The excellence and reliability that the Badia del Vallès has shown throughout this time, beyond occasional performances in which, like the whole team, he too has suffered, is the first reason that explains the difficulty of relieve him “He doesn’t get injured, he performs very regularly, he almost never goes below 7, and that for a coach is vital: he is a player who will not give you surprises. He is so good because he has a very balanced offensive-defensive balance. It is difficult find a pivot who can give you so much in this position: he’s always attentive to rival losses, organizes the pressure, supports his teammates and gets the team going,” says Franc Artiga, coach who worked for more than a decade at The Farmhouse
“Busquets has maximum intelligence and plays in a crucial position for a team with a game idea like ours. I don’t know if it’s Barça’s most complicated position, but I’m convinced it’s the most decisive,” adds Joan Vilà, who was linked to Barça for forty years. “He doesn’t have to be the fastest, he doesn’t have to run a lot, but he has to run well. And when Barça play together and orderly, that’s when Busquets shines the most, both in defense and in attack,” adds one of the football parents of the current Culer coach, Xavi Hernández.
Messi is unrepeatable, but the relief of Busquets should leave the house”
Joan Villa Xavi’s football coach and father
The reliability of the Barcelona captain explains, in large part, why Nico has decided to leave on loan. “Barça have already produced good midfielders, but the players see that it is almost impossible to compete for a place with Busquets and decide to find a life for themselves,” Artiga says. Aside from Nico, the latest cases that exemplify this are Jandro Orellana – he left for Gerard Piqué and Eder Sarabia’s Andorra after not renewing with Barça–, Oriol Busquets – at Arouca of the Portuguese League– or, if we go a little further back, Sergi Samper – at the Japanese Vissel Kobe -. In the list we can also include Ferran Sarsanedas, who played as a pivot in the lower categories of Barça since the age of 14 – before that he had played inside – but a serious injury to his left knee while playing for the subsidiary has left him out of combat since January 2020. “Busquets is one of the best. Playing pivot in a 4-3-3 scheme, which involves being alone, is difficult. You have a lot of ground to occupy and if he is irreplaceable it is because of his intelligence ·tactical and positional intelligence”, explains Sarsanedas himself, who is waiting to find a team and be able to play again after overcoming the ordeal of injuries.
I can only think of one player who can be compared to Busquets: Rodri, from City”
Ferran Sarsanedas Expivot of Barça B, played 14 years in the youth team
Like Artiga and Vilà, Sarsanedas also believes that the best-placed player at home to replace Busquets from next season is Nico, despite the fact that he is a different footballer than Badia and that he can also play inside. “Nico is also very intelligent, but, once again, we see how a player prefers to go out to get minutes and not be in Busi’s shadow”, details Artiga. Vilà would add Orellana on this occasion, but he has a contract with Andorra until 2025. With Pjanic as a one-off resource this season – Xavi is also considering Kessié, De Jong and even Sergi Roberto or Christensen – all three also agree in which De Jong does not have the characteristics to play as a pivot for Barça. “He’s a great player, but he’s the antithesis of Busi. Ajax’s positional play has nothing to do with ours. Frenkie chases the ball everywhere, he gets close to it. He doesn’t occupy the spaces in function of his teammates, but has a more individualistic game. It’s the complete opposite of what Sergio does,” points out Artiga. “De Jong is not a midfielder for Barça. He is a route player, with arrival, but not positional,” adds Vilà.
De Jong is a great player, but he is the antithesis of Busquets”
Frank Artiga Coach for a decade at La Masia
All in all, Nico is the best placed to be the pivot of Barça when the Busquets era ends. There are few footballers on the market who can replace him. “You can find very good defensive midfielders, but I can’t think of many who give you as much in attack and defense as Busquets, only Rodri Hernández,” says Sarsanedas, citing the apple of Pep Guardiola’s eyes. “Messi’s case is unrepeatable, but Busquets’ relief should indeed be left out of the house”, says Vilà. “It won’t be a player like him. It will be very difficult to find someone with such good characteristics to play alone as a pivot and to give you so much in the construction of the offensive game,” Artiga decides.
