Barcelona and Frenkie filleted in Spanish media: ‘His game was unacceptable’

The story before the match was that it was not De Jong, but Pedri and Gavi who played alongside Sergio Busquets in the Catalan midfield. The sports world described a changing of the guard. ‘It was special that Xavi chose to do this, since De Jong was long seen as the player who had to give color to the reconstruction of Barcelona. That role now seems to be reserved for Pedri and Gavi, but not yet against Bilbao. Athletic was superior and deserved to continue.”

AS even put the blame for the defeat for a large part on De Jong, who came in after an hour. ‘The failure of players like Ter Stegen, Alba and Frenkie outweighed the miracles Pedri occasionally performed. Frenkie played an unacceptable game and did not have the right attitude when he came onto the field. Maybe it bothered him that he had to start as a substitute, but the Dutchman didn’t show Xavi that it should have been otherwise.’

Also Mark pointed the playmaker from Arkel as one of the culprits. ‘De Jong showed why he is no longer untouchable for Xavi, because he was not constant and the necessary passes failed. Now Barcelona can no longer defend the Copa del Rey title they won last year. The club was doing itself a disservice.’ The bouncer comes from AS. “Barcelona had no idea what they were doing and only luckily stayed in the game for a while.”