It’s expected Manchester United will make a second bid for Barcelona ’s Frenkie de Jong this week.
The Red Devils made an initial offer of €60million (£51.3m) plus a potential €10m (£8.6m) in add-ons last week, only for this to be rejected by the Catalan club. It’s anticipated United will make a second bid thought to be in the region of €70m (£60.1m) plus add-ons for the 25-year-old.
Barcelona’s difficult financial situation means they may be forced to sell the Dutchman in order to free up funds to strengthen other areas of their squad. However, it’s not yet clear whether United’s potential second bid will meet Barcelona’s valuation.
While negotiations continue, United fans are growing increasingly concerned at their side’s lack of business in the summer window and there’s fear that this lengthy pursuit of De Jong could still yet prove to be unsuccessful.
Bringing in at least one new midfielder is a well-publicised priority for the club and they can’t risk a long chase that could end in a failure to address this major squad deficiency. It would therefore be wise for the club to start the process of exploring other options - and one standout alternative to De Jong would be his Dutch compatriot Teun Koopmeiners.
Koopmeiners rose to prominence at AZ Alkmaar. Initially a product of their youth academy, he thrived in the heart of their midfield in the years that followed and, by the time he departed for Atalanta last summer, he was the club’s captain and had already established himself within the Dutch national side at the age of 23.
He was previously linked with a move to the Premier League, with United one of the clubs tipped to make a move, but it was Serie A side Atalanta who took the plunge, parting with €14m (£12m) to land him. That now looks a bargain and the Italian outfit are sure to make a big profit on the midfielder if and when they decide to sell.
That could be this summer and he’s the type of player who should be on United’s radar, especially given the Red Devils came up against him twice in the Champions League last season.
While Koopmeiners isn’t a carbon copy of De Jong in terms of a profile and playing style, there are plenty of similarities between the two. Like De Jong, one of Koopmeiners’ best traits is his technical ability.
While doesn’t tend to dribble as well as De Jong through the lines, he makes up for that with an ability to play a wide range of piercing forward passes. He finished the last campaign having averaged 9.49 progressive passes per 90. For comparison, De Jong averaged just 6.38. Team tactics would have played a part in those numbers, but it’s still an impressive average for Koopmeiners.
What complements his passing artillery is his ability to create space for himself in even the most congested areas of the pitch. He takes excellent progressive touches that often allow him to evade opposition tackles, making him very press-resistant on the ball.
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Although the 24-year-old tends to play in deeper positions on the pitch, his ability to pop up with goals shouldn’t be underrated. He’s got a lethal shot from distance, as highlighted by his goal against Wales for Netherlands last week, but he’s also great at making late runs into the penalty area from deep when given license to do so.
He scored four goals for Atalanta last season and a remarkable 17 for AZ in the campaign before that. However, that total was boosted by taking a large portion of his side’s set-pieces.
Although Koopmeiners’ ability to contribute with the ball is obvious, his numbers from a defensive point of view look a little unremarkable from last season. The 6ft midfielder was one of the more dominant in the Eridiversie without the ball, yet in Serie A he finished with a success rate of below 50 per cent in defensive duels. That ranked inside the lower quartile for all Serie A midfielders in his position and indicates he’d perhaps need a more robust partner alongside him at United.
Overall though, Koopmeiners is an ideal alternative to De Jong. He can have the same sort of influence on the ball, is slightly younger and would undoubtedly cost less than the Barcelona man.
