Barcelona will get one of their best players back for this weekend’s La Liga clash with Real Betis as Hansi Flick confirmed that Frenkie de Jong will be in the squad and could even play some minutes at La Cartuja on Saturday.
Frenkie missed the first two months of the season recovering from a knee injury sustained in the World Cup, and Flick is very excited to add one more high-quality piece to what is already a very deep squad.
“Everyone knows Frenkie is a top player. I’m very happy he’s back and
available; he gives us a new option. We’ll have to see how he progresses. Everything seems fine, even in training. I think he’s ready to play some minutes.
“”We haven’t trained him much at center back, mostly in five-on-five drills where he plays more defensively. In training, I see that he’s very focused and 100% convinced he wants to show how good he is, and that’s a very good situation. He’s a top player and gives us another option, which is good.
“It’s not easy managing this situation of balancing so many players, but this is better. For now, with the quality on the bench, it forces those who start to give 100%; nobody rests, and everyone is focused on giving their all.”
I am personally fascinated to see how Frenkie fits in with the new reality of Barça’s midfield since the arrival of Rodri has already changed the outlook of the central area so much.
De Jong will in theory be able to play his best position as a deep-lying, playmaking number 8 with slightly fewer defensive responsibilities, and the prospect of a Rodri-Frenkie-Pedri midfield for maximum control in big games is a very exciting new potential tool for Flick to use in the coming months.
It was also interesting to see Flick downplay the whole “Frenkie center-back” narrative by clarifying he only tried De Jong in that position in specific training situations and five-a-side games, so it seems like the coach still sees Frenkie as a midfielder — which is good and correct.
