21 - Frenkie de Jong

[draconifire]

Casado was impecable agaisnt the big ones. He just had a dip of form, after playing constantly without rest.
Those things are bound to happen to any player, let alone a young player playing his first season on an A-Team.

 

[JamDav1982]

Wouldnt day he was impeccable - first half away to Real before it was changed midfield was not great.
Was bullied for the opener v Real in Supercopa then had a good game.
Also v Ateltico he set up their goal in the 2-1 defeat.
Benfica was a big game. He was terrible.
Good around that though across the board.

But Barca also won 1 in 8 league games with Casado largely starting at DM and were struggling as fell 7 points behind Real. Not all his fault clearly but he was not in great form.

This year he has started 4 games in League/CL/Cup and Barca/Casado struggled in three of them coming off at HT in two league starts and after an hour v Benfica as struggling and Barca 3-1 down to then go on and win 5-4.

With Casados minutes reduced the team has clawed back the 7 pt deficit and looked better.. Pedri has looke better again also.

You have opposition coached commenting on how much harder it was to press once Casado off pitch and others on in that time.

Fair to say he had a better than expected first few months and some great moments but to act as if dont know why Flick has reduced his minutes at this point is naive at best.

The balance of team and defence has not looked worse either despite the fact Casado will win more tackles than likes of FDJ for most part. The flip side is he is also more likely to be pulled out of middle as chases ball and if dribbled past team is open. Also there is an argument that keeping ball better in turn is a form of defending.

Up to him to win place back.

Said it already but if FDJ leaves Barca wont sit on Casado/Bernal. They will look to get another midfielder in.

 

[Gazzznigga]

If you needed control and some balance=Frenkie

If you wanted a gung-ho back/forth game= Cass

 

[JamDav1982]

Took control of the game in middle when came on.

Looked along with Olmo/Raph the ones who knew what game needed and did it.

 

[te amo barca]

Risk averse and has tunnel vision. Raphinha was getting mad at him for ignoring his runs that a medium-difficulty ball would have turned into great chances

 

[JamDav1982]

Best player on the park after Pedri.

Neither of them should have been on a side that did not win there.

 

[kilian]

Except a couple of times he should have sent a through ball to Raphinha, he was top class today with Pedri

 

[malvolio]

Curios to see his stats when defending tonight. My feeling is he did the usual strolling around, spraying passes and looking good. But offers no protection for defence and slows down play when he shouldn't.

 

[JamDav1982]

Curios to see his stats when defending tonight. My feeling is he did the usual strolling around, spraying passes and looking good. But offers no protection for defence and slows down play when he shouldn't.

Absolute nonsense.

He was getting the ball quicklly to Pedri all game and taking ball and progressing it.

Was top class.

 

[FCBfan22]

Him and Pedri finally started clicking and it's beautiful.

Shame Flick did his best to disrupt that with Gavi.

 

[Total-Football]

At the very least what we feared most is not happening (another Fati situation). He seems physically fine.

 

[Horatio]

At the very least what we feared most is not happening (another Fati situation). He seems physically fine.

Take the L and steady on

 

[te amo barca]

He's become worse at handling pressing, can barely wiggle his way out of it now.

 

[JamDav1982]

He's become worse at handling pressing, can barely wiggle his way out of it now.

Haha no.. he was with Pedri the one who took the ball under pressure time and again.

 

[Loki]

In my opinion his best game this season. He definitely took back his spot from Casado.