Frenkie de Jong

[Gnidrologist]

spanish media has fried a few brains on here if they think Nico Gonzalez is anywhere near the caliber of player than Frenkie is.

imo he's the most consistent out of all of them, meaning that even when things don't work out for him offensively, he offers a much more stable level of defensive and structural contribution than Pedri or Gavi do -- the former disappearing, being consistently a few steps behind the game in high intensity situations and the former being still rather flaky.

Fact remains that he's the only one of our midfielders who can receive the ball under pressure, without a clear passing option open, and reliably retain possession of the ball -- a hole he leaves achingly apparent when absent aganst high intensity opponents.

Top post. Agree on all points.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Tru. But can Frenkie make a pass that no one in Barca can make like Mavericky aka 10m side pass to Sergi in a friendly game???

You should be using particular skill set Busi as a benchmark. 0% defensively apart of some long-legs tackles and interceptions, when he's on the path of the ball and "controlling the tempo" by setting it to super slowest PES speed to accommodate his abilities. Yes, he's still a great passer and know the linking up game well, but he just drags everybody to slow mo football, which doesn't fucking work against any top opposition. Sometimes not even top. And old people smell funny.

 

[Sailor Mars]

The midfield wasn't that great last season with Pedri being hurt for some games. If FDJ is sold without signing another replacement, essentially Barca would have swapped FDJ for Kessie. Kessie can replace the minutes that De Jong eats up for Barca, but its not a real upgrade for the midfield. Essentially relying on Pedri, Gavi, Nico, possibly Torre to improve from last season and be able to play heavier minutes.

 

[serghei]

The midfield wasn't that great last season with Pedri being hurt for some games. If FDJ is sold without signing another replacement, essentially Barca would have swapped FDJ for Kessie. Kessie can replace the minutes that De Jong eats up for Barca, but its not a real upgrade for the midfield. Essentially relying on Pedri, Gavi, Nico, possibly Torre to improve from last season and be able to play heavier minutes.

Yeah, midfield will take a bit of a hit if De Jong goes and a top player is not brought in instead. But you can't have everything all at once.

 

[mc_lovin]

For the role Frenkie played last season I imagine Kessie will be an upgrade. Then there's also Roberto for depth, who's certainly not planned as a RB with our pursuit of Azpi.

 

[Co0ter]

The boy looks more comfortable at CB right now than he did all last season babysitting Busquets in midfield.

 

[Porque]

Playing with no Fs today. Figured he couldn't displace Busi at dmc, so he would be a cb and move with the ball to the DMC position first. 4D chess.

 

[khaled_a_d]

Frenkie always does well as CB in easy games or 3 atb, in serious games his lack of aerial ability and those runs he loves to make will get exposed.

 

[jamrock]

He was meh.

Hurry up and sell, I'm tired of seeing him run around doing nothing.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Tictac tictac.

Price dropping every minute.

 

[Kul_z]

Man, if someone told me id enjoy going to redcafe to see the meltdown day in day out.. frenkie you goat for that

 

[wisconsincule]

Man, if someone told me id enjoy going to redcafe to see the meltdown day in day out.. frenkie you goat for that

same…. That forum is full of morons… the sheer delusion by that fan base….

I want him to stay just because I am enjoying watching those idiots make fools of themselves

 

[TacticsTim]

He was meh.

Hurry up and sell, I'm tired of seeing him run around doing nothing.

Exactly perfect description. Player with no clue what to do except run and do 5 meter passes

 

[Givenchy]

So is there any news? or does he still not want to join United? I guess the Chelsea rumors were bullshit, maybe Frenkie's agent trying to get CL clubs interested.

Kessie might well take his spot, it's early days but I really like what I see from him.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Yeah, after seeing Kessies performance i can see why Xavi is a bit disdainful towards Dejong. The later is a pondering type that is good at retaining and holding the ball, but a bit slow in instincts. Kessie plays the ball quick and direct with instinctive one touch passing, which is what we need to avoid Xavicross. I still would want to see him as holding mid, because his ability to move ball, where it needs to be is great and he does have good eye for a killer pass time to time. He gave gorgeous through ball to Abde, which the later messed up.
In any case, even if he leaves, it would be no great tragedy. Even Nico looked better than Busi in the holding mid role, so that position is up for taking in near future.