Frenkie de Jong continues to find his feet at Barcelona.
There is no doubting of the 22-year-old Dutchman's talents and skills which brought him to the Camp Nou this summer.
However, the midfielder for the moment is finding it hard to get to grips with La Liga – or more to the point, what tactics and in which positiion his coach Ernesto Valverde can get the best out of his qualities.
At Barcelona, report AS, de Jong has been playing mostly to the left side of Sergio Busquets and not his favoured position as the central pivote in midfield like he did for Ajax and like he does for The Netherlands.
Tellingly, de Jong, playing in his countries last match, an entertaining 2-4 victory away against Germany, was positioned in his favourite midfield role – and was shining at doing what he does best: pulling the strings from his midfield department and being their leader – including getting on the scoresheet.
For Busquets, this is arguably the first time in a long time that he has competition for his spot in the team and the debate remains open as to how to get the best out of each player and how best to fit these two stylish and elegant ballers into a succesful system.
It is early days for de Jong in his Barça career and having to step up to learn a new to some extent philosophy, culture and way of life will take time. Patience will be key to resolve this dilemma as always hard work too, in solving the puzzle of Frenkie de Jong.
