Barcelona finally clinched their first victory of the new La Liga season. And while it was certainly an impressive victory for the Catalans, their newcomer star Frenkie de Jong didn't really have a game to remember. That happened for a simple reason: he was played out of position.

On the chalkboard

It was quite a spectacular night for Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Ernesto Valverde deployed a lineup without Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez or Ousmane Dembele, all of whom were out with an injury. Instead, we saw a much different, younger, less experienced but still hungry Blaugrana.

And while Antoine Griezmann and the young La Masia graduates Ansu Fati and Carles Perez caught the eye, the spotlight was somewhat taken away from De Jong. The young Dutchman started the game on the left side of the midfield trident and despite having a decent game, he was uncharacteristically quiet by the standards he set at Ajax - driving them to last season's Champions League semi-finals.

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This doesn't mean he gave a particularly bad performance but he wasn't able to express himself fully or the way he probably wanted to. All of that was caused by a relatively new and unknown role and despite Barcelona winning the game comfortably, there's still a feeling that De Jong was underutilised by not being fielded in the defensive midfielder position which he took up 42 times for Ajax last season.

Back to the original

On the night, the Dutchman still managed to rack up 95% passing accuracy, which was to be expected, but he was not hugely involved. As a matter of fact, he had fewer touches than any other outfield Barcelona player in that clash as he only tallied 73. Looking at his heatmap from the game, we can see that he was, in fact, used as a make-shift winger of sorts, which is definitely an area he should be operating in.

As a result, other than participating in the build-up and sending long balls, De Jong hardly had an impact he would have hoped for; no key passes and just one dribble as opposed to being among the players with most touches in the game against Athletic Bilbao, the one he played as the team's pivot.

In addition to that, when playing in his natural position, he tallied 4/4 ground duels and six recoveries of possession while this wide role didn't give him as much to show for with only three recoveries and 3/7 won ground duels.

Valverde would be wise to revert De Jong back to his roots and back to the original blueprint if he wants to get the best out of him. Of course, even when he was played out of position, the young midfielder still managed to perform to a respectable standard but it's a far cry from what he can potentially provide for Barcelona at the base of the engine room.

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