De Jong also received plaudits for how he drove Barça forward, broke the lines of the opposition and provided danger in the final third, meaning it is now hoped he will kick on in his sophomore season at the Camp Nou.
Joining from the mentioned Amsterdam giants last summer for a fee of €75mn, the 23-year-old suffered a difficult campaign under Ernesto Valverde and Quique Setien in 2019/2020, where he was played out of position in front of Sergio Busquets in a 4-3-3.
With Koeman now opting for a 4-2-3-1, De Jong may partner the Spanish veteran as they can both enjoy their preferred roles, if he is not deployed in unison with Miralem Pjanic or one of two La Masia pearls in Puig or Carles Alena.
On Wednesday against Girona, it is believed we might see him in the first half this time round, and in the same outfit alongside the likes of Ousmane Dembele, Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann.