After 60 minutes of playing, De Jong slammed his leggings on the ground and then ran straight back to the dressing room, only to return to the bench after a while. At the same time that Barca lost 1-0 at home to Vallecano, the topic of De Jong's transfer to Manchester United has also become the focus of countless fans' discussion.
Barca boss Xavi still has a lot of trust in De Jong, and the Dutchman has the traits and strengths he needs. However, so far this season, de Jong, who has the bottom midfielder in the defensive data team and contributed 3 goals and 3 assists on the offensive end, if he gets a 70 million offer, it is really difficult for Barca not to be impressed.
01. De Jong exposed two major flaws in this game: this is his personal shortcoming
a. De Jong's position on offense: too much like a "fake striker"
De Jong's strongest is actually the ball control and organisational skills in the middle circle, but at Barca, because of the presence of Busquets, Pedri and even Garvey, the team does not feel that De Jong is more suitable to stay in the center than they are. So De Jong, as a right midfielder, tends to play more like a "fake striker". However, De Jong's shooting and passing efficiency is average, making him have bright spots but difficult to have data.
Harvey's solution to the problem after taking office was to let Alves play a real midfielder in large numbers, with Dembele alone shouldering a side. In this way, under De Jong's "false striker" style of play, at least behind him is balanced. But this game Dester could not do this, making the tactics somewhat empty.
Because Dester likes to play from the outside, the opponent strongly blocks Dembele's forward line. At this moment, if De Jong walks the ribs without the ball, it will be more conducive to Dembele cutting in with the ball, or crossing to find the front point.
It can be clearly seen from the GIF that when the opponent strongly restricts Dembele, De Jong and Dest stand very poorly, lacking effective help from beginning to end, and relying entirely on Dembele's personal ability to create opportunities.
Dembele carried the ball on his back in a dangerous way (he was actually very bad at this move, the probability of conceding the ball was very high), and then the ball was given to Dest on the wing. However, the latter's cross was not of high quality and failed to pose a threat. De Jong's movement distance throughout the attack was very limited, which was disappointing.
One of the worst points in this wave of attack was dembele's position when he was carrying the ball with his back to de Jong and Dest. The most reasonable choice should be to withdraw De Jong to receive Dembele, even if he can't get the ball, he can bring out the center-back, so that Dembele can find Dester to counter-insert the forward line after passing Busquets.
In the game, "protective reception" and "retraction bring counter-insertion" is always necessary, and Deste and De Jong stand together, which is definitely not Barca's football culture.
b. Scored the lowest 3 points in the game: Was De Jong wronged?
After the match, De Jong was scored the lowest 3 points in the game by the Barça media, and the comment directly said that "De Jong's performance was very, very bad", is this accidental?
Rayo Vallecano's pressing in this game is fierce, and De Jong's efficiency in handling the ball under pressure is really not good. This time Dembele passed the ball to De Jong in the middle of the ribs, and then the outside line was Durst's space, but De Jong's pass under pressure went straight out of bounds.
Looking at this wave of offensive and defensive conversions, it may be another typical case of De Jong's disappointment in this game. When De Jong was given the opportunity to speed up with the ball in the middle of the counter-attack, he lost the ball in a one-on-one confrontation.
Then the team counterattacked on the spot, Dembele all the way back to his own side 30 meters, De Jong in the moment of Dester's break, seems to have completely nothing to do with himself high hanging. If The Dester fails to intercept the ball, he may only be able to count on Dembele's single-player replacement.
At present, de Jong and Manchester United have transfer rumors, and perhaps Barca also has the intention of taking the initiative. After all, the British media did not mention anything, but the local media in Catalonia was hot, which more or less represented the attitude of the two clubs.
Can De Jong, who has scored 3 goals and 3 assists in La Liga so far this season, really sell the 70 million euros that the Catalan media says? If the opposing club maliciously lowers the price, I am afraid that Xavi will not agree to sell the Dutchman, because De Jong still has his value in Barca.
02. De Jong has the advantage of being loved by Harvey: unfortunately, Dembele did not give a damn in this game
Another problem with this game is that Dembele's performance is not good enough. Dembele's one-man advantage is not bad, he has won 7 one-on-one confrontations, and there are 4 successful passes, the problem is that Dembele's several choices on the offensive end are not good, and he missed many good offensive opportunities.
When Dembele can't make the right choice every time, De Jong has less space at his disposal, which will also affect his advantage.
Because Dest could not play in midfield, De Jong needed to have a certain percentage of retracement, although there were several mistakes, but this time De Jong showed his advantage.
De Jong has a good sense of the ball, so he can complete a good quality short distance operation when passing the ball without pause. This time the opponent did not close up, and De Jong passed the ball directly to Busquets, which made the situation suddenly clear.
De Jong's pass brought an accelerated advantage, Dembele split the ball to dest on the outside, but unfortunately the latter's cross was not of high quality, so he wanted to take one more step, but the result was directly destroyed.
Looking at the attack launch this time, De Jong also has an advantage, that is, he starts quickly in the first step, so he has the ability to break the surface with points in some moments.
But Rayo Vallecano was very determined defensively, and De Jong was fouled once he started (and the same was true for Dembele), so De Jong was angry, but in the end he could not change.
In the 60th minute of the match, De Jong was replaced, and Barca then played a better offensive content, but unfortunately missed some luck and failed to score.
De Jong was furious when he came off the field, threw the leggings, and then went straight back to the dressing room, and after a while, calmed down, and then returned to the bench.
03. Barca's backhand attack has improved: luck is not dominant
Barca led 18-3 in shots on goal in this match and are expected to score 1.6-0.3. There were 5 shots on target throughout the game, 4 of which came from the second half.
The team's backhand attack brought some changes, but unfortunately some luck and VAR support were missing.
Depay was Barca's biggest highlight in the second half, this time with a cross from Araujo on the right, Dembele missing the ball in front of the penalty spot, and Ludpe's shot hit the arm of the opposing defender, but the referee and VAR did not show it.
The bigger point of controversy came from this time Depay picking out the ball in the middle of the road, and the forward Garvey was pushed behind by the opponent in the case of complete position advantage.
Considering the possibility that the opponent did not get the ball at all in this move, it is somewhat inconceivable that such a foul that is completely aimed at the attacker in the dominant position did not get the penalty.
Because today there is no Pedri in the middle and no adduction of Alves, barca midfielders are missing. Neither De Jong nor Garvey can really do a good job of picking up the ball and organizing.
So after Depay came out, he frequently withdrew to catch the ball, filling in the blank in the middle. Unfortunately, this time Nico's front insertion is slow, and perhaps if De Jong is still on the field, the air cut will be more resolute.
However, Garvey has the characteristics of Garvey, and in this game he won a second chance to attack from a corner after a successful counter-attack, but unfortunately the shot hit the crossbar.
This time Barca's chance is still from Garvey's counter-steal. Adama then stabbed into the box, but was deflected by Rayo Vallecano's goalkeeper.
Conclusion:
An important reason for Barca's upset defeat in this game is that the team's strikers Ferran Torres and Aubameyang are a little tired. Neither of them had the ability to hold the ball in the middle, so they had to sprint without the ball in large numbers. In a week of consecutive double matches, the decline in form has affected the efficiency of the attack.
De Jong is a space user after all, so when his teammates can't rush out of space and the opponent is fiercely forced to grab, it is not a surprising result that he gets the lowest score in the whole game.