Barcelona Opinion: 2 ideal players who can succeed Sergio Busquets at Barca
Sergio Busquets is arguably one of the most decorated players in Barcelona’s history and world football as well. Trophies and words are not enough to describe his massive contributions.
However, age has been catching up with him and it blows his playing position (central defensive midfield) wide open. Who is going to step up once the Spaniard hangs up his boots?
Oriol Busquets
This reserves player not only shares his surname but also possesses attributes and traits akin to the 31-year-old. In fact, he almost seems like his natural successor at this point.
A long-time student of Barca’s youth academy, Oriol was promoted to the reserves squad in 2017 and has become a regular since then.
The 20-year-old was a huge part of Barca’s U19 side which won the UEFA Youth League in 2016/17.
However, he has been deprived of enough chances with the main team, while impressing in the Segunda Division for two seasons.
Moreover, Oriol has drawn interest from the Bundesliga and it will be interesting to see how the situation plays out.
Frenkie de Jong
The newly acquired midfielder from Ajax and the talk of the town is billed from the Netherlands. The Dutch prodigy was one of the highly-rated players in Erik ten Hag’s revolutionary squad, which reached the semi-finals of UCL semi-finals.
A youngster with blistering pace and brilliant vision, De Jong is a kind of a player who holds the Barca DNA, which is the reason made the Catalans buy the 22-year-old.
One of the biggest questions remains uncertain is where De Jong will play in the midfield next season. Though he is expected to get more advanced roles owing to his versatility and the young age, De Jong is much better as a deep-lying player, more or less similar to Sergio Busquets.
The Dutch midfielder was often deployed as one of the pivots, who constantly constructs and destroys the play by running to both the ends, in double-pivot structure. Not to mention that he can operate as a centre-back as well.
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It will be interesting to see where Valverde would deploy De Jong next season, though he is comfortable sitting deep and orchestrating the play.