De Jong, Busquets and Arthur: It’s when the magic happens

Photo by David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images

Ernesto Valverde needs to stick with the trio

If there is one thing we can take away from the 2-2 draw at El Sadar besides Ansu Fati’s incredible courage, and promising talent, it is that Frenkie de Jong, Sergio Busquets and Arthur Melo should always be the men in charge to run Barca’s midfield. Against Osasuna, Ernesto Valverde resorted back to the same line-up that shred Real Betis to pieces in the second matchday of La Liga Santander, with hopes of that same story playing out again.

However, the first half which featured De Jong, Busquets and Sergi Roberto in the center was not as glamorous nor as productive as we would have liked it to be. Ball movement was slow and there was minimal creativity being fabricated, something very uncharacteristic from the Catalans. There was something missing between the three Blaugrana footballers, something was off and Valverde eventually got the memo at the start of the second half, pushing Arthur in the middle while Sergi Roberto slid back to his famous right-back position. From then on, the magic appeared, the magic the fans were waiting for. Barcelona were in complete cruise control, displaying some beautiful football once again and the credit needs to be given to the midfield. Thanks to their domination, two goals were scored, one from the youngster Ansu Fati, who deserves a whole separate story and the second from Arthur, the man in charge of fine-tuning the midfield and returning the creative juices to the team.

The midfield is undoubtedly Barca’s backbone. If their players can link up well, witnessing beautiful football never becomes a doubt.

On September 14th, the Blaugrana host Valencia at the Camp Nou and all eyes will be on Valverde to see if he can play his cards right, and this time from the initial whistle.

Source: barcablaugranes.com