Assessing De Jong's First Year At The Camp Nou

JAKARTA - It is clear from his magical performance at Ajax in the 2018-2019 season, Frenkie de Jong is a player who has natural talent. No wonder Barcelona dared to pay 75 million euros to take him to the Camp Nou.

The move is now one year old and it is worth taking some time to assess the Netherlands international's debut season in Catalunya, both good and bad.

This is not yet the best De Jong performance that many in the club have been waiting for. Even though most of them can make the club's inconsistencies a scapegoat.

Ernesto Valverde never really looked confident in his team's starting eleven. As a result, De Jong plays with different players every week.

Continuing to the Quique Setien era, De Jong has become a player who is almost always in the midfield for Los Blaugarana. The club's trust in De Jong even forced the club to kick Arthur Melo to Juventus.

De Jong has adapted to life in Spain well and has shown a high level of performance, although not at its best. Yes, he should come to Barcelona and run the team from midfield right away, like Andres Iniesta was.

However, Ronald Koeman, the current coach of the Dutch national team, explained that De Jong is playing a different role to what he did before at Ajax. That's why De Jong hasn't put on his best game yet.

Today we're already living 1 year in Barcelona, looking forward to many more years 👵🏼👴🏼 pic.twitter.com/xRx07qIS7L

- Frenkie de Jong (@ DeJongFrenkie21) July 12, 2020

However, in the 2019-2020 season he has played 38 games in all competitions and, of those matches, he has started 34 times. That is, he has played a total of 2,997 minutes.

In La Liga he completed the team's second most passes with a total of 1,438. He is behind Sergio Busquets with 2,232 passes.

De Jong has a contract until June 2024 and it is too early to judge his performance. As happened with Luka Modric after his debut season at Real Madrid.

OTD last year 🙏 # FJ21 pic.twitter.com/fppag3PXyI

- Frenkie de Jong (@ DeJongFrenkie21) July 5, 2020

After recovering from injury and missing the last six matches, De Jong is expected to be part of the Cules squad for the clash against Osasuna on Thursday. Although any result will not affect the La Liga title race if Madrid win over Villareal at the same time.

For Setien, De Jong's return is also important before the Champions League starts again next August. This is Barca's most reasonable opportunity.