If there’s one man in this FC Barcelona side who rarely gets the
credit and appreciation he deserves, it’s midfielder Sergio Busquets.
The old saying “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” applies
perfectly to him. In the match against Bayern Munich, he wasn’t
literally gone, but he was effectively marked out of the game by the
opponent. We witnessed the result.
From the first minute, Bayern’s Mario
Gómez was on Busquets’ heels, making sure that he never had a moment of
peace to receive the ball, turn around and play it forward. This is a
strategy that Sir Alex Ferguson tried to use in the Champions League
final in 2011, having Wayne Rooney shadow Busquets. It didn’t work back
then, as Barcelona was more fresh, fast, aggressive and bold to escape
from Rooney and Manchester United’s pressure. On Tuesday, that’s
something we couldn’t do, and as Bayern had obviously been watching
Barcelona for quite a while, they managed to do what Manchester United
failed to do a few years earlier; eliminate Sergio Busquets.
Busquets is often considered as the man who shields the defense line
and plays between the center backs to cover up for Alves’ runs forward.
And that he certainly does. But his role in our build up is also bigger
than people might realize. Busquets is the link between our defense and
midfield. He is the man who can go past the opponent’s lines with one
cutting pass. He is the man whose presence allows Iniesta and Xavi a bit
more space to build up a bit higher up the pitch, preferably between
the opponent’s defense and midfield. That’s where our midfield duo,
along with Messi, poses the greatest threat. Bayern knew this.
Against Bayern, Busquets didn’t have space at all. When Barça was in
possession, for most of the time Busquets had to play with his face
towards his own goal. Barça was thrown off balance by this situation,
and often it was Xavi or Iniesta who played deeper, receiving the passes
from the center backs. Bayern’s compact lines and Gómez’s presence near
Busquets stopped Barça’s midfield from functioning like it usually
does. When the midfield doesn’t function, Barça’s game doesn’t function.
Credit has to be given to Bayern for their brilliant strategy and the
execution of it. They managed to shake Barcelona off balance by
eliminating Barcelona’s engine, Sergio Busquets. He’s not often
considered as the engine, the credit of that usually goes to Xavi
(deservedly so), but the truth is that stopping Busquets is more or less
a key to stopping Barcelona. Sir Alex Ferguson knew this in 2011, but
failed to actually do it on the field. Jupp Heynckes knew this on
Tuesday, and partly due to Barcelona’s lack of movement and physical
response, he managed to do what Ferguson attempted to do a few years
earlier.
With Busquets being unable to open the game like he usually does,
Xavi, Iniesta and Messi were forced to drop very deep. This is exactly
what Bayern wanted. By eliminating Busquets, they lured Barcelona’s
biggest attacking threats away from their comfort zone, to the areas
where defending them would be easier. With our key players so deep,
Bayern had no trouble forming two defensive lines of four against our
attacks. As we saw, those defensive lines were quite difficult to break.
Bayern’s performance against Barça (and against Busquets) is surely
an example to follow for many other teams, and perhaps we’ll see even
more of this man marking on Busquets in the future. The question is, how
will we manage to deal with this? The answer is quite simple. Our
players must move more, drag defenders out of position to create those
little spaces for Messi and Iniesta to operate in. These runs and
movements were hardly made at all against Bayern, due to exhaustion or
overburden perhaps, and we settled on playing the game exactly like
Bayern wanted us to.
When there is movement between the lines, the opponent is forced to
react and drop a bit deeper. When they do drop deeper, there is more
space for our engine, Sergio Busquets. He is a key player for us in many
more ways than one would necessarily notice. In fact, a lot of this
team’s build up game is directly built around Busquets. When the
opponent manages to shut him down like Bayern did, Barcelona struggles.
That alone shows that Busquets is a crucial part of Barça’s puzzle, and
sometimes, you only learn to appreciate his brilliance when his
contribution to the team’s performance is shut down.
