He doesn't exactly have the build of a DM... I'm still hoping he molds into a Xavi replacement, he is very patient with his build up play and hustles to open up and receive the ball all over the field, just like Xavi.
Don't let the baby face fool you. He may not be 6'2 or 6'3(1.90) like Busquets and Toure, but he's 5'11(180) like Pep, has a big wide body, and he's taller tha Marcos Senna(who's a good def mid for his height 5'9 1/2 (175).
This is from Sport.es
Pep has used him normally on the interior, but yesterday like in Nuruega, he made him repeat as a '4'.
When Pep has assured that he will be looking to the youth if reinforcements don't come in, he doesn't say just to say, but he says it with a conviction that the football from the youth has a lot to offer to the first team. Pep demonstrated this again by placing Dos Santos as defensive midfielder, in the same position that he played versus Valerenga.
The Mexican fulfilled and did it well, offering a new version of what this position can be for the blaugrana team. Doing it with the same idea about the game, but with different characteristics. Dos Santos doesn't have the same physical build as Busquets or Yaya Toure, but offers different things.
He played the first half in midfield and gave a taste of velocity and feeling. Certainly, Jonathan is not a type of player that while try to complicate things in excess by his actions and is practical, something that is vital to being in front of the defense and to construct attacking football for the team. By his boots passed a great deal of the game to the guys of Pep Guardiola in the first half, in which he tried to attack when he could and did it with sense. Keita replaced him in the second half.
Even though his natural position in Athletic is in the interior, either on the left or on the right, the manager is trying him in a new position in which he more than fulfilled the task that was given.
He demonstrated tactically that he is one of the best players in the cantera and that he knows the system to perfection, developing himself from the top down. Jonathan knows that he cannot compete with Busquets physically, but he can with position and movement(circulation?).
Guardiola demonstrated that even though reinforcements are not there, he has players in excess that can cover every position in the first team should there be an absence. Besides the options of Busquets or Keita, who he values as a pivot, the youth offers many alternatives. Dos Santos is one of them and in Seoul he demonstrated that he's ready.
