Our MF situation is rather complex and there are a lot of different ways we can approach it. At DM, we are fine. Hopefully with Luiz in the squad, we could promote Masch to the MF and we would have three DMs we could rotate between Busi, Song and Masch. Busi potentially can be our starting DM for the remainder of the decade. His more tactical and cerebral approach to DM means he doesn't have to put his body on the line as much as a "Makelele" style DM does, meaning he suffers less injuries and can prolong his career. With his style of play, Busi is the kind of player who will continue to improve the older he gets, so in that realm we are fine.
Its our AM situation that complicates things. IMO, the goal of Tata and Zubi is to find a player who complements Cesc since he will be our MF general soon. Personally, I think Sergi complements Cesc perfectly as he is more willing to do the defensive dirty work and can bring the ball out from deeper in the MF effectively, exactly what Cesc needs. So in other words, our goal needs to be to get Sergi-Cesc on the same sort of understanding as Xavi-Iniesta. So while that's fine and dandy on one hand, on the other hand I am a bit worried about Iniesta. As Xavi continues to age and slow down, Iniesta needs to evolve his game to where he is less reliant on his telepathy with Xavi. At this point in time, Iniesta and Cesc are competing for the same role and imo, we should favor Cesc over Iniesta currently. Perhaps Iniesta could transition into playing Xavi's role to allow Cesc freedom to attack, but this would force Iniesta to play deeper and track back more, something that isn't a natural part of his game. So Iniesta's role in the future is very uncertain, and he might have to make some personal sacrifices to his style for the sake of the team.
From there forward, its anyones guess. In an ideal world, Sergi-Cesc starts becoming the starting AMs next season with Xavi-Iniesta rotating in from there. As far as how Rafinha and Denis Suarez will fit in, they are both still really young and its hard to project how they will fit in next season because a lot of it has to do with how they develop this season.
Another wildcard that I am going to throw in is Thiago. Don't be surprised if around 2016 you start hearing rumors of Thiago returning, and this is all due to Pep. If Laporta runs his campaign on getting Pep back and gets elected, don't be surprised if return sagas for both Pep and Thiago start coming down the pipes. I for one don't expect Thiago to excel at Bayern (his injury right when he got there was a huge setback for him being successful there) and if Pep leaves, Thiago will go too. While some might say "He's a traitor, we should never welcome him back," I for one think in his shoes he made a very rational decision and didn't blame him at all for leaving and if the conditions were right, we should definitely try to get him back.
In sum, we need to build our future MF around Cesc. If we can find a MF who can complement his style well, the Xaviniesta hangover will be killed and we can usher in our next era. Personally I think either Sergi or Thiago would be ideal candidates and as long as we start trying to do this now, theres no reason why Sergi can't develop into what we need.
I've never seen Balanta play so I can't cast too much judgement on him. Still, would rather have Luiz mainly due to him already being accustomed to the European game but I wouldn't be against a shrewd signing like Balanta as long as he is quality. Buying players who are outside of Europe is always a high risk/high reward situation and while he is more expensive and cup tied, Luiz just seems like a safer bet.
