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Much to the delight of the fans of the Catalan Giants, Barcelona recently announced the signing of Frenkie De Jong for €75 million from Ajax. The 21-year-old will join the Spanish club on 1st of July 2019.
The Dutch starlet is one of the best young players in Europe and has been linked with big clubs like PSG, Manchester City, and Bayern Munich. However, it is the Camp Nou outfit who has won the race to sign this versatile midfielder.
He is indeed an excellent young player and will definitely have a positive impact on a few of the current Barcelona players.
#1: Gerard Pique
Gerard Pique has been Barcelona's leader at the back for many years now and is one of the most charismatic players on the pitch. He is an elegant defender who not only is a great defender, but also is crucial in the build-up of the team's attack.
He is 32 years old and is not as good as he was in his prime. The main reason for him not being in great form is that there is no proper back-up for him at the right center back position which results in fatigue. Although the Blaugrana recently did sign the right-footed Jeison Murillo from Valencia on a loan, there is no certainty that he will be bought permanently.
Meanwhile, De Jong is a player who is not only good with his passing and distribution but is also good at defending as he has been averaging an impressive 1.2 tackles per game. Moreover, his versatility means that he can play as a center back as well which he has on several occasions with Ajax this season.
With his arrival, Pique can be rested in some games with De Jong deputizing for him at the center back position. To sum up, De Jong's arrival at the Camp Nou outfit will be very advantageous for Pique.
Also see : Copa America Standings, Copa America Schedule
#2: Sergio Busquets
Busquets was part of one of the best midfield trios in the footballing world with Xavi and Iniesta. While Xavi and Iniesta are no more part of the Catalan giants, the motherboard of the Barcelona team is still doing his job quietly and efficiently. He is one of the most consistent players in the team and is probably the most important player after a certain Argentinian in this star-studded Barcelona team.
He is 30 years now and no more has the capacity to play 50-60 games per season with the same efficiency. To add to the concern, he is a unique player and it is very difficult to find someone with a similar skill-set as him. Moreover, the promising players like Samper and Oriol Busquets are too young and inexperienced to deputize for him. And this is where De Jong comes into the picture.
De Jong is a very similar player to Busquets and like the latter, he likes to control the tempo of the game by patiently distributing the ball in the midfield. De Jong is defensively astute as well, as he has even played as a false center back. His 73.6 passes per game with an accuracy of 92 % shows that, like Busquets, De Jong likes to keep the ball and he does that efficiently.
All in all, De Jong is a wonderful player more than capable of deputizing Busquets and even succeed him at the Camp Nou one day.
#3: Lionel Messi
It's been so many years since Barcelona have been having their game played around the magician, Lionel Messi. This has come with a lot of responsibilities for Argentinian maestro. With the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, and Neymar not with the Catalan giants, Messi has further been burdened with more responsibilities.
Nowadays, not only is he responsible for scoring the team's majority of the goals, but he has also become the chief creator of the goals. While he has been brilliant as usual with top goals and assists in the league, he is not getting younger anymore and his burden should be shared with more quality players around him.
Although he doesn't have to play on the right flank to create chances thanks to Dembele's sensational performances this season, he still has to drop really deep in the midfield to create goal scoring chances with players like Rakitic not contributing much to the attack. Due to this, at times, Suarez gets isolated up front.
De Jong, being a creative midfielder, can certainly ease off the responsibility of creating chances from Messi's shoulders and even link-up with him and forming an incredibly creative duo on the pitch. His statistics like 1.2 key passes per game, 1.7 dribbles per game and 1.1 shots per game also back him up.
Therefore, De Jong is a player who definitely has what it takes to ease the burden of the legendary Argentinian maestro.
