Barcelona: Why Valverde prefers Sergi Roberto

One name has been consistently overlooked for the past few seasons when talking about the fundamental players at Barcelona, and that name is Sergi Roberto.

The fans and media massively underrate the Barca homegrown player, maybe because of the fact that he earned his place in the starting lineup as a makeshift right-back and still has that image of Dani Alves' temporary replacement.

But when looking at it closely, it seems he is much more important.

Sergi Roberto came into the Barca youth system in 2006 and made his first-team debut in the November of 2010 in a Copa del Rey match against Ceuta. Barcelona's coach at that time, Pep Guardiola, gave his opinion of him in following words

"Sergi Roberto is a player to look out for in the coming years. When he breaks through you'll all be surprised."

And this prophecy seems to be true, looking at his past performances.

But this has not been served on a silver platter to him. In fact, after making his debut, he had played only 12 games in all competition in the next three years. At that time, he was fluctuating between the senior team and the B-team. It was in the season of 13-14, he officially became a first team player.

In the first two seasons, he unsuccessfully tried to break into the starting lineup and it's understandable because the midfield at that time consisted of Xavi, Busquets and Iniesta.

But his real break didn't come in midfield, it came in defence. In 2016, Dani Alves' departure to Juventus created a void on the right side of the defence. The board tried to sign a specialist right-back but it didn't work out.

At that time, the right-back position had few options, so Enrique decided to rely on the La Masia graduate and since that day, Roberto has made that spot his own.

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Analysis of Sergi Roberto's role in Ernesto Valverde's side:

Since the time of Guardiola, Barcelona has been playing with a very unsymmetrical formation. The left side of formation looks completely different from the right side. The reason is Lionel Messi as he likes to play a free role and continuously changes his position between the right flank and the centre.

Now here is where the role of Roberto is essential. When Messi drifts inside, the whole right side becomes completely blank. This, in turn, makes the whole team very predictable. Sergi Roberto has to assume responsibility for the space left by Messi and to create attacks from the right-hand side.

Many raised questions about his defensive contribution. When the opposite winger is pacey and skilful enough, Roberto finds himself out of place, but still then, most of the time he gives an overall positive contribution.

Right now, Nelson Semedo's defensive attributes are better but he lacks his attacking instinct. In fact, there are few fullbacks who have the attacking instinct of Roberto because he had cultivated this by playing as a midfielder in early years of his career.

Sergi Roberto is also very versatile. In today's football, as the difference between the various positions is fading away, it is necessary to have players who are versatile and one of them is Sergi Roberto. You can literally put him anywhere on the field except in between the goal posts and he will put a fine performance. This becomes possible due to his intelligence, skillset and his sheer determination which is somewhat a rare combination without a doubt.

Barcelona are strongly striving towards their dream of winning another treble and Sergi Roberto's presence is necessary for that to happen.