Frenkie de Jong
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Fati_Future_BallonDor
Well-known member
Unbelievable match from Frenkie! The future of barca is this guy.
Bobo32
Senior Member
Some nice actions, but a bad video not finding the balance in the highlights. Should either be all his touches, or some of the things in that video could be kept out.
I love Frenkies style though
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Flow and vision are made possible by pre-scanning to know what your teammates are doing. Xavi was the master but that whole La Masia midfield and front line were skilled at it (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi, Pedro).
Frenkie is utterly lacking in that skill at the present time. He decides what to do with the ball only after he has received it. Has no awareness of what's behind his back. Dribbles with his head down when tightly marked, focused on beating his marker and defending the ball rather than seeking an outlet. No chameleon eyes whatsoever. He's much more of a holding defensive midfielder. Much better at centerback where his lack of vision isn't a liability to a team lacking creativity.
Doesn't mean he's a bad player, just a limited one who I personally find boring (flow-killing). He's not what Barca needs if we want to have an entertaining creative attack again.
While Barca was able to easily control the game yesterday, so many opportunities went missing because of lack of awareness of what teammates are doing. For instance, one break where Pedri was wide open in the middle of the pitch yet the ball was forced down the congested right side.
This is why Puig is such a breath of fresh air on this team. He *does* scan and generally knows his options before receiving the ball, one of the few in the current squad. This is a skill one has to want to learn and practice. Thiago saw the masters doing it so he practiced it, too. I'm pretty sure Puig would say he was inspired by the La Masia greats as well.
Frenkie is utterly lacking in that skill at the present time. He decides what to do with the ball only after he has received it. Has no awareness of what's behind his back. Dribbles with his head down when tightly marked, focused on beating his marker and defending the ball rather than seeking an outlet. No chameleon eyes whatsoever. He's much more of a holding defensive midfielder. Much better at centerback where his lack of vision isn't a liability to a team lacking creativity.
Doesn't mean he's a bad player, just a limited one who I personally find boring (flow-killing). He's not what Barca needs if we want to have an entertaining creative attack again.
While Barca was able to easily control the game yesterday, so many opportunities went missing because of lack of awareness of what teammates are doing. For instance, one break where Pedri was wide open in the middle of the pitch yet the ball was forced down the congested right side.
This is why Puig is such a breath of fresh air on this team. He *does* scan and generally knows his options before receiving the ball, one of the few in the current squad. This is a skill one has to want to learn and practice. Thiago saw the masters doing it so he practiced it, too. I'm pretty sure Puig would say he was inspired by the La Masia greats as well.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
What do you mean? Holding midfielder is the single position where having "chameleon eyes," i.e. spatial awareness is an absolute must. A holding midfielder should always know what is happening on the pitch as he is frequently receiving the ball with his back toward goal. That is the biggest reason Frenkie can't play lone pivot as he does not possess that skill. This is why he is much better at CB than CDM as well.
te amo barca
Blaugrana al vent
Wouldn't be a BerkeleyBernie post if Pedro wasn't slotted in with the likes of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta
Pedro "Better than Neymar" Rodriguez
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Okay. Defensive midfielder. There is no fixed definition of "holding midfielder" though the consensus is that a majority of their duties are defensive. I considered Keita's role in Pep's Barca as a "holding midfielder." He was brought on to defend the lead and slow the game down. I consider Busquets much more than a holding midfielder.
I agree De Jong isn't that good with his back to goal. I recall one pass yesterday where he was picked off because he was totally unaware of a player rushing him from the back and had made no movement towards receiving the ball.
https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-term-holding-mean-in-soccer-i-e-holding-midfielder
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
Wouldn't be a BerkeleyBernie post if Pedro wasn't slotted in with the likes of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta
"that whole La Masia midfield and front line were skilled at it (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Messi, Pedro)." Yes, Pedro was very good at team awareness, connective play, one-touch passing. My point was there wasn't a weakness in that lineup where the flow would fall apart, not that Pedro had the same brilliance or creativity as those others. He was trained in and proficient at scanning.I'm always puzzled that scanning is not a more common proficiency among players. It's not hard to learn, just requires practice and a lot of concentration. Defenders would benefit greatly, too. When you hear a defense being accused of "ball-watching," it's their lack of scanning and having no idea of opposition players coming in behind them. So why isn't scanning trained as much as other essential skills (outside of La Masia)?
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Bobo32
Senior Member
I'm always puzzled that scanning is not a more common proficient skill among players. It's not hard to learn, just requires practice and a lot of concentration. Defenders would benefit greatly, too. When you hear a defense being accused of "ball-watching," it's their lack of scanning and having no idea of opposition players coming in behind them. So why isn't scanning trained as much as other essential skills (outside of La Masia)?
I think some of it can be explained with part of what I discussed with Dammie10 just before ITT, in regards to Frenkie - the best youth players easily get lazy. They can solve situations with another touch, or with their physique, and few coaches will tell them that they did wrong. Pep has seen this in players like Kimmich and Foden, and is one who will tell the player - this is important both mentally but also tactically/habit shapingly.
Scanning, and spatial awareness is a skill that, together with tempo, is changing the most between tiers of players, still those who have the greatest talent don't need to focus on it as much, especially if they didn't get promoted to play with adults while still physically very inferior.
I think that Barcelona would be in a better place right now if they kept Pedro and never signed Neymar, Dembele, Griezmann or Coutinho by the way.
BerkeleyBernie
Senior Member
I'm always puzzled that scanning is not a more common proficiency among players. It's not hard to learn, just requires practice and a lot of concentration. Defenders would benefit greatly, too. When you hear a defense being accused of "ball-watching," it's their lack of scanning and having no idea of opposition players coming in behind them. So why isn't scanning trained as much as other essential skills (outside of La Masia)?
Here's a perfect example, Pedro's wonderful back-to-goal assist from today's Roma game (about 20 seconds into video). Watch how he scans over his back before receiving the ball which enables him to make a 1-touch flick for Mayoral to score. He knew where his markers were and where his teammate was.
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Bit of a late observation but I saw a bit of aggression in his game and battle that I haven't seen in him this season. Usually he spends a fair amount of time whining to the ref a bit like Alba. But he decided to get angry and take matters into his own hands resulting in his best performance all year. Needs to channel his anger better. With his naturally cool head on the ball he could turn into the player we thought we bought
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