Barcelona’s dominant sides of the 2010s were, at times, all but unbeatable. They’d draw you out of your shell, patiently wait for you to get brave enough to make a little change to your defensive shape, then BANG! A defence-splitting pass or a drop of the shoulder, and you’re dead.
The only way it’s possible to play that was is to have a holding midfielder who is completely immune to being pressed. Someone the defence can trust to receive the ball in any situation and know that the ball isn’t going to be lost.
Sergio Busquets was that guy for Barca. He had eyes in the back of his head, the sides of his head, the top of his head, and one in each hand like that spooky creature from Pan’s Labyrinth. That’s how it seemed, anyway.
It was suicidal to put any sort of pressure on him when in possession, because he was just going to give a subtlest swivel of the hips and leave you crashing into empty space.
Every part of the team is crucial—Leo Messi was the best in the world, Iniesta and Xavi were phenomenal, and the fullbacks were tireless—but when you take Busquets out of the tapestry, the whole thing turns into a pile of loose threads.
Busquets has been gone for a full year now, and Barca desperately need a replacement.
Step forward, Marc Bernal. The only place on Earth that could produce another Sergio Busquets is La Masia. And La Masia may well have done just that. Bernal, a 17-year-old who has been part of the La Masia setup since he was six years old, started Barca’s opening La Liga fixture of the season on Saturday—a 2-1 victory over Valencia—alongside Marc Casado in midfield.
Casado is another La Masia graduate, whose surname means ‘married’ in Catalan. Mark Married. Whilst 20-year-old Casado is defence-minded but also a ball-carrier with speed and physicality, Bernal is a 6’3″ Busquets regen who binds the team together.
Bernal is left-footed, tall, strong, he has that same awareness that Busquets had, he’s got a wonderful weight of pass, he’s defensively solid, and he’s not afraid to nutmeg an opponent on the edge of his own penalty area.
It really is like watching a young Busquets, to the point that it’s a bit weird.
With the two Marcs in midfield, Lamine Yamal on the right wing, Pau Cubarsi at centre-back, and Alejandro Balde at left-back, literally half of Barca’s starting XI for the season-opener against Valencia were 20-year-old or younger La Masia graduates. Hansi Flick may well have gold on his hands, here.
In Cubarsi they’ve got an heir to Gerard Pique—a ball-playing centre-back with a big brain, in Balde they have Jordi Alba’s rapid replacement,
Casado is more of an all-rounder than Xavi or Iniesta but he’ll do very nicely alongside Pedri or Gavi, Lamine Yamal is a superstar already and he’s only just 17—he’ll occupy the right-wing Leo Messi vacated a few years back.
And now Marc Bernal looks set to step into the boots of Sergio Busquets as the lynchpin that keeps the whole machine bound together.
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Real Madrid have their new Galacticos—Bellingham, Vini Jr, Endrick, Mbappe, Camavinga etc. and there’s every chance they’ll dominate La Liga this season, with names like that.
Real Madrid’s first wave of Galacticos lasted five or six years, when Florentino Perez brought in Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, and David Beckham.
Barcelona didn’t topple that team by following suit (although they did sign Ronaldinho from a much less well-off PSG), they overcame them via the brilliance of La Masia.
History has a terrifying habit of repeating itself, and our guess is that the 2024 Galacticos of Los Blancos have another year or two to enjoy in the sun before Barca’s new crop of homegrown superstars properly come of age and dominate for a decade or more.
Marc Bernal might just be the last piece of that jigsaw, completing the La Masia spine of the team, ensuring that DNA filtered into the new era—the post-Messi era.
Keep an eye on Marc Bernal—we’ve got a feeling you’re going to be seeing a lot more of him in the months and years to come.
By Andrew Martin
