How Barcelona can replace Sergio Busquets as midfielder enters twilight of his career

Barca Universal 15:27 26/12/2019
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  • Barcelona’s decade started with a young core from the famous La Masia taking Spanish and European football by storm. However, as 2020 draws to a close, those youngsters have turned into men with some already having retired from the game.

    Meanwhile, the likes of Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and even Leo Messi aren’t getting any younger and are approaching the twilight of their career. This article analyses how Barcelona can replace Busquets going forward, with the defensive midfielder playing a pivotal role in Barca’s dominance this decade.

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    At the beginning of the decade, FC Barcelona was a different animal. A side made of young players filled with commitment and talent who were gonna destroy every obstacle that faced them. La Masía graduates Lionel Messi, Pedro Rodríguez or Sergio Busquets were entering their early twenties and were on the way to glory.

    Since then, after a lot of trophies, the Barça squad has switched horizons and as the Blaugranas are entering a new decade of football and hopefully of huge success, the team is being reshuffled due to the ageing squad at Ernesto Valverde’s disposition and anyone would agree that change is necessary if success is the goal.

    Pedro left, Carles Puyol retired, Xavi retired, David Villa retired, Andrés Iniesta is playing his trade in Japan and Dani Alves was shipped out to Juventus and is now enjoying the later stage of his career at São Paulo. To replace them, the board had opted to buy young players to remain competent throughout the end of the decade. That’s where Neymar, Ivan Rakitić, Samuel Umtiti, Ousmane Dembélé, Nélson Semedo or Arthur Melo played a role, to fill in the boots that the previously mentioned legends left.

    Sergio

    With that being said, one position has never been touched ever since 2008 and Busquets’ arrival from the reserve squad to the men’s game. When Sergio was promoted, Yaya Touré was the starting defensive midfielder in Pep Guardiola’s favourite 4–3–3, but in the Champions League final in Rome Yaya Touré played as a centre-back whilst the Spanish international started. The triangle that was formed that night changed football forever. The Architect Xavi, el Maestro Iniesta and The Metronome that is Sergio.

    They played nearly seven years as a trio and stomped on football for all these years. Manchester United, Real Madrid or Juventus, no team or player could touch them let alone stop them. But with Xavi leaving for Qatar in 2015 and Iniesta for Japan, Busquets is the last man standing of the legendary trio and is passing the torch to Arthur and De Jong, who look like the real deal.

    The midfielder will turn 32 next summer and Barça must look for a new man for the job before he leaves so that the replacement learns a bit from the veteran and for him not to crumble under pressure. Because playing for the La Liga giants and arguably the best club in the world is hard. The pressure is so high that many fail before starting. Dembélé cried his way off the pitch against Dortmund, the Catalan side is looking to ship out Jean-Clair Todibo in January and Junior Firpo only plays whenever Jordi Alba is injured or suspended. Not to mention Philippe Coutinho, who couldn’t adapt to the Azulgranas‘ brand of football and ended up losing all the confidence he had when he arrived.

    Rodrigo

    rodrigo (1)

    The ideal replacement would be Rodrigo. A Spanish international, the exquisite holding midfielder was bought by oil-rich Manchester City for 70 million from Barcelona rivals Atlético. He has got everything in his game that would point to Busquets’ perfect replacement, but City will never let him go easily and Barça should look elsewhere. Maybe, for once, the board and Valverde should show faith in the youth players. La Masía midfielders grew up studying the Xavi–Busquets–Iniesta trident and some of them have become second comings of these icons.

    Oriol Busquets

    Oriol

    Oriol Busquets is one option. The bright pivot looks like Sergio physically, and his intricate passes and elaborate style of play make him look like a golden central midfielder. 12 years after Sergio’s arrival to the first team, it might be time for another Busquets to be promoted and take over the veteran’s place. On loan at Twente, though, he has been acting mostly as a centre-back and it is unknown how, or if, he’ll return to the Camp Nou from the Eredivisie. Meanwhile, Jandro Orellana has been Barça B’s starting holding midfielder this season, excelling in that role, being calm in possession and an exquisite passer of the ball. Aged 19 and promoted in the summer from the Juvenil, though, we should first give him some more time under García Pimienta.

    Frenkie de Jong

    Frenkie

    Another alternative worth considering would be promoting Riqui Puig and teaching De Jong how to play as a defensive midfielder. This option would be quite interesting because De Jong actually started as a roaming centre-back at Ajax when he first began tasting senior minutes. Yet, as mentioned, he would need some teaching from the one and only Sergio Busquets as he carries the ball a bit too much to be the positional pivot Busi has been for years. Whatever happens, Barça will have to think about replacing their old guard, and only then the new decade will be as exciting as the old one at its beginnings.

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