MrBombastic
New member
[MENTION=26713]MrBombastic[/MENTION], I completely agree with your assessment. Frenkie is a player in the same dimension as Arthur. Both offer absolutely nothing going forward and are content with merely recycling possession.
Frenkie's performance against Valencia was one of the worst displays I've seen from a Barcelona midfielder in years. It was very reminiscent of the things you would see from Andre Gomes or Alex Song:
- Completely unaware of where the ball and teammates are
- Very hesitant when on the ball
- Can barely decide who to pass to and when
- Cannot make a pass between the lines unless it is very obvious (i.e. massive gaps of space left by the opponent as seen in Messi's first goal yesterday for example.)
I genuinely believe all of these attributes are an indication of poor footballing IQ. His constant indecisiveness shows that he lacks the speed to analyze what is going on the pitch. You put a man on him and he will struggle to perform, as seen in many La Liga and international games for us (Netherlands). This in my opinion is what seperates him from a great such as Busquets.
Unfortunately, Busquets is aging physically so he is also a liability. Ernesto Valverde saw this and that is why he signed a midfielder with stamina to share some of the defensive work. Paulinho and Vidal have proven to be very successful in Ernesto's setup. The third midfielder, Rakitic, was also very successful. He was the only other midfielder capable of contributing in the final third. The rest of the midfielders offered nothing game-changing, so Valverde sticked to the most reliable, decorated players he had available.
I think Frenkie will not live up to the hype nor pricetag unless he
i) plays in a setup with players constantly making runs
ii) plays with two world-class midfielders next to him
i completely agree with you on Frenkie de Jong.
He doesn't have the IQ and speed of thinking. His eyes can't see depth. He is a 5 meter player.
The irony is that his best quality for a team is his positioning defending. It's very strange he has the ability to position and come in front of his opponents to steal the ball by reading the pass of the opponent. But when he has the ball he can't read it's just too much.
The problem with Busquets is not because of his age.
I think it's the same Busquets but Barcelona changed.
Let's say for the sake of argument that he had to cover 5 meter in the old Barcelona.
Now he needs to cover 20 meter in this barcelona. The lines in this barcelona are longer. The playing field is too long.
Busquets will suffer the first when the field is getting longer. Back in the days he just had to cover 5 meter and could win everything with his awareness and octopus legs.
Remember in 2014 with Spain in the world cup. Spain had also a long playing field and he suffered. He looked like the Busquets of now.
Barcelona now has less possesion and longer field which kills Busquets.
Barcelona has to buy good players or adapt their game.
Busquets will sufficate with such a long field.