Bundesliga-winning manager Christoph Daum doesn’t believe Jeremie Frimpong is ready for the Bundesliga after signing from Celtic.
The Dutchman made the shock move from Parkhead to Bayer Leverkusen last week. It’s been reported that the figure involved was £11.5million [Scottish Sun].
Jeremie arrives in Germany after regular first-team exposure with Celtic over the last year-and-a-half. Frimpong left Parkhead with 51 outings to his name [Transfermarkt], including his first-ever Europa League group-stage campaign.
Yet despite making his first waves in football at Parkhead, Daum, who won the Bundesliga as Stuttgart manager in 1992, doesn’t think Frimpong’s ready to star with Bayer just yet.
As quoted by the Scottish Sun, Daum said the following: “It will be a great place for him to learn because Leverkusen are excellent for young players with potential. With Peter Bosz, he will have an excellent coach who will educate him and be by his side.
“I spoke to Leverkusen’s scouting department and they told me Frimpong is a player with high potential. But he is not ready for the Bundesliga yet, so it’s a future investment. You see this a lot now — betting on the future. If this player really develops then, suddenly, they will ask for four or five times the fee.
“From what I’ve seen of Frimpong, he wants to sort everything just with his speed of movement. There are still a lot of things to learn about positioning and how he scans his surroundings.”
Daum right about everything; Frimpong still has some way to go before he’s Bundesliga quality
I’m not going to turn this into a “well he was rotten anyway” piece. Frimpong’s potential is absolutely frightening, and much of it does indeed come from his pace.
However, Daum is spot on. He relies too much on it. When it comes to his final ball he’s still woefully short. That’s backed up by the fact that Jeremie only has eight assists in his senior career so far [Transfermarkt]. When he gets into those key areas, he seldom picks out a team-mate.
That’s something he must improve on massively if he’s to make it in the Bundesliga – a league renowned for its efficiency.
Jeremie will also have to improve his defensive one-v-ones along with his positioning. At Celtic, he could often be allowed to be high up the pitch whilst teams were countering. But against higher-quality opponents, Frimpong can’t allow Bundesliga wingers to be getting in behind him.
It’s going to be a totally different ball game for him in Leverkusen. Goodness knows how long it will actually take before manager Peter Bosz throws him in regularly. He still has a fair bit to learn before he can be trusted at that level.
But hopefully, in the long-term, he absolutely smashes it. Frimpong continues to be a exciting young talent, and he’s probably in the best league in world football when it comes to developing those kinds of players.
In other news, Celtic reportedly considered a move for a 62-cap USA international before pushing for Jonjoe Kenny.
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