De Jong the ONLY Barca star to apologise to away supporters after Granada defeat

Barcelona extended their poor start to the season, losing 2-0 away to La Liga leaders Granada on Saturday.

Pressure is mounting on under-fire boss Ernesto Valverde as the Nou Camp faithful grow impatient with their under performing stars, in light of the fact that the Catalan giants have spent big money this summer on the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Frenkie de Jong.

And it was the latter player who caught the attention of fans following their most recent defeat, after the 22-year-old appeared to be the only member of the team who went to apologise to the travelling support for their disappointing performance.

The former Ajax star has been the target of fans' frustrations given his slow start to life at his new club, but the talented midfielder was keen to make his feelings clear to supporters.

ESPN's Barcelona correspondent tweeted: 'De Jong not only Barça's best player tonight (not hard) but also their most responsible. Only player to go & apologise to travelling fans & first to talk in the mixed zone.'

Following the game, de Jong said he will work hard to improve in central midfield.

He said: 'This (central midfield) is a simple position on the pitch and in the next matches I will do better.

'I have to adapt and I have talked with Valverde about football issues and we have watched videos. The coach should not ask me where I prefer to play, as he is the coach and he decides.

'At Ajax and with the [Netherlands] national team I played in central midfield, but it is different because we played with a double pivot.

'Against Real Betis and Osasuna I played wider and if I didn't play well then it was my fault. People began to debate about my position, asking if I had to play here or there, and it seemed crazy.'

Valverde admitted his concern over his side's poor away form. They are winless from their first four away games of the season.

'I'm worried because away from home we aren't getting good results,' Valverde said. 'When four away games have gone by, it's a symptom that something isn't too good.

'There are players who arrived late, but we haven't been good, we're not playing well away. We dominated, but we don't turn that into goalscoring chances.

'We haven't had a chance of turning the game around. We're missing precision in the final third, they tried to press us.

'We came out well from the pressure and then it was a matter of adding the finishing touch, that's where we went wrong. We will try to improve.'

The positive news for Barca is the return of their star man Lionel Messi. The Argentinian magician was a second half substitute on Saturday, and it is hoped that Barcelona's form will take a turn for the better as a result.