I read a column here in NL which described my thoughts on Frenkie de Jong perfectly. Its protected, but I will translate for you guys.. (sometimes roughly as he uses some dutch saying for which there is no direct translation)
Ronald Koeman started it and also Xavi stubbornly tries to find a player who is not there. Frenkie de Jong is not a midfielder who goes deep without ball and plays with the spaces without ball in front of the goal. He lack the dynamics and the feeling there. He is a player who is on his best when he gets heavily involved in the first phase of possession.
De Jong can break pressing machines and confuse plans of opponent managers, when he is played in his right position. Just ask Santiago Solari, Massimiliano Allegri, Roberto Mancini or Didier Deschamps. Or Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo, Marco Verratti or Ngolo Kanté. Frenkie de Jong drove them crazy because he kept floating away from them like a weightless butterfly.
When he has the freedom to dictate play from the back with his passing and dribbling he creates spaces. When - like at Barcelona - he plays on the half of the opponent part of his talents will dissapear. De Jong needs to have the major of the game of play in front of him. Now everything happens in his back. No one would ever think of playing Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappé from midfield. How crazy would you be.. But in some way there are mulitple managers who try to push De Jong in to a frame in which he clearly not fits.
At Barcelona he is trapped in a web of false expectations. He is being told he needs to score more. The real problem is rarely talked about. As long as Busquets is the compass of the team, the team can't be formed in a way that there is place for the real talent of Frenkie De Jong. Busquets is not comfortable in a 4231, meaning in the past three season not much has really changed.
Ten Hag has said something about this after De Jongs departure to Barcelona. That he functions best in a double 6 role and has a large degree of freedom to get involved in the game. In the year where he was voted amongst the best midfielders in the Champions League - as an Eredivisie player - he rarely scored goal. He did however have incredible impact on the build up of play.
In Catelonia there has not been a positive development since Xavi took over. His game became more unnotable and signs that Xavi is planning to move the game more De Jongs way arent there. The opposite sounds more true, that De Jong is being told in a very friendly way on the pitch that he is being kindly requested to play football somewhere else. If Pedri wouldnt have gotten injured, de Jong would have spent the final part of the season on the bench next to Memphis Depay. Now in stead he tagged along on the pitch on a place where he doesnt belong.
It is ofcourse no coincidence that Julian Nagelsmann jokes about wanting to bring Kylian Mbappé and Frenkie de Jong to Bayern more than anyone else. The German manager would be able to explain clearly why De Jong would be the ultimate player next to Joshua Kimmich. The last thing that would be expected of him there would be goals. De Jong needs a coach who plays him to his qualities.
The past three years we have been looking at a lesser version of what could be a inredible football player. The Spanish and Catelonian media are right when they conclude that for 86 million euros he has been a failure. Sporadically there was applause when the was decisive with a goal or assits. Never did Nou Camp see the playfull footballer who thought it was a good idea to trick Benzema in his own box. The cheerful midfielder who played with a smile on his face and had a smashing impact on the build up and attacking play. Thát Frenkie de Jong we will only see again when he has been freed from Barcelona.