Van der Vaart: “De Jong is like Kimmich, but better”

The former Dutch international recalls that the Barça player “is not a forward nor will he be” and affirms that “he does not give up against minor teams”

Rafael van der Vaart believes that Frenkie de Jong should be evaluated differently when he plays for Barça than when he does in the Netherlands. In Barcelona, ​​the midfielder has received frequent criticism but Van der Vaart emphasizes that (De Jong) should be judged less as a “scorer or No. 10 because he is not. The discussion is over. They should be compared to Bayern’s Kimmich.” but he’s even better. ”

Van Gaal’s team won 6-0 against Gibraltar on Monday. Van der Vaart indicates in De Telegraaf that he paid special attention to De Jong during this match: “Once again, he was not brilliant.” According to the former ‘orange’ international, De Jong does not perform when he faces lesser rivals and that is not surprising. “Frenkie has a hard time against small opponents because they don’t leave spaces. That is why he is not in his best moment at sixteen meters and unfortunately he will never become a true scoring midfielder, I am afraid ”.

“The problem is that Frenkie plays football too well to be No. 6 or 8 and therefore we expect even more from him because he also has the fine technique of a classic No. 10,” he concludes. According to the former footballer, the classic number ten is no longer at Ajax like when he and Wesley Sneijder were there. “Although it has been a long time since you can train a true forward, the classic ten, the guys who can create and score, are often on the flanks in modern football. Look at Messi and Neymar. “