The Busquets role has changed – now he is Spain’s leader

“Busquets’ game was a manual of how to play as a pivote (holding midfielder), in both attacking and defensive situations.”

The Spain coach Luis Enrique was answering the very first question asked at the press conference after Spain’s 5-0 win over Slovakia at Euro 2020 last Wednesday. Normally after such a big win, the goalscorers would get most of the credit and headlines, but today the returning captain was getting his due.

“We know the importance of Busi for the group,” Luis Enrique continued. “Today the poor guy ended up exhausted, but I am delighted for him. He is not very well understood by many people, maybe because he has been around for so long and people are tired of him, but he is unique. Unique, and a guarantee.”

The praise was merited as the Barcelona midfielder had just put in a tremendous all-round performance, which had also highlighted how Spain had missed him when a COVID-19 positive ruled him out of their first two games of the tournament.

The other side of Luis Enrique’s response was also significant — how Busquets’ importance has not always been understood, or fully appreciated. There has always been a certain ambivalence about the strengths and weaknesses of his game and his character. Especially from those who came up against him.

“Busquets is generous and tactically very strong; he knows how to speed the game with great and quick passes,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said in 2012. “But he’s clever — he forces the referee to give yellow cards to opponents. He pretends to be hurt whereas he’s the one who gave the kick. He has all the moral weaknesses that help in football. His intelligence really helps the team.”

This view of Busquets, especially the part about his sly intelligence, was very widespread, particularly outside of Catalonia. The first many international fans saw of him was the “peek-a-boo” incident during the 2010 Champions League semi-final when he persuaded referee Frank De Bleeckere to send off Inter Milan midfielder Thiago Motta.

Other coaches, players and fans also remembered the tactical fouls behind the officials’ back, the overreactions whenever he himself was kicked, the willingness to go right to the line and do whatever it takes to help his team.

This idea of Busquets as the “bad” Barca player meant he never received anything like the recognition of his long-time team-mates for club and country, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez. But for those on Busi’s side, he has always been, as Luis Enrique says “a guarantee”.

Almost immediately after taking charge of Barcelona’s first team in summer 2008, Pep Guardiola plucked the 20-year-old midfielder from the Barca B squad, where they together had won the previous season’s Tercera Division. Johan Cruyff’s column for Catalan paper El Periodico the day after Busquets’ La Liga debut in a 1-1 draw with Racing Santander turned out to be amazingly prescient.

“Technically superior to (Yaya) Toure and (Seydou) Keita,” Cruyff wrote. “Positionally, he already appears like a veteran. With and without the ball. With the ball he makes the simple look difficult, moving the team up the pitch with one or two touches. Without the ball, another lesson — that of being in just the right position to intercept and recover the ball quickly. All this while being young and inexperienced.”

Fitting in so immediately was a surprise as Busquets had not, like Xavi and Iniesta, spent his teenage years at La Masia being tutored in all aspects of Cruyff’s beloved positional play and 4-3-3 system. Although the son of 1990s blaugrana goalkeeper Carles Busquets, he was rejected in early trials and played instead for various lower-profile Catalan youth teams. He was 17 before he eventually wore any Barca jersey.

Guardiola quickly realised he was ready to be fast-tracked to the first team, where another keen football brain was also impressed at first sight.

“After two or three days training with Busquets, Messi told me ‘I like him’,” Pep later recalled. “And I told him that when there were battles or scrapes, he would be there alongside him. He has that mature side, that rough side. Busquets does everything so that those around him get to play.”

Guardiola saw a lot of his own style in another lanky midfielder who did not have to run the fastest as his brain moved quicker than everyone else’s. Pep himself had also not been above using dark arts to unsettle opponents during his own playing career. Such a rough edge brought an ideal balance to the Barca midfield.

“I arrived at Barca pretty late compared to (Xavi and Iniesta),” Busquets said in an El Pais interview before these Euros. “I have this mix of coming from the neighbourhood, of having played on the street, on dirt pitches, having no problem rolling up my sleeves if the game asks for it. And if you have to get down into the dirt, then do that too.”

This edge has been recognised by each Barca coach since, as Busquets has racked up 32 club trophies including eight La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues, while never receiving the accolades of more high-profile colleagues.

The club has also regularly signed other holding midfielders along the way, but they always found the “Busquets role” in the team already filled. Pretty soon after arriving from Liverpool in 2010, Javier Mascherano realised he would have to convert to a centre-back to get a regular starting place in the team. “(Busquets) is made to play for this team, literally the perfect guy, I watch him and try to learn,” the Argentine said.

Almost a decade later, Barca paid €75 million to sign Europe’s best young deep midfielder in Frenkie de Jong. On arrival, De Jong was surprised by Busquets’ willingness to help him settle into the Catalan capital, even though the assumption by many was that he was coming to take his place in the team. “The first day I arrived in Barcelona before training even started, Sergio sent me a message to ask if I needed anything and he reserved a table in a restaurant for me and my girlfriend,” De Jong said. “He behaved really well with me.” The pair have since found a way to play together — often with the Dutchman having to adapt at centre-back or a more attacking role.

Outsiders rarely see this friendlier side of Busquets. In 2011, allegations of making a racist comment to Real Madrid defender Marcelo were never proven but cast a shadow. The Real coach Carlo Ancelotti was angered when Busquets appeared to stamp on Pepe’s head during a Clasico in March 2014. “If that with Busquets had happened the other way around, I don’t know what would have happened,” said the Italian, with his trademark eyebrow raised.

Busquets’ on-pitch performances have also been questioned more in recent seasons. One image of Barca’s increasingly embarrassing Champions League exits has been him floundering as opposition counter-attackers swarmed past him. When games become stretched, and play moves quickly from end to end, his lack of mobility has become more evident each year.

The flipside is that the attacking side of his game has become more and more important. With Xavi and Iniesta gone, Busquets’ range of passing grew. His connection with Messi also became more vital — especially the surprise quick vertical passes speared through the opposition’s defensive lines to find Messi in space. The two have also become closer off the pitch — two introverts with steel wills to win.

Busquets has also remained very close to Xavi, with whom he shares an obsession with football and tactics. He is rumoured to have pushed for his former team-mate to return as soon as possible as coach to return the team to the true path. Guardiola and Cruyff have both predicted that Busquets himself will one day become a coach himself and he admitted on Spanish radio just this week that he plans to give it a try once he hangs up his boots.

Busquets’ international career has also followed a similar line — strong backing from his coaches and team-mates, with ambivalence and antipathy from some outside.

Just over a year after making his Barca first-team debut, he was given a first Spain cap by national coach Vicente del Bosque. By the following summer he was an automatic starter in deep midfield alongside Xabi Alonso at the 2010 World Cup. Many pundits, especially in Madrid, did not agree with Busquets coming straight into the XI, but Del Bosque firmly defended the move.

“If I could be any player in today’s game, I would like to be Sergio Busquets,” said Del Bosque, a midfielder during his own playing career. “He does everything well, is always ready to help the team, he is generous, gives everything defensively and he gets the team playing. When he plays well, our football is more fluid.”

Busquets was taken off in Spain’s opener, a 1-0 defeat to Switzerland. He then played every minute of the next six games as they won the trophy without conceding in the knockout stages. At Euro 2012, he played every minute as Spain won a record third consecutive international tournament.

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil was not so much fun. Busquets was carrying a niggling ankle injury, and his team paid horribly. Just as at club level, he found himself taking on more and more responsibility for how Spain played, as fellow golden generation members left the stage, and the team struggled to cope. He once more played every single minute, at Euro 2016 and World Cup 2018, and those were more uncomfortable experiences for all involved.

All the while, Busquets has remained an enigma to most Spanish fans. Everyone felt they knew the views of his clubmates Xavi and Gerard Pique, about how the game should be played, or the issue of Catalan nationalism. Whenever asked about political issues, Busquets replied that he just focused on football. He also saw no need to share too much about his personal life — he is married with two young children, but his rare social media posts generally stick to football.

Some around the squad have said that Busquets actually conditions the team’s style, even more than whoever is the national coach. Newer team-mates quickly learn to take their cues from him, and the team is left rudderless when he is not at its centre to steady it. Liverpool’s Thiago, Atletico Madrid’s Koke and Manchester City’s Rodri have played as the pivot of Spain’s midfield at various times but managers from Del Bosque through Julen Lopetegui, Fernando Hierro and Robert Moreno to Luis Enrique have always gone back to Busi for the biggest games.

Although his influence on the team’s play was clear, becoming national captain was something different entirely. Busquets was always going to take the armband from the injured Sergio Ramos, as the squad member with next most caps, but nobody expected him to follow exactly the leadership line of the boisterous Andalusian.

“I have to be the leader, but in my own way, naturally,” Busquets told Del Bosque in an El Pais interview pre-tournament. “You know that I have always been a very discreet person, very simple, I don’t like the spotlight. I know my team-mates value that, they show me respect. They know I will always be there for them, on and off the pitch.”

Spain’s only warm-up friendly for the tournament, against Portugal at the Wanda Metropolitano, began in familiar fashion. Busquets committed a tactical foul inside 60 seconds and was soon booked for pulling down Joao Felix to stop another dangerous counter-attack.

That yellow was Busquets’ 21st booking in 123 caps — but he has never been sent off, another sign that he knows exactly where the line is. Luis Enrique was clearly very happy to have a player he knew so well from their time together at Barca as his new on-pitch leader. Both have more rough edges to their personalities, neither have cultivated friends among the media, but game recognises game.

Then came Busquets’ positive COVID-19 test a week before the tournament began. After he was sent home by ambulance to self-isolate, Luis Enrique was adamant he would not be calling up a replacement. “It’s not that I want to wait for Busi, it’s that I am going to wait for Busi,” Luis Enrique confirmed. “He is on our final list, for sure.” 

While away Busquets was in regular touch with his team-mates and sat in on team meetings remotely. But it was a tough experience, socially distant even from his family, watching alone on TV in Barcelona as Spain drew 0-0 with Sweden in their opening Euros game.

After his recovery was confirmed, he was applauded warmly back into the training camp, welcomed especially by club colleagues Jordi Alba and Pedri. He travelled with the squad for their second game but was left out of the match-day 23 and watched from the stands as they drew 1-1 with Poland. Rodri has long been seen as Busquets’ eventual successor at the base of Spain’s midfield, but he did not impress in either game. The team were unable to turn their mountains of possession into goals and were also very open to opposition counter-attacks.

So Busquets was always going to return for the final group game against Slovakia, with Spain’s entire tournament on the line.

Luis Enrique did not make big changes to their plan for the third game, they just did everything better. And their most important player was back at the centre of the team.

Most clearly, Busquets made a big difference in Spain moving the ball much quicker. He completed 44 of 51 passes, but most importantly 23.5 per cent of those passes went forward, compared to only 13.6 per cent of Rodri’s passes against Sweden and Poland. This extra verticality in the movement of the ball is just what Luis Enrique wants from his team, and what Busquets has learned to do with Messi over his career.

“You have to always do what the game requires,” Busquets told Del Bosque. “But that also depends on your team-mates, how they move, and the players you have in attack. I like a lot to filter passes inside (through the lines), which in the end is the most difficult thing from my position. To play it back, sideways, bring ‘pausa’ to the play, is fine. But there are moments when something else is needed. At Barca I tend to do it more, because we have Leo, and we understand each other well.”

Spain do not have a Messi; Alvaro Morata is a very different type of attacking focal point. But Busquets has always been able to adapt to the situations. Against Slovakia, his midfield colleagues took their cues from their more experienced leader, especially his young clubmate Pedri. And suddenly, they looked a different team.

Without the ball, Spain were also on the front foot from the off, with Busquets pushing right up into the opposition half, bringing his team-mates with him. His positioning and vigilance was key to stopping any counters and forcing Slovakia into mistakes. He made 18 pressures in total, and 11 in the middle third of the pitch — more than any other Spain player, even though he came off after 70 minutes.

It is also true that the other changes Luis Enrique made helped the team become more solid, compact and sure of what they were doing. Touch maps from the three group games show how Busquets kept patrolling the centre of the pitch, while Rodri had drifted more often towards the right. This was perhaps understandable as Marcos Llorente had been bombing on from right-back every chance he got during the first two games. Cesar Azpilicueta knew from experience when he needed to keep his position. This meant his team did not get stretched, avoiding the situations in which Busquets has struggled during the later stages of his career.

It was also noticeable how Spain’s conviction in themselves remained solid, even after Morata’s penalty miss, unlike in the previous game when heads fell when Moreno hit the post from the spot. That was further evidence of Busquets’ quiet but determined leadership from the centre of the team. There was even a trademark yellow card to stop a potentially dangerous Slovakia with 40 minutes played, and Spain’s lead at 1-0. A few minutes later Aymeric Laporte headed in a second goal and the danger was over.

With Spain already 4-0 up and 20 minutes of the game remaining, Busquets’ job was done, and he was replaced to a standing ovation at La Cartuja. The fans who had been whistling their players and been pessimistic about their team’s chances after the first two games were now roaring their support and looking forward to the knockout stages. His selection by UEFA as man of the match was universally agreed with.

Busquets is a very different leader from Ramos, or from Luis Enrique. Not given to shouting orders, or public shows of emotion, he has nonetheless been touched by all he and his team-mates have been through over recent weeks. His absence due to a COVID positive the week before the tournament had been a huge blow, but his return turned out to be perfectly timed.

The usually tough character also showed emotion during his post-game TV interview, admitting that when self-isolating at home he had been unsure whether he might miss the whole tournament.

“I didn’t know if I would be able to come back or not, but the group is strong…” he said, before having to pause and compose himself. “I really wanted to experience another Euros, which for sure will be the last for me. To be able to live it with this group is spectacular, and to represent my country. I hope this will be the route and we will gain confidence from this.”

The next stop on that path is Monday’s last-16 game against Croatia in Copenhagen — a game between two countries who have built a certain rivalry over Busquets’ international career.

Spain won 1-0 at Euro 2012, while Croatia got revenge four years later with a 2-1 group stage victory. In the Nations League in September 2018, a Spain team energised by Luis Enrique’s arrival as coach hammered the 2018 World Cup finalists 6-0. The Balkans again hit straight back a few months later with a 3-2 victory.

Busquets’ rough edges also came out in that most recent, and very feisty, encounter in Zagreb. When Ivan Perisic claimed a penalty late on for a push by Jordi Alba, Busi quickly rushed over to defend his team-mate, leading to a confrontation that ended with Perisic’s jersey ripped and both players booked.

Also involved in that push and shove was Croatia captain Luka Modric, who has crossed paths with Busquets regularly in Clasicos between Barca and Real Madrid. Both sides have had their periods of dominance, but Madrid have won the last three. Modric scored his team’s third goal in last October’s 3-1 at the Camp Nou, with Busquets scrambling back in vain after his team had been cut open on the break.

Now they meet again, in quite similar moments of their careers. Both have stayed with national set-ups in transition, as other long-serving peers have retired to focus on club football. Both are now absolutely crucial to their team’s play, despite being by far its oldest player. They are captains who lead by example rather than rhetoric. The day before Busquets’ return galvanised Spain against Slovakia, Modric’s stunning outside-of-the-boot goal and fine assist secured the 2-0 victory over Scotland which clinched their place in the last 16. 

“Croatia have lost some players but they have good youngsters who help them a lot,” Busquets said after the Slovakia game. “Their captain (Modric) is a great player and we know him well from La Liga. It will be difficult but we are also a great team, who are difficult to beat, and hopefully we can go through.”

There are also some pretty clear differences between the pair. Modric is liked by almost everyone throughout football, his own team-mates and opposition players, coaches and fans. He has also won regular individual awards, including the 2018 Ballon d’Or.

Busquets has never had such universal acclaim. While his team-mates and coaches love him, the most he has received from rivals has been grudging respect. But then he has never gone looking for the plaudits.

The last few weeks have pushed Busquets further into the spotlight than he would have wanted. And now people might finally understand just how great he has been, on and off the pitch.

(Photo: UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

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