When Sergio Busquets emerged in the late 2000s, his ability was valued but perhaps its importance was not understood.
The defensive midfield has never been a glamorous position, full of short passes, tackles and interceptions; It’s a paint-and-paint area that rarely causes a sensation.
So while Busquets was the center of a Barcelona team ranked among the greatest of all time, in the Parthenon of the greats, the lanky Catalan stands out firmly like his teammates Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez and Andreas Iniestato, to name a few.
Part of the explanation why he didn’t get his due is that he broke through at a time when football was played very differently, defensive lines were deep and balls were long, even at the highest level, They were common.
Some teams have tried to use short passes to move the ball forward, but it wasn’t until Pep Guardiola placed Busquets at the centre of his trendy edition of Johan Cryuff’s taste for ‘total football’ that a ‘possession-based’ began. . to gain ground.
Unlike direct football in which the attackers or wingers obtain the ball quickly, the metronomic pass in this formula with the defensive midfielder or pivot, as he is commonly called in the game. Touch the ball more than anything. No other player on the field mattered, they played and created the space.
Traditionally, the DM’s role was not played like this. Especially in countries like England, it was about winning the ball back and protecting the defense from attacks. But under the Cryuff/Guardiola system, it was the opposite: everything depended on what they did. did with the ball.
Compared with the blood and thunder of midfielders, such as Edgar Davids or Gennaro Gattuso, who had ruled the midfielders of the pre- Busquets era, his taste was a true team replacement. Moving languidly across the grass, he seemed to be playing, leaving a faint grass stain on his uniform.
As Johan Cryuff himself said about the midfielder: “Positionally, he looks like a veteran on the ball.
“With the ball he facilitates the deceptive look: he has the ball with one or two touches.
“Without the ball, it teaches us a lesson: be in the right position to intercept and run to get the ball. ”
What we didn’t realize at the time is that he was also changing the way football would be played.
Thanks in large part to Pep Guardiola’s construction of dominant dominance in Germany and England with a possession-based approach, Barcelona football of the 2000s has reached near ubiquity in the modern game.
As former Barcelona midfielder Juan Román Riquelme said: “When he appeared, Sergio Busquets had the concept of football.
“It’s in the world. There is no other player like him. “
Nowadays, all of Europe wants a Busquets who builds the game from behind and, ironically, following the original article that comes to the end of his time in Catalonia, FC Barcelona itself also wants it.
Having a game that did not depend on speed or power, the physical limitations imposed by age did not have an effect on Busquets’ game as it did on other players and he rarely felt like he could die forever. .
It turns out that FC Barcelona, lulled by this false sense of security, has failed to find a successor or find a replacement of sufficient quality, much to the chagrin of the coach of the first coach without Busequet in more than a decade, Xavi. .
Instead, it forced the use of Frenkie De Jong and Ilkay Gundogan or the disappointing Oriol Romeu, all of whom were, to varying degrees, a failure.
Although a year later he was surprised, Barcelona are just as reluctant to take care of them.
This summer, with the addition of new manager Hansi Flick, the club is prioritising the signing of winger Nico Williams and artistic midfielder Danny Olmo, whose reputation has been bolstered by their impressive performances at Euro 2024.
The spending for those two signings, if they go through, is expected to exceed $150 million, which will likely leave little to nothing for Busquets’ vacant spot.
He may not have the brilliance of the Barcelona legend nor as intelligent as the heir to that legacy, Rodri, but, as Martín Zubimendi demonstrated in the Euro 2024 final, he is smart enough to play the role of DM in a proprietary team.
The Real Sociedad midfielder is also on Xavi’s wanted list and considered, with Busquets’ departure, a priority through the former coach.
However, the club continued to look for interesting forwards instead of building a new base for the team.
While this short-sighted technique is not a recent phenomenon, what is puzzling is that the club knew Busquets could only last so long, however, they stayed on the sidelines and watched their rivals, Real Madrid, recruit defensive midfielder talents into the world, such as Aurélien Tchouaméni. and Eduardo Camavinga.
Meanwhile, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola has made former Atletico Madrid player Rodri the Barcelona legend’s true successor, with possibly even more attributes.
It is reported that FC Barcelona would have to sell their recent offensive acquisitions such as Raphinha and Ferran Torres to finance the signings of Olmo and Williams, which begs the question; Why not reinvest the cash in a position where the club wants it?
The two exciting players, if they arrive, will win games with their goals, but the club will not fight for the titles it wants without taking into account that it does not have an elite, not even a good enough pivot.
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