da realbet： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
da cassino online： Frenkie de Jong became a household name last term.
The 22-year-old was an integral part of of Erik ten Hag’s Ajax side that made it to the Champions League semi-finals, playing 51 games in all competitions. He also appeared for the Netherlands as they made it to the UEFA Nations League final, which they lost against Portugal.
As such, he was snapped up by Barcelona for £65m earlier this year, with the Catalan giants paying him a net salary of €10m (£8.57m) a year – that works out at around £165,000-a-week.
It could have been all so different according to Tim Sherwood though. The former Tottenham Hotspur boss said on The Analysis Show (via talkSPORT) that Jurgen Klopp turned down the chance to sign him when he was still playing for the Dutch club. He said:
“I know that there was a couple of players that were offered to Jurgen Klopp. Frenkie de Jong, the boy from Ajax, who ended up going to Barcelona, who is a more controlled, cultured player.”
Quite where the 50-year-old got this information from is up for debate, but if true, it was a big call from the former Borussia Dortmund manager. The youngster had an average Eredivisie WhoScored rating of 7.54 last term, whilst he also managed above seven in the Champions League as well.
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However, there is one reason why the decision now looks like a sound one: Fabinho.
This season the eight-time Brazil international has made the defensive midfield spot his own, starting ten matches in the Premier League. Although de Jong has been predominantly used as a central midfield this term, he mainly played in a deeper role in the previous campaign, and even this time around, he has taken up a similar position on the field to the former AS Monaco man, as the two heat-maps below indicate.
£76.5m-valued de Jong – as per Transfermarkt – is a master passer. He averaged a 91.1% pass accuracy in the league last season compared to Fabinho’s 86.6% this campaign, whilst he also averaged 1.5 key passes compared to 1.2 and two dribbles per games to 0.6.
However, the 26-year-old Liverpool man is asked to do more of a job defensively rather than further forward. Klopp has even nicknamed him “Dyson”, in honour of the popular vacuum cleaner.
He does this more effectively than the former de Godenzonen man. He has averaged 2.4 tackles per game this term, compared to de Jong’s 1.7 in the same position last season. Although the Barcelona man is an impressive player, his style of play doesn’t quite suit the Merseyside team’s philosophy. Klopp made the correct decision by deciding against taking him to Anfield.