{"id":1237586,"date":"2021-12-12T18:05:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T18:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1237586"},"modified":"2021-12-12T18:09:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T18:09:12","slug":"osasuna-2-2-barcelona-luuk-de-jong","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/osasuna-2-2-barcelona-luuk-de-jong\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona might have made the worst loan signing in Europe this season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src='\/\/asset.fwcdn2.com\/js\/storyblock.js'><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/script><br \/>\n<fw-storyblock channel=\"squawka\" playlist=\"5L00K5\" mode=\"pinned\" autoplay=\"autoplay\"><\/fw-storyblock><\/p>\n<p><strong>Luuk de Jong really struggled for Barcelona as they drew 2-2 away to Osasuna in La Liga.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The result stopped the Blaugrana from gaining points in a crucial race for a top four place, putting their Champions League qualification in jeapardy just days after they were eliminated from this season&#8217;s Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>And while there were a few players who disappointed, notably Coutinho in his brief but ridiculous cameo, none were more of a letdown than Luuk de Jong.<\/p>\n<p>The striker was a late loan signing at the behest of Ronald Koeman and never seemed a good fit with Barcelona, and as such Xavi had barely used him so far this season.<\/p>\n<p>Before today&#8217;s game, De Jong&#8217;s only appearance since Koeman was sacked was an 8 minute cameo against Betis a week ago. He&#8217;s just not been an option, which could be because he&#8217;s only at the club on loan.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n\n<hr \/>\n<p>This weekend, however, he not only started but played the full 90 minutes. Memphis Depay&#8217;s injury forced Xavi to try and plug a square peg into a round hole and unsurprisingly, De Jong&#8217;s squareness yet again hampered his and Barcelona&#8217;s effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Despite playing as the team&#8217;s striker, De Jong had 0 shots on target (0 shots in total) off 3 touches in the opponent&#8217;s area, completed just 9\u00a0 passes in the final third and, while he did win 5\/8 aerial duels and make 4 clearances, his non-presence as an offensive threat was notable.<\/p>\n<p>Even the chances he creates were results of him making the wrong decision and his team-mates bailing him out with a shot. Time and again he panicked in possession and gave the ball away, killing attacks with indecision.<\/p>\n<p>Memphis Depay has struggled at times for Barcelona this season, but Luuk de Jong&#8217;s performances this season in general (he has just 2 shots on target all campaign) and under Xavi in particular have made his compatriot look excellent in comparison.<\/p>\n<p>It was strange that Ronald Koeman insisted on signing De Jong. It&#8217;s a shame for the striker who isn&#8217;t bad, but a bad fit with Barcelona. Still though, you can see why the Blaugrana would be interested in signing a striker in January. They need a goalscorer to spark them to life under Xavi and based on the Osasuna game, that won&#8217;t be Luuk de Jong.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1143742\" style=\"width: 1930px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/football-supports-black-lives-matter-movement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1143742\" class=\"wp-image-1143742 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures.png\" alt=\"Black Lives Matter in football\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures.png 1920w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-66x37.png 66w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-620x350.png 620w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-940x530.png 940w, https:\/\/media.squawka.com\/images\/en\/2020\/06\/02123223\/1143703_1143703_black-lives-matter-gestures-1200x675.png 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1143742\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Black Lives Matter:<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/football-supports-black-lives-matter-movement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more about the cause footballers are taking the knee for<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luuk de Jong really struggled for Barcelona as they drew 2-2 away to Osasuna in La Liga. The result stopped the Blaugrana from gaining points in a crucial race for a top four place, putting their Champions League qualification in jeapardy just days after they were eliminated from this season&#8217;s Champions League. And while there&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":1237600,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Barcelona might have made the worst loan signing in Europe this season","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Luuk de Jong really struggled for Barcelona as they drew 2-2 away to Osasuna in La Liga.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1237586","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Barcelona might have made the worst loan signing in Europe this season<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Luuk de Jong really struggled for Barcelona as they drew 2-2 away to Osasuna in La Liga.\" 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