Ten Hag wants to be reUnited with midfielder
FRENKIE de Jong and Erik ten Hag – a partnership that took Ajax to the Champions League semi-final in 2019 and the manager now wants a reunion with his former midfield general at Old Trafford.
The sticking point, however, is that De Jong is currently at his ‘dream club’ Barcelona. The Catalan club are believed to want to sell the midfielder due to their well-documented financial issues and to register new players but he does not want to leave and it doesn’t help the situation that United are not in the Champions League.
This means that Ten Hag will have to convince the player to join him at his new club. But the main question that many fans have is if De Jong can be convinced to join United, what can he offer the squad?
De Jong is a player who likes to be involved in all phases of the game; he likes to drop deep and receive the ball off defenders and then either pass it to another player or carry it up the field. This was the role he played while at Ajax and it is likely that this is what Ten Hag expects him to play at United, but at Barcelona, he hardly ever plays in that role, playing as a more advanced eight.
Since it has been three years since Ten Hag has managed De Jong, however, he may have had some doubts over whether the midfielder would still be able to perform his preferred role effectively. But if he watched the Netherlands fixture against Belgium he would see that he had no need to worry.
The Dutch midfielder played in his preferred role in Louis van Gaal’s 5-3-2 as a more defensive player who has a licence to carry the ball forward and influence the game.