This weekend, between Barça’s grassroots football matches, I paid attention to one of the capsules that Barça TV broadcasts with its athletes. Xavi Hernández was asked who his best friend was when he was a player. Hesitate for a while. Enough time for you to start saying names at home in a low voice, even though you know it will be between Busquets and Iniesta. Win the first one. Busquets is his best friend, something that Xavi has never hidden. Becoming aware of this again – which, I repeat, was already known – has made me think about the difficulty of managing this link when there is such a clear hierarchy, a subordinate relationship between coach and footballer.
First of all, let it be clear in advance that Busquets is currently the starter in this team. It is probably the best midfield we will see in a long time. I do not doubt its importance. If Barça are together and press up, Badia del Vallès is a capital footballer. What’s surprising is that he’s playing pretty much everything. There is no spare, when there should be a middle ground between keeping it every minute on the grass and being able to see half of the alternate field. I think that the Barça fans are very eager to be able to enjoy a day together with Pedri, Gavi and Nico. The performance may not be better than it is today, but there is no doubt that they deserve it and it would be a hopeful message for a team that, despite the urgency of the present, needs to launch proclamations of the future to survive. It’s just as important to be in the top four in the league as it is to get the idea out between the fans and the brands that there is a project for tomorrow. And even more so for a coach who knows he has a profit and has not come to the Camp Nou to be there for a single season.
Precisely, the most surprising thing about Xavi’s line-up is the absence of Nico González. The coach always uses it as a shocker, but we have not seen him give him gallons and go out to the pivot position, where some of the coaches who have had him in grassroots football see more possibilities. If we are based on meritocracy, this decision is probably the most unfair decision taken by the Barça coach right now. Because Alba and Piqué are playing the same as Busquets, but the one on the left and center are two positions where the competition is low or almost zero, while in the spinal cord is where there is more young talent that asks to burst thethe status quo. I hope a Gavi-Pedri-Nico arrives in the middle of the field soon, even if it’s to silence us.
