Ernesto Valverde Praises Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong After Vissel Kobe Victory in Japan

?Barcelona manager Ernesto Valverde praised new summer signings Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong following his side’s 2-0 friendly victory over Vissel Kobe on Saturday.

Los Cules rounded off their summer tour of Japan with a comfortable win over the J1 League side at the Misaki Park Stadium, where they came up against a familiar face in club legend Andres Iniesta.

Young winger Carles Perez may have scored twice, but Valverde also found time to praise a few of Barcelona’s new recruits. Speaking as quoted by Sport after the match, 55-year-old Valverde was clearly impressed by what he saw from De Jong.

He said: “Today he played in a different position to the other day. He played more as an interior and Sergi Roberto as the holding player. 

“We have the chance now to test him in both positions. He’s really good on the ball and he arrives into some good positions further forward. We’re lucky he can play in both roles. We’ll keep an eye on it. We can rotate him between the positions, he offers a lot of solutions.”

The former Athletic Club manager was similarly impressed by Griezmann’s efforts, adding: “The good players always understand things easily. We’ll see later on how well he links up with others. We have a lot of hope with him and that it’ll work. He moves quickly and finds space really well. He’s a player we needed.”

?Barcelona fans will be encouraged by their manager’s comments ahead of the new La Liga campaign, as they look to bounce back from their Champions League disappointment of last season.

The reigning La Liga champions have enjoyed a productive transfer window with prolific French forward Griezmann and highly rated Dutch midfielder De Jong arriving from Atletico Madrid and Ajax respectively. 

The Catalan giants will be hoping their new recruits can continue to impress in pre-season, with ?Arsenal and ?Napoli still to play before La Liga action returns in August.  

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