Ten Hag waited for most of the year before De Jong appeared at Old Trafford. However, the Dutch midfielder is still a Barca player, and he has not worn the red robe of Manchester United.
De Jong was completely confined in the first leg, and with the help of Sergio Busquets in the second leg, De Jong regained his characteristics and strengths. De Jong, who finished 5 passes in a single game, how much is Manchester United willing to spend on the summer window?
01. Speed is an advantage! De Jong has tactical value on the defensive side of Barca
a. Point-to-point catch-back: De Jong has a speed advantage
Barca are still playing their recent mastery of four-midfield tactics, Roberto as a quasi-forward, Kessie heavily forward into the opponent's 30-metre defensive area and ribs in the box, and Sergio Busquets and De Jong standing relatively backward.
Because of these four midfielders, only De Jong has a speed advantage, and his sprint runs are important to the team and can complete point-to-point defense.
Considering the bias of left-back Balder's defensive awareness, and Christensen is not the type who is good at chasing, Barca's left midfielder needs to have the speed and efficiency of retreating.
This time De Jong's quick turn was important, and his speed advantage allowed him to hold his left rib.
Although the stats will not reflect the defensive contribution this time, this characteristic of De Jong is of great value to Barca.
Looking at the attacking and defensive conversion this time, Rafinha's free-kick was not of high quality, and Manchester United cleared the fence to get a counter-attacking opportunity.
Although the last pass was not of high quality and went directly out of the touchline, it was important for De Jong to turn around quickly and land, once again contributing something that the data could not see.
The most impressive was naturally the second half, when De Jong retreated at high speed to protect the ribs on the left side of the box and block Anthony's shot.
Because of Balde's defensive weaknesses, the left midfielder has the speed and presence of the defense, which will help Barca a lot.
b. De Jong's defensive problems: difficult to extend his legs in interception, weak sense of positioning
From the statistics, it can be seen that De Jong, who focuses on defense in this game, is not highlighted in the data.
However, in terms of practical effects, he still made a lot of things that the data could not see, basically meeting Harvey's tactical requirements.
De Jong's problem was his lack of vigilance when a crisis was imminent. At the same time, he can't make a movement when he turns around, and lacks the ability to reach out and intercept.
This time Fred was right next to him and easily entered the box, considering that Fred and De Jong were completely in position, and the latter was to blame for conceding the goal (if Rashford stepped forward, it was De Jong, but Fred was purely De Jong's counterpoint after all).
The last game was stared to death by Fred one-on-one at Camp Nou, and this one was cut in front of Fred at Old Trafford, and it has to be said that De Jong's role in key wartime is much lower than the daily rhythm (everyone is calm and paced, De Jong will be more comfortable).
Opponents can choose to play with him, but De Jong himself does not have the ability to match, which makes him prone to problems in high-intensity matches.
02. 5 passes in a single game! But how much is De Jong's dribbling worth?
a. De Jong's passing: make up for the shortcomings with the speed of dribbling
From the statistics, it can be seen that De Jong has succeeded in all 5 passing attempts, 16 one-on-one confrontations and 13 successes, which has high efficiency.
However, the pass success rate is only 80%, which to some extent explains De Jong's strengths and weaknesses.
De Jong's characteristic when passing is still that he starts quickly. Therefore, De Jong's passing, most of which occur on the other side, there is only one defender who cannot fall head-on, and there is a large space for advancement behind him.
After De Jong starts with the ball, he chooses to slow down immediately because De Jong's passing ability is wrong on the ball. Slowing down helps him make better passes.
In a way, De Jong's dribbling is to make up for his lack of passing.
Looking at De Jong's starting speed this time, he often has to retreat to a more back position to catch the ball, which is conducive to his first start while finding a certain amount of depth.
The problem is that when the opponent stands firmly in front of him, De Jong will be a little embarrassed, because the quality of the pass is average, the ball can not be directly hardened head-on, the probability of losing the ball is really not small, and it is easy to lose his defensive position.
b. De Jong's in-place ball is not strong: it is embarrassing when it is under pressure
As you can see from the statistics, De Jong is the second player in Barca's team for the number of dribbles in advance, after Pedri.
However, De Jong has only carried the ball into the box six times, only one more than Roberto, who has played less than once. De Jong's most advanced area with the ball was in the centre circle with 54 attempts, behind Dembele and Rafinha.
In terms of the number of entries into the attacking zone, Pedri is first, Dembele is second, and De Jong is close behind.
De Jong defends head-on against his opponents, and he doesn't have much to do. De Jong's ball protection and escape are not strong, and once there is no depth space, he also loses the opportunity to dribble forward.
It was not a surprise that the ball was broken this time. Fortunately, De Jong himself chased back quite quickly, and there were teammates at the back, which did not cause any problems.
Looking at this round, after De Jong was labeled, his habit was to run into the "deep space".
Unable to turn around, De Jong "pushed in reverse", which was determined by his technical characteristics.
03. Is De Jong good at passing? The key is whether he stands firm or is running
a. De Jong has good passing footwork and good passing in place
From the number of goals brought in every 90 minutes by the players in possession and passing, it can be seen that Dembele is the first Barca to produce goals (0.82).
The highest midfield position parameter is Pedri, which also reached 0.5. De Jong's figure is 0.37, which is a big improvement over last season.
This is because De Jong's De Jong has been put in a relatively low position this season. After the opponent's attention was taken away by his teammates, De Jong, who was open on the outside, sent a pass in a large space with no one watching, and the quality was high.
In previous seasons, De Jong frequently entered the box, but he handled the ball deviation and was very inefficient. Therefore, offensive coaches like to put De Jong at the back, or even in the position of central defender, which is not an accident, or to let De Jong go to the outside to handle the ball and play the characteristics of good footwork.
b. Would De Jong be better off at Manchester United than at Barca?
Many people say that De Jong needs a double back teammate, but that person is not actually "wiping his ass" for De Jong, that back teammate does not need to defend better than De Jong, but pass and control the ball and defend the position better than him.
That's why Ajax use Schöne (he's more like Sergio Busquets), Busquets or Rakitic at Barca, and Belhaus, who once played as a winger in the Dutch national team, play at the back.
De Jong's most suitable positioning is not the organizer, but the space user around the organizer.
This time Busquets made a brilliant pass, and De Jong, who was vacant, could not keep up. But De Jong needs to have a propulsive core, or an attacking core in the 30-metre area up front. Let him initiate the last pass himself, the effect is too poor.
On the other hand, because De Jong's passing in sports battles is more general, he often continues to run without the ball after splitting the ball, playing a part of the covering role, requiring the receiver to have a strong ability to handle the ball.
This time Lewandowski couldn't turn around after taking the ball, and De Jong saw that he was broken, and did not immediately counter-grab, but spread his hands to express dissatisfaction, which is also a habitual problem of De Jong (after he has the ball to participate in the attack, he often does not retreat, only when asked to drag back, De Jong will be in position at high speed).
Conclusion:
Through the two-legged match against Manchester United, perhaps more people can understand De Jong's strengths and weaknesses. Will Ten Hag continue to buy his former lovers? This is indeed an intriguing question.
After all, in terms of the impact on victory and defeat, De Jong is even slightly inferior to Fred in direct position, which may not really be the result of Harvey's improper use.