After Martinez left the team, Barcelona central defenders were struggling and solving the problem of deploying troops. Is De Jong s retreat the answer?

The defensive coverage is limited and it is easy to be "bypassed" by the opponent

De Jong's defensive coverage is "local precision" and not "large-scale sweeping type". He is good at interception near the middle and right, but his coverage ability is weak on the left and front of the penalty area - as long as the opponent deliberately focuses the offense on the left, he can bypass De Jong's defensive range. For example, last season when Barcelona played against Bayern, Bayern deliberately put all the offense on the left, allowing Sane and Koeman to take turns to attack Ku and Brazil. De Jong wanted to make up for the defense but couldn't keep up, so he could only watch Bayern break through the defense line from the left. This is also the gap between him and Rodri: Rodri can cover the entire midfield, while De Jong's coverage is like "a circle with a radius of 10 meters". As long as the opponent runs out of this circle, he will be powerless. In the end, he will have to rely on the central defender to face the attack alone.

3. Conclusion: De Jong is a "more adaptable transition plan", but not the final answer

De Jong plays as a midfielder as a "general from a short man" - he is more in line with Barcelona's ball-handling tactics and can alleviate the problem of ball pressure on the defense line and the disconnection between the midfield, but in essence it is still "using the advantages of the midfield to cover up the disadvantages of the central defender" and has not solved the fundamental contradiction.

The premise that truly allows De Jorge to play the greatest role in the back midfield is that Barcelona first solves the central defender problem: either introduce a left-footed central defender and let Ku Brazil return to the right, and De Jorge does not have to be distracted from filling the left side; or change the three central defenders to let Araujo in the center and Ku Brazil return to the right side, and use the system to narrow down De Jorge's coverage shortcomings.

Before the central defender problem is solved, the best use of De Jong to play as a back midfielder is "targeted matching": for example, when playing against teams like Real Madrid and Manchester City, let him fix the back midfielder, match Gavey and Pedri, and use the combination of "De Jong possession + Gavey to supplement defense" to temporarily plug the loophole on the left; but when playing against teams like Villarreal and Celta that are good at high altitude balls, Christensen should still play as a guest midfielder to supplement the protection of high altitude balls.

After all, De Jong's positioning has never been a "defensive core", but a "offensive and defensive converter". If Barcelona wants to rely on him to solve the problem of central defender, it is like letting Messi play central defender - no matter how strong a player is, there are areas he is not good at.