5 players who became stars under Pep Guardiola

#2 Sergio Busquets

Sergio Busquets is currently an indispensable member of the Barcelona team, but his rise to prominence at Barcelona was not easy. The Spaniard kept several world class defensive midfielders out of the Barcelona first team to cement his place in the squad.

Busquets, like many others, made his Barcelona debut under Pep Guardiola and it was during Guardiola’s first season in charge. Busquets, who was just 20 years old at the time, kept experienced players like Yaya Toure and Seydou Keita out of the team and both of them moved to other clubs in search of first team action.

In 2010, an in form Javier Mascherano arrived from Liverpool to provide competition to Busquests. But to date, the Argentine had to play a majority of his games for Barcelona as a centre back. The latest casualty to this list of defensive midfielders kept out of the eleven by Busquets was Alex Song.

Busquets was the deepest midfielder in the three man midfield Barcelona played under Guardiola. The Spaniard was a very good ball playing defensive midfielder and was perfect for Guardiola’s tactics. He sat deep in midfield and rarely ventured forward. Busquets, who is an excellent reader of the game, had to break up the opposition play when Barcelona didn’t have the ball and then started the attack from the back. This was a vital part of Barcelona’s quick passing game as they often start from the back.

The Spaniard was also responsible for keeping possession for long durations and according to Squawka, he has an impressive pass completion rate of 92% from 2012/13 season to the current season. The case was similar during the Guardiola era as well.