This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Frenkie de Jong dropping a masterclass performance is hardly newsworthy at this point.
The 22-year-old Dutch star has taken the Catalan stage by storm ever since his arrival at the club in the summer.
De Jong has settled quite nicely at Barcelona and has been an important piece of Ernesto Valverde’s jigsaw throughout the 2019/20 season.
So far, he has played in all of the games, recording ten appearances across all competitions and managing to score and assist once in the process. But one thing was peculiar about the coach’s decision regarding his young midfielder.
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Back at Ajax, his former club, De Jong was predominantly used as a defensive midfielder or as a “pivote” as they would call it in Spain. For the 89 games Transfermarkt have in their database, De Jong spent 51 of them as the team’s defensive midfielder and only 16 as a more advanced, central midfielder.
This suggested that he might be the ideal Sergio Busquets replacement at Barcelona but Valverde had other ideas. So far, out of the ten games we’ve seen of young Dutchman in the Blaugrana kit, he was deployed as their central midfielder in seven of those while registering just three games as their pivote.
Even though it seemed rather weird deploying him in a position that doesn’t necessarily come naturally to him, De Jong seems to be thriving and embracing that role even for his national team.
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When the Netherlands faced Belarus, Barcelona’s star was deployed on the left of a midfield three in a more advanced role, just as Valverde likes it as well.
And unsurprisingly, he didn’t disappoint.
The Netherlands won the game 2-1 and De Jong deployed four key passes, created one big chance and warranted an 8.3 rating according to Sofascore. He also had 118 touches on the night, maintained 92% passing accuracy and completed four out of four long balls.
Not to mention that he was a real threat going forward, successfully dribbling past his markers on five occasions and winning eight ground duels.
But even in that more advanced role, he still mustered three interceptions and one tackle to his name in the process.
The great news for Barcelona, however, is De Jong’s ability to influence the game in a role that Valverde seemingly prefers the young Dutchman in.
It still remains to be seen if he can replicate that going forward.