Sergio Busquets: Re-inventing the midfield pivot role
Karthik Venkatesh (KV) argues why Sergio Busquets is one of this generation’s most important players. Oh, and why that also makes him the perfect foil to the the sitcom character, Barney Stinson.
Sergio Busquets is the ultimate ‘Bro’ on the pitch. His game is so astonishingly altruistic that he can be fittingly compared to the perfect ‘wingman’ who will do his all to set you up with that girl of your wildest fantasies. Once he gets the ball, it seems like all he does is greet the ball and say; “Hello! Have you met my genius friend, Xavi?” Here are three good reasons why Sergio Busquets is an extremely vital cog in the Barca team and the foremost ‘team player’ in the world today.
Passing Efficiency
The prime reason for Sergio Busquets’ near perfect passing success rate is that he knows where to pass to even before he receives the ball. His awareness of the players around him is extraordinary, enabling him to complete the process of choosing and executing in a matter of seconds. In the game against Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey, Busquets took an average of 1.6(!) seconds to complete a pass. In some cases, he dispatched the ball within a heart attack causing 0.4 seconds. His game is mostly about releasing the ball quickly and it is fair to say that he has more than achieved the goal. In the recently concluded La Liga season, Busquets completed 91.9% of his passes successfully.
Personifying efficiency, Busquets is technically compact, finding solutions in jet speed to pick out a free team mate. He uses the ‘fake’ to a great deal of impact to open up space in a passing lane and also ensures that he hits the ball with minimal rotation, so his team mate can play another one touch pass. Xavi Hernández, quite possibly the greatest midfielder of this generation, describes Sergio Busquets as “fundamental”. He says: “Busi sees you quickly, he always takes the simple option. He reads the game well and moves the ball with precision, in as few touches a possible.” Here is the graph showing the relation between his passes and the time it took to complete them:
Tactical Intelligence
Sergio Busquets performs a key role as the “pivote” of the team, playing in between defence and attack. This role involves carrying out a number of tasks. In the defensive phase, Busquets crucially moves into space to cut off passing lanes for the opponent, forcing him to play the least dangerous pass. He uses his sharp anticipation skills to win the ball back by intercepting it in midfield and immediately transfer it to a well positioned teammate. His primary function is to ‘receive and release’ and he performs this task flawlessly due to his astute reading of the game and tactical intelligence.
He plays an extremely crucial role in attack also. The basic foundation of Barcelona’s tiki-taka style of play is creating triangles. Busquets, being an imperative component in midfield, moves into space when his teammate has the ball to form triangles and increase passing options. The spontaneity with which he carries out this task is critical to the circulation of the ball and a ‘destroyer’ in midfield would retard the flow of circulation, unlike Busquets. Also, when in possession of the ball, Barcelona morph into several formations ranging from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3, and Busquets dropping deep in between the center backs is the trigger which changes the structure. When he drops in between the center backs, they are allowed to move laterally and cover space out wide. This in turn pushes Daniel Alves higher up the pitch, meaning the right winger cuts inside to make use of space vacated by Messi dropping deep, increasing the number possibilities of attack. Watch how Sergio’s off the ball movement from CDM to CB causes a chain reaction which eventually leads to a goal. “Xavi and Iniesta are the most creative midfielders in the world, but, above all, there is Busquets,” says Javier Mascherano, who is highly regarded to have a keen eye on the beautiful game. “He has the talent to play for any team anywhere in the world, but he’s made to play for this team. Literally, he’s the perfect guy. He robs the ball, he has superb technical skills and brings tactical order. I watch him and try to learn from him.”
Selfless Playing Style
Barcelona, a team obsessed with attacking football and scoring goals, scored a whopping 114 goals in the league last season. Only one of the 114 goals was scored by Sergio Busquets (1goal and 1 assist), a stat which belies the fact the he is a major force in the Barca midfield. Of his one goal, Sergio Busquets jokes that that is an error on his part: “I made a mistake once.” Always preferring to not hog the limelight, Busquets is the ultimate team man, focusing on plugging gaps and covering space, instead of venturing forward and having fun with the likes of Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas. Statistics show, for example, that Dani Alves, nominally Barcelona’s full-back, spends more time in the opposition half than his own. “The coach knows that I am an obedient player who likes to help out and if I have to run to the wing to cover someone’s position, great,” he says. “I genuinely enjoy watching the full-back run up the pitch and going across to fill in. I spend the game calculating: how many on the left? How many on the right?”
Standing 189cm tall, Sergio Busquets standing between his Barcelona teammates looks like Gulliver amidst a bunch of Lilliputians. As comfortable in a scrap as with the ball at his feet, Sergio is ever ready to leap to the defense of his teammates, putting himself in the dangerous situation of getting carded. The perfect amalgam of intelligence and the ability to do the dirty work for others sets him apart from his more famous and celebrated teammates. When questioned about the style of his game, Busquets says: “My only obsession is not to lose the ball and to give my all, make sure I leave it all on the pitch. I am here to help. I have to be intense.” Del Bosque agrees: “He is an example of generosity, always thinking of the needs of the team rather than himself.”
Conclusion
If Barney Stinson, the serial womaniser in the television series “How I Met Your Mother”, ever notices Sergio Busquets doing his job for either Barcelona or Spain, he would at once convince/beg Sergio Busquets to accept the coveted position of being Barney Stinson’s wingman. Even if he has to only utter the lines, “Hi! Have you met my friend Barney?” and leave, Sergio will do it so perfectly that Barney’s efficiency, just like Busquets’ passing efficiency, will touch the ninety percent mark. Such is the effectiveness and impact of Sergio Busquets, the unheralded hero of modern day football.
Filed under: Players
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The graph is a relationship between “the passes” and the time to complete them?? You mean passes in a particular game or average number of passes per game 2011-12 season? I did not understand the graph!
And you forgot to mention that both of them are spellbinding actors.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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kv Reply:
July 22nd, 2012 at 7:39 am
@Bharat,
x-axis is the pass, y-axis indicates time it took to complete one.
It is only for the Barca vs Real Madrid game in Copa del Rey.
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Bharat Reply:
July 22nd, 2012 at 12:20 pm
@kv,
Thanks!
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Nice article. I think the casual observer can easily get the mistaken perception that Busquets is some kind of fraud as a defensive midfielder, since he doesn’t seem to put in crunching tackles and so forth, and his scoring and assist stats aren’t impressive. But he’s the perfect player for this incarnation of Barcelona.
Which makes me wonder… in any other team, could Busquets be such an effective player? Could he hold down a spot at say, Real Madrid or Manchester United, with their different playing styles, and different expectations at that position? (Playing for Spain is a different case though as it plays Barca-style football.) But then again, even Barcelona’s brightest talents can arguably only reach such stratospheric heights because they play together in a system that brings out the best of them; witness Messi playing for Argentina, for example.
Having praised Busquets in such a way makes me feel a bit dirty. He’s one of the world’s most blatant feigners of injury, and one of the primary reasons Barca are not universally loved. Great player, but a bit of a cock, really.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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kv Reply:
July 22nd, 2012 at 9:03 pm
@Eurazian,
“in any other team, could Busquets be such an effective player? ”
It’s wrong to say for sure that he won’t be able to replicate the same performances for some other team. Basically, he’s an intelligent player and he’ll probably analyse and adapt himself to their system. But then again, he’s a player created by Barca, for Barca. Like you mention, the individual success of the Barca players depends, to a large extent, on their teammates and it is impossible to predict how well they’ll fare without their teammates moving spontaneously into areas where they want them to move. That’s they beauty of Barca, they personify “whole is greater than the sum of parts”.
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[...] ‘wingman’ who will do his all to set you up with that girl of your wildest fantasies.” The Arsenal Column Share this:StumbleUponDiggRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]
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I didn’t see the greatness of Busquets when he started to play regularly for Barcelona’s first team, but the last two years his been magnificent. His performance for Spain in this year’s European Championships was absolutely cracking. Spain’s best player according to me!
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Makes me happy that people are finally beginning to appreciate the enormous talent and importance of Busquets. This article sums it up quite nicely.
Watching Barca’s games, you can instantly tell wether Busquets plays or not, the team ticks much, much smoother with him in the side. He’s as important to the successes of Barca and Spain as anyone, and “Xavi and Iniesta” ought to be “Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets”. Without a doubt the best in the world in his position at the moment, not getting enough recognition largely thanks to his talent being overshadowed by a few dives made a couple of years ago that apparently stuck to a lot of peoples heads more then his less-than-obvious talent. Might be the most underrated player of all time.
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For all his brilliance, Busquets is one of the reasons why Barca can struggle to break down top defensive teams, playing as deep as he does he has more time than Xavi or Iniesta to spot a key-pass and instead he just recycles the ball.
The Chelsea matches are an example, yes, Barca are hammering the Chelsea goal but where they are shooting from plays a key part in whether the keeper can save or how much accuracy is required to squeeze the ball inside the goal frame. By showing Barca options they will usually take it is possible to make scoring goals much harder. It’s a daft strategy and most of the time it wont work but it worked for them. It relies on the predictability of Barca’s passing game and Busquets as noted is a key component. If Busquets was playing incisive passes from deep, someone would have to come further upfield to deal with him, leaving more space for Xavi and Iniesta.
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The Brain Reply:
August 2nd, 2012 at 11:42 pm
@Woolwich Peripatetic,
I think Busquets is being harshly penalised at times because he doesn’t look like a defensive midfielder, but that’s what he inherently is. He talks about how he likes to cover for his full-backs and like any good holding midfielder, his distribution is simple and efficient. This is the bit you criticise but keeping the ball moving is paramount for a team like Barcelona – it drags markers around the pitch. Busquets quick passes always make it hard to press him – Rooney tried to mark him in the CL 2011 final but failed.
Dictating and creating openings typically goes to Xavi instead. Which is not a problem, because of the way Barcelona is relentless with the ball, it provokes teams to defend in a way that Xavi will always have time on the ball. I get that Busquets could do more however but there is a subtlety to his role that people don’t get and Karthik highlights brilliantly in the piece.
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Woolwich Peripatetic Reply:
August 3rd, 2012 at 3:41 pm
@The Brain,
You make a good argument and I cannot deny that Barca with their “attack is the defence” need a player like Busquets, as good as Busquets or they will struggle. That said, it seemed during the latter part of the season, if Barca lined up as a 4-3-3 against two static banks of four, they would ignore him for the most part because, as you noted, you can’t easily press him because his passing is so fast (I think he gets a lot of late tackles, no denying he makes the most out of them) giving Xavi and Iniesta two markers each. And where a player like Pirlo can destroy a team from the halfway line if given space & time, Busquets can’t/won’t.
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Mani Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 6:50 pm
@The Brain,
Brain, did you write this article or is kv someone else? It doesn’t feel like your normal writing.
As far as re-inventing goes, I feel this article fell short of expanding on how revolutionary Biscuits’ role for Barcelona has been.
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The Brain Reply:
August 9th, 2012 at 10:11 pm
@Mani,
KV is indeed someone else – a semi-regular contributor to this site (and often engages below the line for pieces by myself).
In regards to whether/how Busquets has revolutionised the role; I think he has merely taken the qualities that all holding midfielders should have – the get-and-give efficiency in the passing that Gilberto showed at Arsenal and the ability to cover positions which Makelele was an expert at – but not looked out of place. Often holding midfielders are distinguished by their differences to make the system; Busquets is very subtle.
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He has no equal in diving, really great actor, one must remember this is also a skill, as it contributes towards winning. A yellow card early might be a red later or it might contribute to a defender not making a goal saving tackle for fear of red.
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Busi is very good in his role as the engine behind Barca’s glittering game.. A fine Barcelona product excelling at his trade.
On a different note, nobody dives likes Ashely Young. Any Englishman want to complain about diving; put your hand up and accept that one of the finest exponent of this ‘dark art’ is from your own exalted shores..
Tom Daley ain’t got nothing on this fella!! Pathetic! Man U are good enough to win without fielding him, or are they??
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[...] critics for occasional sloppy passing and for the occasional rash tackle, but tactically he is an unsung hero. In allowing others to play-make and take the game to the opposition, Murray is contented in [...]
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