The coach has demanded more goals from his midfielders earlier this season and De Jong has delivered, especially in recent weeks, as he collected four already in this season.
Barcelona need Frenkie de Jong
Ronald Koeman is happy with Frenkie de Jong’s recent performances and believes he plays the best football of his career. The coach has demanded more goals from his midfielders earlier this season and De Jong has delivered, especially in recent weeks, as he collected four already in this season. “We need him,” Koeman said. “We need the midfielders to be offensive. Frenkie has a lot of technical quality and helps from deep. We talked to him about helping attack and scoring more than one goal this season. He is a complete player now than when he played for Ajax. He creates more and scores more.”
The team got a lot of points
January was a tough month for the Catalans, they played a lot of their games away from home, but Koeman is happy with how things went. “It has been a difficult month,” he said. “There were a lot of away games and trips. There were eight games. The team showed their mentality to face this difficult month. We deserve to win the games. We got a lot of points. It’s too bad about the Supercopa de Espana final, but we are back for the best in the LaLiga.” At Vallecas, the Dutchman was pleased despite the difficulties his side faced, mostly when they fell behind. “We played our game and played well,” Koeman said. “The opponents did well, but we created some clear chances. We reacted well after the descent and could have scored more goals. But the important thing is that we progressed.”
“There was also a penalty that was not given. We played well and made it difficult.” Barcelona are back in action against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. “When you win, you’re not so tired,” Koeman explained. “The results give us confidence. Everything will be fine on Sunday.