Frenkie de Jong

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DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
First half was quiet. Won some dribbles and some defensive work but nothing too much as Blind was the main ball carrier in the midfield.

Then in the second half FDJ took control of the midfield entirely for the first 25 minutes or so which led to Ajax scoring. He made a lot of very good forward passes in this period and outplayed Kimmich and the other Ajax midfielders in general on the night. The red cards made the game chaotic mostly after that.

Then at the end he had that lackadaisical error which led to the goal, but also was important in the buildup of the attack for Ajax's equalizer.

Up and down game, had the 2nd most touches on the pitch at the end of it all. Pretty much no one on the pitch had a flawless game, much less so any of the midfielders (save for Thiago who came on at the end and carried Bayern). FDJ was able to make an impact in a big game and be one of the more notable midfielders on the pitch even though it wasn't a good performance.

Wasn't directed to you. I was trolling him for giving the ball away.

On topic: I wholeheartedly agree. Been my point for some time. We don't have the money to risk 150 mil on two Dutch talents.

If we do sell Rakitic for around 70-80+ that gives us a big financial boost. And it's not that much of a risk if we increase the role of both Arthur/Vidal who have proven themselves to be as good as we need them to be. Plus Coutinho who can play in midfield even if we do have to still figure out how to best fit him there.

As for Rabiot, you really seem to be overrating him quite a bit. This is a guy that gets benched for freaking Marquinhos in midfield at times and got benched for their last 2 CL wins. He put up an absolutely disgusting performance against Liverpool in the first game and then, quel surprise, they played way better without him and won the second game.

His wages aren't cheap and he has a horrible attitude. Didn't we have enough years of "cheap players who can contribute to the squad/make a difference" in Denis/Turan/Gomes/Paulinho/etc. That's basically another way of saying "mediocre dead weight that are ok enough to exist in the squad but not enough to be meaningful as a starter or impact sub". If we want to rotate, Aleña is already showing enough talent to take on more significant minutes.
 

DonAK

President of FC Barcelona
Hypothetically, if we did buy a player, someone like Ndombele (a very vertical playmaker) or Aouar (a great dribbler) would be a better fit for our midfield than FdJ because we already have an excellent controller in Arthur. De Jong more or less carries out the same functions. But then again, I haven’t watched de Jong that much. He just does not strike me as that type of player. Who knows, I may discover his attacking prowess if I watch more.

I won't disagree with that. I think having a versatile player like FDJ who I believe is capable of being a creative player like those mentioned would be very useful to have, but if we go for a more traditional player like you mentioned then I'm fine with that too.

Ndombele, Aouar, FDJ. Just not Rabiot on 10m + bonuses in wages + 10m in a signing bonus as the latest report suggest.
 

Joan

Well-known member
If we do sell Rakitic for around 70-80+ that gives us a big financial boost. And it's not that much of a risk if we increase the role of both Arthur/Vidal who have proven themselves to be as good as we need them to be. Plus Coutinho who can play in midfield even if we do have to still figure out how to best fit him there.

We have limited resources and various positions to invest in. We need a striker, a CB, a backup LB, a RB. And a midfielder. Our midfield being set even in case De Jong doesn't fulfill his potential doesn't diminish the risk. I don't fancy us spending the whole budget on Dutch guys. Not that I don't rate them. Far from that.
As for Rabiot, you really seem to be overrating him quite a bit. This is a guy that gets benched for freaking Marquinhos in midfield at times and got benched for their last 2 CL wins. He put up an absolutely disgusting performance against Liverpool in the first game and then, quel surprise, they played way better without him and won the second game.

His wages aren't cheap and he has a horrible attitude. Didn't we have enough years of "cheap players who can contribute to the squad/make a difference" in Denis/Turan/Gomes/Paulinho/etc. That's basically another way of saying "mediocre dead weight that are ok enough to exist in the squad but not enough to be meaningful as a starter or impact sub". If we want to rotate, Aleña is already showing enough talent to take on more significant minutes.
Don't think I overrate him. As I don't think he's some world beater or anything close to that. But I think he can be useful if he can adjust to the club and swallow his pride. Close to the type we have in Rakitić who seems to be leaving.
 

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
We have limited resources and various positions to invest in. We need a striker, a CB, a backup LB, a RB. And a midfielder. Our midfield being set even in case De Jong doesn't fulfill his potential doesn't diminish the risk. I don't fancy us spending the whole budget on Dutch guys. Not that I don't rate them. Far from that.

Don't think I overrate him. As I don't think he's some world beater or anything close to that. But I think he can be useful if he can adjust to the club and swallow his pride. Close to the type we have in Rakitić who seems to be leaving.

I agree we have a number of positions we need to strengthen. But unless we get ridiculously exposed by Roberto/Semedo on a high stage like a CL semifinal I don't think the club is urgently going to pursue a RB.

We'll probably buy a LB and might buy a striker. We haven't seen many rumors at all of Barca wanting a striker since the Griezmann fiasco. We know for 100% certain that the club is looking for midfielders and CB's and these two are IMO the best investments we can make there.

It shouldn't matter that they're Dutch just as it shouldn't have mattered that Arthur was Brazilian. Netherlands is even an up and coming NT with extremely impressive performances against 2 world champions mainly because of FDJ/De ligt.

Spending upwards of 150m in a crucial summer isn't bad at all considering we were somewhat conservative this last summer and can get money from sales.

I'm not 100% exclusive on FDJ anyhow. I'd be happy with N'dombele from what I've seen. Maybe if a great market opportunity for a high level, young striker presents itself then it'll be smarter to go De Ligt/N'dombele/ST than simply De Ligt/FDJ. But there really aren't that many options from what it seems right now.
 

Joan

Well-known member
I agree we have a number of positions we need to strengthen. But unless we get ridiculously exposed by Roberto/Semedo on a high stage like a CL semifinal I don't think the club is urgently going to pursue a RB.

We'll probably buy a LB and might buy a striker. We haven't seen many rumors at all of Barca wanting a striker since the Griezmann fiasco. We know for 100% certain that the club is looking for midfielders and CB's and these two are IMO the best investments we can make there.

It shouldn't matter that they're Dutch just as it shouldn't have mattered that Arthur was Brazilian. Netherlands is even an up and coming NT with extremely impressive performances against 2 world champions mainly because of FDJ/De ligt.

Spending upwards of 150m in a crucial summer isn't bad at all considering we were somewhat conservative this last summer and can get money from sales.

I'm not 100% exclusive on FDJ anyhow. I'd be happy with N'dombele from what I've seen. Maybe if a great market opportunity for a high level, young striker presents itself then it'll be smarter to go De Ligt/N'dombele/ST than simply De Ligt/FDJ. But there really aren't that many options from what it seems right now.

Just a quick note: them being Dutch carried no implications. Used it - Dutch guys - to denote De Ligt and De Jong.

Maybe I'll reply to you in the morning in details.
 

Jombi

New member
He was bad and neutralized by Germany 3 weeks ago. Imo, due to physique.

The Netherlands won 3-0 at home against Germany and De Jong totally dominated Germany in that game, and then you say that a few weeks later when they played in Germany he had a different physique and was bad?
 

Jair Ventura

New member
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">La pépite néerlandaise Frenkie De Jong a évoqué les rumeurs récentes qui l'envoient au PSG <a href="https://t.co/cqiJl4wzFf">pic.twitter.com/cqiJl4wzFf</a></p>— Goal France (@GoalFrance) <a href="https://twitter.com/GoalFrance/status/1073186304278564864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 13, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Future Parisian
 
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