Sergio Busquets

[Ursegor]

Whenever he passes the ball to Messi and falls on his ass afterwards it results in a goal for Barca. Curious.

Needs to go to the ground more often. :eusa_think:

 

[footyfan]

^Cool, so I wasn't the only one who noticed. I laughed after the first goal vs Bilbao because it was so similar to the Elche one.

 

[Ursegor]

Also similar to the Valencia away one last season where Banega got his pocket picked by him. Guy reads the game and intercepts bad passes high up the pitch like a boss.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

I thought of this:

Busi and Leo playing around in midfield and then... BOOM!

 

[Flavia]

Played well. Except for the tackle that got him a yellow card.

Curious that Messi's 2 assists today were preceeded by a pass from Busi. At least 4 of Messi's 5 assists were too. I remember the other 2 assists to Neymar.

 

[raskolnikov]

Busi interferes, passes to Messi who directly sees en opportunity and creates a chance. Busi's defensive work is crucial.

 

[DinhoR10]

He's back to his best, our midfield is on fire this season, if all games were played on current form we'd probably win the cl.

 

[Sumlit]

Played well. Except for the tackle that got him a yellow card.

Curious that Messi's 2 assists today were preceeded by a pass from Busi. At least 4 of Messi's 5 assists were too. I remember the other 2 assists to Neymar.

He has more freedom to take risks going forward to recuperate possession because now he has Rakitic to help him out and cover him. This is another subtle aspect Rakitic has brought to the team.

Busi's excellent reading of the game and the opponent allows him to make quick interceptions up the pitch and quickly unload them to attackers.

Busi and Rakitic have made a stellar partnership.

 

[barcanuck]

Nailed it. The Raki factor is making everyone look good venturing forward because he is so good tactically at covering. Cesc on the other hand just tried to go up as far as possible even though the other mids were also up there.

 

[Behrox]

Nailed it. The Raki factor is making everyone look good venturing forward because he is so good tactically at covering. Cesc on the other hand just tried to go up as far as possible even though the other mids were also up there.

RakiGOAT making Barca whole again

 

[footyfan]

He has more freedom to take risks going forward to recuperate possession because now he has Rakitic to help him out and cover him. This is another subtle aspect Rakitic has brought to the team.

Busi's excellent reading of the game and the opponent allows him to make quick interceptions up the pitch and quickly unload them to attackers.

Busi and Rakitic have made a stellar partnership.

Nothing to do with Rakitic really. Busquets has done this multiple times in previous seasons, example being Valencia away last year as Ursegor pointed out and also vs Atletico a couple of years ago. I don't think he consciously thinks, 'hey now i have rakitic instead of xavi/cesc i can go up more'.

The games where he racks up 20+balls recovered are all due to his reading of the game and willingness to risk going forward and gaining the ball back quickly, and they all happened without Rakitic by his side.

 

[Sumlit]

Nothing to do with Rakitic really. Busquets has done this multiple times in previous seasons, example being Valencia away last year as Ursegor pointed out and also vs Atletico a couple of years ago. I don't think he consciously thinks, 'hey now i have rakitic instead of xavi/cesc i can go up more'.

The games where he racks up 20+balls recovered are all due to his reading of the game and willingness to risk going forward and gaining the ball back quickly, and they all happened without Rakitic by his side.

Not with this frequency he hasn't. You can see his positioning higher up the pitch is more frequent now, as well as him taking more risks with tackles and interceptions higher. This is not a coincidence. In season's past Busquets was generally deeper and far more conservative with his forward movement.

And note, I'm not talking about ball recovery numbers, but rather the advanced locations where he is recovering them. Busi has recovered about 3 of those passes to Messi almost in the final third. He is attempting these recoveries generally much higher up the pitch this season.

 

[putogusiluz8]

+1 for everyone

 

[Irish_Cules]

They were actually talking on Revista about how Rakitic has helped Busquets. They said that last year Busquets was burdened with covering an ageing Xavi but Rakitic has now reduced his workload and allowed him to be more effective and play incisive passes to Messi.

 

[abual3bed1]

They were actually talking on Revista about how Rakitic has helped Busquets. They said that last year Busquets was burdened with covering an ageing Xavi but Rakitic has now reduced his workload and allowed him to be more effective and play incisive passes to Messi.

Isn't that so obvious?!