Oriol Busquets

Stop us if you have heard this somewhere before: Busquets is a La Masia graduate who plays for a Catalan club called Barcelona. He is a prospect of the famed academy in a defensive midfield or a “pivot” role but can also slot as deep as a centre-back due to his versatile skill-set as well as height. Busquets is mostly known for his excellent close control, calmness on and off the ball, tactical awareness of his surroundings and ability to break down opposition’s play as well as orchestrate his own’s.

Clearly, if you told someone of such a player, they would instantly think of Sergio Busquets, arguably the best pivot in world football. Well, you, and they would be close but not really there because we are talking about Busquets, just not Sergio but Oriol.

Funnily enough, they do not share a blood bond, but everything else looks to be an exact copy. Even their fathers occupied the same positions. Sergio is the son of Carlos Busquets, the goalkeeper, and Oriol is the son of Jordi Busquets, also a goalkeeper in his own time. An amusing coincidence, so to speak, but not much more than that.

But it seems that the surname of Busquets does hold some Barcelona pedigree since both Sergio and Oriol have similar attributes, and while one already has a legacy of his own, the other is destined to make his in the not-so-distant future.

This tactical analysis will use statistics and insight to determine what makes Oriol Busquets the perfect heir to his namesake, Sergio, and whether the latter’s replacement is already at the club, regardless of Barcelona’s urgency to find one in someone else’s “backyard”.

Player Overview

We already mentioned some of Oriol’s key aspects but let’s delve into that a bit deeper before we actually start dissecting his play. At the age of just 19, he is yet to fully transform into a complete persona on the field. And yet, as early into his footballing career as he might be, he is often described as the “mature one” on the field.

Whether you need him in defense or attack, you can count on his work rate to be absolutely astonishing. Although he is 61 (185 cm), Oriol is neither particularly strong nor physical but is also not afraid to commit to a duel. This does, however, help him in aerial battles but limits him when it comes to speed and agility.

Still, on the ball, he is as safe and reliable as you would expect from a Busquets. Vision, anticipation, close control, passing capabilities and overall technicality cannot be questioned and are of highest quality but also, it needs to be pointed out, still in development.

On the field, in a dominant 65% of the time, he will occupy that pivot position but can also be deployed as a more aggressive right midfielder (9%) or even as a center-back, among other, not so prominent roles, and in those, he was used 26% of the time.

The Little Octopus

Sergio Busquets got his nickname, “The Octopus of Badia” because it always seems like he has a solution for every problem presented to him. It was so much so that you could say he has eight legs because that is the only way how he is able to do what he does. Oriol is not really there yet but how could he be, at 19 years old and with only crumbs of first-team football to his name.

Still, ever since he made his Barcelona B debut in the 2016/2017 season, Oriol has been gathering pace and hype to his name. As a Catalan born and raised, albeit in Girona, he had La Masian DNA even before entering the pitch. It did not take long for others to notice that, as well.

One of h