Frenkie de Jong | The last muppeting lap

Frenkie to United?


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NewYorkRed

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Romero is out there claiming an agent has confirmed the deal, that's pretty fecking huge to report. I wonder if we are waiting for internationals to finish to announce? In case he gets injured :nervous:
Thats not what he said.
 

Offside

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Bunch of no mark Spanish journalists and sensationalist quotes from RT hungry aggregator accounts. There just isn’t enough behind this to convince me it’s not miles away from actually happening.
 

Andrew7582

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"An agent wrote to me that the process of fdj to MUFC has been activated"

If an agent is going that far to report to a journo, it's done.
Process has been activated just means the process has started, it doesn't mean it's done.
 

Adnan

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He didn't have a proper DM next to him at Ajax did he? He had Schone who is a box-to-box player. So Fred next to him could work.
I'm not sure what a proper DM is nowadays but Lasse Schone has played several roles for Ajax including on the wing. But he was first tried as a deep lying playmaker prior to ten Hag's arrival. I remember Peter Bosz trying him there, and ten Hag would later turn to Schone in a similar role to provide a defensive balance next to Frenkie de Jong.
 

AjaxCunian

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As happy as we were in 2020 woth Bruno's signing in hindsight, so happy should we be with Frenkie if we can get him.

With the right tactics, I genuinely believe he can be one of the best midfielders in the prem in no time.

If used properly, he also doesnt need a lot of time to adjust. He came in at Ajax / the Netherlands and shone from the very beginning. His class was just evident.
 

NoPace

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Not a chance. Fred has been a massive failure who has played well enough games for us already.

Bench player at best
Eh, he's alright in possession most of the time, runs hard and starts for Brazil for a reason. Could see him doing busy work next to FDJ in a midfield and pressing ahead of him when we're out of possession.

Fred has been disappointing, but he's a solid pro and has more 7/10 games than anyone in the squad outside of Cristiano, Bruno, Shaw and Varane (though Sancho should get there).

I could see FDJ holding and Fred and Van De Beek in front of him doing a decent job in midfield, if you think of us as an Ajax/Dutch team with Van De Beek as the Klassen type looking to get forward and Fred focused on tackling and breaking up play and having the agility to get open for forward passes from FDJ then getting it to Bruno and Sancho to make things happen.
 

Adam-Utd

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As happy as we were in 2020 woth Bruno's signing in hindsight, so happy should we be with Frenkie if we can get him.

With the right tactics, I genuinely believe he can be one of the best midfielders in the prem in no time.

If used properly, he also doesnt need a lot of time to adjust. He came in at Ajax / the Netherlands and shone from the very beginning. His class was just evident.
The speed and directness in England is what people struggle with.

Other leagues have a slower more tactical tempo, where as in England you have to keep it moving quickly. Otherwise you're dumped on your ass and they're running off with the ball.

If he can adapt to this and not try to dally on the ball too long he will be great.
 

city-puma

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I'm not sure what a proper DM is nowadays but Lasse Schone has played several roles for Ajax including on the wing. But he was first tried as a deep lying playmaker prior to ten Hag's arrival. I remember Peter Bosz trying him there, and ten Hag would later turn to Schone in a similar role to provide a defensive balance next to Frenkie de Jong.
My impression is that when people say we need a proper DM, they probably mean a destroyer type of midfielder. Maybe I interpret it wrong though.
 

therealtboy

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Bunch of no mark Spanish journalists and sensationalist quotes from RT hungry aggregator accounts. There just isn’t enough behind this to convince me it’s not miles away from actually happening.
If these same guys said it was over and wasn't happening, you'd believe them though.
 

Blood Mage

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I'm not sure what a proper DM is nowadays but Lasse Schone has played several roles for Ajax including on the wing. But he was first tried as a deep lying playmaker prior to ten Hag's arrival. I remember Peter Bosz trying him there, and ten Hag would later turn to Schone in a similar role to provide a defensive balance next to Frenkie de Jong.
I mean a player who shields the back four and doesn't venture forward too often, a Rodri/Fabinho/Busquets type of player.
 

Hernandez - BFA

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I watched this earlier today. One to get the Muppets going...

My gosh that Suarez goal around 1:30 was delightful.

Donny and Frenkie would have a whale of a time together - Donny does those exact sort of cute passes, and yet no one seems to be on his wavelength.
 

Adnan

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I mean a player who shields the back four and doesn't venture forward too often, a Rodri/Fabinho/Busquets type of player.
That was Lasse Schone at Ajax, which allowed Frenkie de Jong more leeway to create.

Having Frenkie de Jong as the most defensive midfielder in a high line in the EPL is very dangerous and would also handicap de Jong from showing his full repertoire. So I think ten Hag will go for the double pivot in midfield with de Jong as the conductor in possession and the other deeper midfielder being the one who provides the positional discipline out of possession.
 

caid

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That was Lasse Schone at Ajax, which allowed Frenkie de Jong more leeway to create.

Having Frenkie de Jong as the most defensive midfielder in a high line in the EPL is very dangerous and would also handicap de Jong from showing his full repertoire. So I think ten Hag will go for the double pivot in midfield with de Jong as the conductor in possession and the other deeper midfielder being the one who provides the positional discipline out of possession.
I dont think we have that player in the squad. I think thats probably the ideal scenario but think as is he'll be playing with Fred most weeks and might need to be more disciplined than ideal. Or maybe we'll play a back 3 that idea has been floated around a bit. That might give us some freedom with midfield choices.
 

TsuWave

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If we do get him, we’ll need to sign the adequate support for him in midfield otherwise this will go awkwardly bad. we don’t have a proper ball winner/workhorse

and no Kante is not the guy
 

Adnan

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I dont think we have that player in the squad. I think thats probably the ideal scenario but think as is he'll be playing with Fred most weeks and might need to be more disciplined than ideal. Or maybe we'll play a back 3 that idea has been floated around a bit. That might give us some freedom with midfield choices.
I think in such a scenario, one of the fullbacks would likely tuck in to provide a defensive balance, and thus maintain structure against the opposition transition.
 

Blood Mage

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That was Lasse Schone at Ajax, which allowed Frenkie de Jong more leeway to create.

Having Frenkie de Jong as the most defensive midfielder in a high line in the EPL is very dangerous and would also handicap de Jong from showing his full repertoire. So I think ten Hag will go for the double pivot in midfield with de Jong as the conductor in possession and the other deeper midfielder being the one who provides the positional discipline out of possession.
If Schone did indeed play that role at Ajax it gives me hope that Ten Hag can coach one of our midfielders to do it also because he wasn't a natural no.6 at all. He played on the wing before being moved into midfield I think.
 

Red the Bear

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I would always get excited when you post this stuff, you should be banned from posting any transfer unrelated tweets, very disappointing when i click on and there is no tweet to add to the hype :D
 
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Adnan

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If Schone did indeed play that role at Ajax it gives me hope that Ten Hag can coach one of our midfielders to do it also because he wasn't a natural no.6 at all. He played on the wing before being moved into midfield I think.
He did play as a winger but he was naturally good under pressure and had the ability to retain possession in tight situations. And from what I've read, his reading of the game and positional awareness was also good, hence him being tried as a deep lying play-maker/DM.

It'll be interesting to see what midfield combination ten Hag goes with, if we only sign de Jong. But I think we might sign a additional midfielder along with de Jong. And it's been reported that we're in the market for two midfielders.
 

ti vu

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I mean a player who shields the back four and doesn't venture forward too often, a Rodri/Fabinho/Busquets type of player.
If we do get him, we’ll need to sign the adequate support for him in midfield otherwise this will go awkwardly bad. we don’t have a proper ball winner/workhorse

and no Kante is not the guy
If you get that player, then you better not paying for FdJ. The issue FdJ has at Barcelona is Busquet, occupying the area he prefers to position majority of time beside some here and then adventure forward. With FdJ his partner may need to has defensive tactical awareness, but they should be the type that just sit there and get in the way. Rice, Kante, Fred... is the profile of midfielder that would work with FdJ on the theory if you want to a ball winner.

Else you just partner him with another technician and another advanced midfielder that have workrate (DvB for Ajax), and press as an unit. Playing 3 at the back with a CB push higher tucked in as pseudo midfielder. Using numerical advantage in midfield as defensive mechanism.
 
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TsuWave

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If you get that player, then you better not paying for FdJ. The issue FdJ has at Barcelona is Busquet. With FdJ his partner may need to has defensive tactical awareness, but they should be the type that just sit there and get in the way. Rice, Kante, Fred... is the profile of midfielder that would work with FdJ on the theory if you want to a ball winner.

Else you just partner him with another technician and another advanced midfielder that have workrate (DvB for Ajax), and press as an unit. Playing 3 at the back with a CB push higher tucked in as pseudo midfielder. Using numerical advantage in midfield as defensive mechanism.
I don't know what you're trying to say here, I just know Kante is not the signing United should be making
 

Irwin99

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So he's a midfielder kind of like Jorginho, Alonso, Carrick who would benefit from a good ball winner beside him (Kante, Mascherano, Fletcher).

I'm pretty excited to have a metronome midfielder that goes looking for the ball :drool:
 

ti vu

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I don't know what you're trying to say here, I just know Kante is not the signing United should be making
Kante is at the wrong stage of his career for us to sign him. What I am saying is that instead of an anchoring DM like Rodrigo, Busquet; the profile of Kante is more complementary to FdJ.

However, it's not a must. The way people put it, you would think FdJ need a babysitter partner. In reality, he only needs a filler midfielder who is capable pf situational awareness to cover space when FdJ decide to advent forward, or simply get out of the way when FdJ decides to drop in between the defensive line to build up.

Ideally you want to upgrade, but it's not awkward for FdJ to be the only midfielder signing in this transfer window.
 

Ted Lasso

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He plays as a ball winning 8 for Brazil, his responsibility is to win the ball back and give to Neymar, Casemiro, Fabinho, etc. For us, in the McFred configuration, he is relied upon as a distributor. He’s a pretty inaccurate passer of the ball, and not particularly creative. I like him as one of a midfield 3 if he’s an attack dog. Otherwise, he’s a squad player. A bit undisciplined to be a pure 6.
The simplest analysis for me is looking at the midfield trio ETH had with Ajax a few seasons ago:

Donny
Frenkie
Schone

If we employ the same exact formula or even one like it, that probably puts Bruno most advanced and Fred alongside FDJ. I think that would be a pretty effective and balanced midfield for the majority of premier league games.

Add a proper winger and fullback and we could have a team very capable of vying for 3rd place even if Ronaldo doesn't have an understudy.

Splurge and get a couple more quality players in...maybe runners up. Time will tell if ETH can get any team, regardless of money spent close to the consistent 90+ points needed to be title challengers. That's an exceptional and unthinkable place tbf and will require ETH being one of the top managers of this generation.
 

ti vu

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So he's a midfielder kind of like Jorginho, Alonso, Carrick who would benefit from a good ball winner beside him (Kante, Mascherano, Fletcher).

I'm pretty excited to have a metronome midfielder that goes looking for the ball :drool:
Yes. The profile of partner you list is similar to what I think. Disagree on comparison to Jorginho, Alonso, Carrick though. From my own perspective of all players I have been able to watch a dozen or more each season when they're active with "context", his dribbling stylistically is similar to Modric. However, his preference to be involved in the deep build up and using small interchange, dribbling to progress the ball to final third is more comparable to Redondo (a very unique player, who does everything and looks as if he runs and dominates the midfield all by himself).

He's another unique player in this DLP no.6 profile. Jorginho, Alonso and Carrick strength is more about switching play, medium, long pass to beat pressing. FdJ is about inviting pressure, then cut through in the thick of it (Has passing range too, but much less reliant on it)
 
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roseguy64

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Could one of those economic deals not be selling De Jong?
Doubtful. They need to sell to bring in new players regardless of them bringing in funds outside of transfers to alleviate their debt. From my previous understanding of the La Liga rules, their bad position in terms of wages and transfers isn't fully fixed yet. They're not in the position Madrid are who don't need to sell to buy. Barca needs to free up wages and bring in transfer funds to be able to register players.
 

TsuWave

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Kante is at the wrong stage of his career for us to sign him. What I am saying is that instead of an anchoring DM like Rodrigo, Busquet; the profile of Kante is more complementary to FdJ.

However, it's not a must. The way people put it, you would think FdJ need a babysitter partner. In reality, he only needs a filler midfielder who is capable pf situational awareness to cover space when FdJ decide to advent forward, or simply get out of the way when FdJ decides to drop in between the defensive line to build up.

Ideally you want to upgrade, but it's not awkward for FdJ to be the only midfielder signing in this transfer window.
I don’t think he needs a babysitter partner, but I do think we need an upgrade and a certified ball winner/energetic workhorse. I also didn’t say we need an anchor, so I was confused by your initial reply. My exclusion of Kante is due to, much like you said, being at the wrong stage of his career and I also believe players with his mileage are likely to start encountering more injuries, it wasn’t due to his profile.
 

ti vu

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I don’t think he needs a babysitter partner, but I do think we need an upgrade and a certified ball winner/energetic workhorse. I also didn’t say we need an anchor, so I was confused by your initial reply. My exclusion of Kante is due to, much like you said, being at the wrong stage of his career and I also believe players with his mileage are likely to start encountering more injuries, it wasn’t due to his profile.
That's the other response to another poster I quoted.

Our difference is on how urgent we see the need to upgrade "the partner" in this window. Else I think we're on same page
 
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