BBZ8800
Senior Member
Yes, Busi is a player who can play at his best only in a specific system. The problem is that at Barcelona we should be playing that system. Not the 'park the bus and hold for dear life' that Valverde had us playing vs Roma and Liverpool.
Of course the decline is also evident, so it's unlikely he's ever going to be world class again.
In the last 2 Months, people are answering: a player XX would be awesome under Pep.
I have said a few times, teams were playing football for years without Pep and Klopp.
Today it sounds as if all other managers are shit and unless if we are coached by Pep and Klopp=we are dead, poor Dembele won't improve and nobody will watch football.
Regarding Barca's style, Busi was meh in Lucho's tactics.
Imo, Busi would be shit in Rijkaard's tactics, and Rijkaard would pick someone like Rakitic, Mascherano and similar to play a CDM, and other 5 attacking players will be responsible for a build up.
A CDM would be responsible to counters and interceptions and only for some passes here and there.
Under Van Gaal, Busi wouldn't play either.
So, basically, where can Busi play?
Only if we return Pep back or if we hire some Pep wannabe who will blindly do everything the same as Pep.
There is a difference between Barca's way and Pep's way.
Busi is a perfect example of that.
He is Pep's type of a pivot, not "Barca's" type of a pivot.
People usually laugh at my remarks about height, but before Busi, our last few CDMs were:
Edmilson 1,86
Motta 1,87
Marquez 1,84
Cocu 1,85
Davids 1,69
Only Cocu was a somewhat skinny guy, but nowhere close to Busi.
So, CDMs before Busi were a good old, classic CDMs who were usually tall, strong and awesome in defending. Plus, they were decent with a ball, but nowhere near Busi's level (but Busi sucks in defending, pace, strength and aerial battles).
I liked Edmilson during Rijkaard.
He was a CB for Brasil and a CDM for Barca.
He didn't move well off the ball like Busi, of course.
But he was a strong tower, who was making tons of interceptions and dirty fouls. He was tall but very fast (preventing counters).
And yet, he had a nice technique (not like Busi, of course) and he was scoring golazos, scissor kick goals and similar.
With a classical physical (and yet somewhat technical CDM), you are losing some build up, but you are getting a better defense.
Now, if you have enough of creative players in a team, then you can survive with that.