Frenkie de Jong hit back at critics by saying many people do not understand football, and he defended the passing choices that have drawn so much scrutiny. The Barcelona midfielder also pushed back on the idea that he rarely plays through passes, saying the game and the moment decide whether the ball should go through.
“I have the feeling that many people don’t understand anything about football. They watch it, but they don’t understand it, so to speak. That’s not a bad thing, because it allows everyone to talk about it, but it’s the truth.”
De Jong and the passing debate
De Jong went further on the specific criticism that he does not give through passes. “I hear people say that I don’t give through passes, but that’s not true. They’re just not paying attention to the game. It depends on the game, but also on the moment. You can play the through pass, but in some situations it will always end up at the goalkeeper. Yes, I think some people find it hard to understand it. Maybe I should sit with them sometime. It also depends on the moment itself. If someone runs or not, how is he running.”
That answer matters because the argument is not about whether he can pass. It is about when a pass is on, and when forcing it simply hands possession away. For a midfielder judged on control and tempo, those margins decide how a game looks from the stands and how it looks from the pitch.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on Barcelona
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink offered a different view. “He is a very good player. He is one of the main Dutch players and very important to the Netherlands national team.” He also placed him “a little bit behind Declan Rice” and said that, from what he has seen, De Jong sometimes needs to move the ball a little quicker and holds onto it a little too long for his liking.
Hasselbaink still called him “a top, top quality player who understands the game really, really well.” He added that De Jong is “an Ajax player at heart,” and said the move to Barcelona always made sense. “If you can make it at Barcelona, you’re always going to want to stay there as long as possible. Whatever club comes for you after that, it’s very difficult to find another step up or a bigger club. So I think for him, it was always going to be Barcelona.”
Barcelona and Ajax history
The background to that view is straightforward. De Jong has spent seven years at Barcelona, made 297 appearances and won three La Liga titles, while Manchester United made several attempts to sign him and came away empty-handed. The link back to Ajax runs through Johan Cruyff, which helps explain why Hasselbaink sees those clubs as connected in the way they develop and value midfielders.
For De Jong, the public argument now sits in two places at once: praise for his level, and criticism of his tempo. He has answered the first part already. The second is still the one that will follow him every time he takes an extra touch.
