I’ve been one of the folks who has compared Busquets to Guardiola, Genis, and your description, quoted above, is precisely what I mean. I think that’s also what diffrentiates Busquets from Yaya, and quite possibly makes him more desirable in the Guardiola scheme.

Yaya’s agent’s comments have the big, giant suck. Yaya should have immediately said “I’m here for as long as Barca want me, my agent is crazy.” I’m kinda bummed that he didn’t. It picks at my man crush a little bit.

And hey, all of our captains are from the nursery. How ’bout that?

I think that Busquets is just a different kind of DM than Yaya. There will be sides for which Yaya is better, and sides for which Busquets is better. Remember Yaya chasing down Brandao during the Shakhtar match, saving Alves’ bacon and calmly stopping an attack.

The problem is 3 DMs. I can’t think of a side that carries 3 DMs. Keita was just purchased, Busquets is here to stay I think, which means what for Yaya?

naturally, he did make some good passes and tackles, but we shouldn’t expect anything less from a starting player for FC Barcelona. however his erratic passing was a problem, and i would wager a large sum that we wouldn’t see Yaya making similar errors. everyone that plays football has bad games, from me to Messi, so we could say that this just wasn’t a good game for Busquets. but i think on this game we could say that he’s not quite ready for a starting place yet.

i also think Bojan would take exception to your estimation of youth-team products .

“[I think] that some comments that I’ve read here are *downplaying* Busi’s performance, perhaps because their authors see Busi as a threat to Yaya. I think that Busi doesn’t deserve AT ALL those comments…”.

Busi didn’t make “a handful of giveaways directly to Atleti players in dangerous areas”. He did only *two* and in the first minutes. Accordig to TV3, he gave 60 good passes out of 69. I don’t remember how many steals he made, etc. But sure he did *something* more that those two giveaways, sure he did contribute something to that 6-1: I wouldn’t say that, apart from those two giveaways, he was a mere bystander the rest of the match. And as far as opinions go, mine is that he’s the most talented nursery guy we’ve seen since Messi. Not that majority means anything, but, as I commented elsewhere, there’s been an almost unprecedented unanimity among the Catalan (and Spanish) sports media celebrating his unexpected appearance and praising his game.

Now that I’m at it, let me address some comments here and at Pep’s blog talking about a supposed resemblance between Pep and Busi that favors Busi in the eyes of Pep. That resemblance is practically non-existent. If Pep wanted a clone of himself, that was Marc Crosas, but not Busi. Pep was *never* a defensive midfielder, among other things because of his physical fragility. He occupied that position (called “number 4″) in the Dream Team, but his role was purely that of an offensive “postman”, distributing the play quickly and wisely to the other midfielders and forwards. And in this role, he was the best. OTOH, Busi is something *new*, a “modern” DM.

I don’t wish Yaya to go. He sacrified himself for the team when other players were bailing out on it. I think we need him. This season is very long and there will be plenty of play time for everybody, and, as other have pointed out, he is the most apt DM for certain important matches. Having said that, let me tell you the *bad* news: Last night (CE time), at the Catalan sports radio program with more audience and influence (”Tu diràs”, RAC1), they interviewed by telephone Yaya’s agent. And the bad news is that the agent *complained* on Yaya’s behalf because of his lack of play time. That was a very unintelligent move on the part of Yaya and/or his agent because that means that he’s leaving the “pinya”. The half dozen commentators that gather at this program each night were really consternated by that reaction, and the same happened with the audience according to the telephone calls and e-mails they received. So, unless Yaya contradicts publicly and quickly his agent’s words, things will only get worse during these days devoid of other news until the Liga resumes.

From El Montseny

look, i think Busquets is a good player with tremendous potential: he’s just not up to the task yet. on Pep’s blog i recommended he be given the position of Yaya’s understudy. not only would this be in keeping with my opinions on their relative abilities, but would seem fair; Busquets being a recently promoted former B-teamer and Yaya putting in a refreshing and vital performance over last season in the first team. we need to keep the former to often fill in for the latter if we’re going to be involved in 3 competitions a season.

comparing a dumb giveaway on our side of the pitch to a chance created out of nothing after taking on 4 players isn’t quite the same .

but i’m inclined to agree about Keita. i don’t know who was in charge of his transfer. he was an excellent and integral part of the Sevilla side for the past few seasons (that did play some very exciting football), but the style of play that he honed in his time at Sevilla doesn’t seem to translate here. i hope he can make the adjustment, he’s a good player. but we’re not seeing it so far.

i dont think its fair to say that at all.

(A) Gudjohnsen is a 30 year old man, captain of a national soccer team. Seasoned veteren is an understatement.

Busquets is a 20 year old rookie who was putting in his (second?) appearance ever for a senior side. It is not a fair comparison to make. He is young and inexpereienced. Pique sometimes shows sloppy defending, and Messi quite often shows sloppy finishing. its something that will wane as they gain years and playing time.

(B) This one is more opinion that fact, but was Busquets awful against Atletico? If you look at the whole game. Did he play awful? or Did he make commit one error that was emphasized by the fact that it resulted in a goal. Had the shot gone high, would people make that big a deal about it? (or if valdez was on his line where he belongs?) Was there miscomunication between him and Xavi?

I think that besides this play, where he commited a mistake, he played a good game, specially considering he is 20 years old facing Atletico Madrid.

His mistake caused us a goal against. Messi’s miss cost us a goal in favor.

Btw, in my above post, I’m not so much saying that we should get rid of Keita, as saying that in hindsight he might not have been the best of purchases. But who knows… no one could have guessed Busquets playing as well as he is. And besides, even the deepest of squads wear thin as the season progresses, theres no doubt Keita get opportunites to show his worth… i hope…

As you pointed out Jason, Marquez can adequately cover the defensive midfield position also. If Txiki had known of Busquets’ emergence I wonder if he would have added a midfielder with a little more forward thinking? Maybe the likes of Lucho Gonzalez who is a solid CM who is deadly arriving into the box…

Tomatutomate, if I am ever playing online I’ll surely join you in a few games.

and Busquets was awful against Atletico. potentially game-losingly awful. if Gudjohnsen had played as bad as Busquets had, we’d be calling for him to be fed to wolves.

If were ever in C.L. however, and are facing an english team, or a team with a strong CAM, then i would hands down start Yaya.

I unfortunately dont see one specific case where i would start Keita. I’ll admit i was excited when i head we bought him, but his performances have been, not bad, but not impressive. And i think that 3 DMs for barcelona are too many. The last thing we need is unsettled players leading to locker room drama.

I think we only really need 2 DMs. Toure if we need a strong force in the midfield that will destroy any attack, (like Gattuso plays) and Busquets, a technically gifted midfielder who can contribute to the attack, and provide extra cover to the back line (like Pirlo plays). Besides, if God forbid, one of our DMs gets injured, Rafa Marquez can hold down that position quite well. Specially considering how deep our list of Center backs is; Puyol, Pique, Marquez, Caceres, Milito (when he comes back), and Abidal knows how to play CB.