To be fair he was really creative and attacking as a cm yesterday. Wouldn't a DM position be too limiting for him?
Exactly how I feel. His ball carrying and combining with others is just too good to be wasted in a DM role, at least the Busquets limited DM role or should I say the kind we played at Barca because of him for the past decade, where DM's first job is to sit in front of the CBs and protect our defense, but not get involved in our attacks much. And even though De Jong's defensive game is still great, and the fact that world class DMs are a lot harder to find than CMs probably means that De Jong long term position here should be DM, but like some already mentioned, it has to be said, De Jong could benefit most, if we just modified that DM role to a more unlimited kind, and he's certainly a player worth changing a certain role for.
Even though Arthur is a CM too, in my eyes he's actually more suited to stay a bit back and be more disciplined than De Jong is, because his ball retention is better, while his offensive game isn't as good as De Jong's. But that said, Arthur has shown glimpses of a great offensive mind as well, so for that reason I'd still like to see Arthur play the CM role too, so I think the best course of action would be sticking with the 4-3-3, but change that pure DM role (De Jong) into a free midfield role, so it's basically a fluid formation, in defense with De Jong behind the two CMs in our standard 4-3-3 formation, having mostly defensive duties and picking passes forward for a counter, but in offense it turns to 4-2-3-1 with De Jong making frequent forward runs, bypassing the two CMs, so FDJ almost playing CAM, but with defensive duties, not like a fixed 'Ozil' role of playing behind the striker and not having to worry about defense at all, because in that case, with our wide player not playing LM and RM, but playing as an attacking LW and RW, that formation would basically become 4-2-4, which is too attacking, so it would have to be a fluid formation, not a fixed one. In a fixed 4-3-3 with De Jong behind the two CMs, De Jong is being wasted in a too limited role, while in a 4-2-3-1 we'd be too attacking and honestly, De Jong's defensive game is great too, so it would be a waste using him like that a little bit too. De Jong is a complete midfielder, and he's worth changing for, creating that free midfield role, from playing DM when defending, CM when in possesion, and also CAM when attacking.
On the other hand Arthur and De Jong could also work beautifully side by side in fixed 4-2-3-1 formation with a true CAM in front of them, we know how great it can be, having that balance of one player, whose greatest asset is ball retention, so he can stay back and pick out passes from there, while the other moves forward frequently, with the other then covering for him. But like I mentioned, playing a fixed 4-2-3-1 although Arthur and De Jong would be great, having a true CAM in front of Arthur and De Jong, the latter couldn't move forward as much, cause then basically only Arthur would be left behind, dealing with defensive duties. It's a lot to think about certainly.
So I'd choose the first one, the fluid formation. As for who to put beside them, from the players that we have, I have to say Puig would be most perfect, moving Arthur to the right and Puig playing as the LCM. But with him obviously not even playing for the first team right now, if we think about buying someone new, maybe someone like Fabian or Havertz could do the trick, although they (especially Havertz) might be too attacking, so if we bought Havertz, one of De Jong/Havertz should stay back at all times and cover alongside Arthur as the CM, as the other one moves forward to CAM. I really like Torreira from Arsenal too, he could become a monster Busquets-like DM, I think he's actually one of the most suited players for that role in world football right now, alongside Rodri. I can't understand why Arsenal are using him as an attacking outlet, even CAM at times, I really can't. So he'd be a great option, if we decided De Jong's permanent position would be CM, alongside Arthur, cause I feel them playing in the same line alongside each other would still be the best course of action, and that way, we could play our normal 4-3-3 with a pure DM behind the two CMs, not having to change to 4-2-3-1. Again, it's a lot to think about.
