Why Flick played Frenkie de Jong at full-back instead of Balde

This is the conversation between the German and the Dutchman.

There it is, Flick's hand gesture. He later acknowledged this conversation at a press conference.

Now we're going to listen to it and focus on De Jong, because he accepts the instruction, the message is clear to him and now he discusses it with the bench.

And there's a little, a little laugh, right?

From, from Frenkie de Jong. And, and let's focus on the academy players, because after, after De Jong, uh, says he's going to play at right back, we see that conversation there.

What? Right back? And of course, this affects or could directly affect the person in the middle, Alejandro Balde, who is a left back.

And we might think: Hey, he could have brought on Balde on the left and put Cancelo on the right instead of bringing on Frenkie de Jong.

The smile quickly fades from your face, the one that says, “Yeah, damn, of course, maybe maybe it gets under good old Balde’s skin a little.”

But I actually think it made perfect sense.

I think it made perfect sense, because in the end, what Flick was looking for there was someone who, who could have the ball in the middle of the pitch.

And for Frenkie de Jong to lose the ball, uh, well, you have to pray to every saint.

And he's a fullback who tucks inside a lot.

So, it made perfect sense to me for it to be De Jong.