Barcelona’s star midfielder Frenkie de Jong is the engine that breathes life into the Netherlands workforce along with his elegant passing.
His acumen in the course of the park is essential to their hopes of success at this month’s European Championship in Germany.
A nasty ankle harm suffered whereas taking part in for the Catalans towards Real Madrid in April means there’s concern over what situation he will probably be in when the Dutch open their Group D marketing campaign towards Poland in Hamburg on June 16.
However, coach Ronald Koeman has expressed confidence that his playmaker will probably be prepared on time.
With his boyish attraction, De Jong nonetheless appears to be like just like the precocious 21-year-old who made a storming worldwide debut towards Peru six years in the past, organising a aim and scoring the winner in a pleasant in Amsterdam.
He barely missed a Netherlands match after that till final September, when he made the latest of his 54 appearances.
Ankle and knee accidents have saved him out since, illustrating Dutch dependence on his midfield position.
There is little that doesn’t undergo De Jong, fetching and carrying the ball, probing with runs at opposing defenders, or passing with fine-tuned accuracy.
He has all the time had unerring composure on the ball and the flexibility to interrupt opposition traces along with his dribbling.
He usually acts as a deep-lying midfielder, dictating the tempo, however his versatility permits him to play numerous midfield roles – as a defensive one, a box-to-box participant, and even contributing larger up the pitch. Koeman as soon as even used him as a makeshift heart again.
But in Germany, if De Jong is match, Koeman has made it clear the place he’ll use the 27-year-old. “For me, I think he performs better playing deeper.”
At the identical time, nonetheless, the coach is vital of his conversion price. “I know Frenkie has a lot of quality as a player to help build from the back but he has also had to give the team more offensively. We have talked about this and that he had to score more goals.”
De Jong got here to prominence at Ajax Amsterdam within the 2018-19 season, once they went right through from the preliminary rounds to the Champions League semi-finals.
Barcelona wasted no time in signing De Jong in an 86-million-euro ($93.50-million) deal and he has been on the Catalan giants for the previous 5 seasons.
A doable transfer to the Premier League subsequent season is the topic of rising hypothesis.
Source: www.dailysabah.com