Busquets on Barca bench in Valverde shake-up

COACH Ernesto Valverde has shaken up the player hierarchy at Barcelona by daring to leave Sergio Busquets on the bench.

Busquets has been a seemingly irreplaceable presence in Barcelona’s midfield with more than 500 matches in a career that has included three UEFA Champions League titles and eight Spanish league championships.

No other player at Barcelona has matched his ability to singlehandedly hold down the midfield as the first line of defense, sweeping up balls and tackling opponents while remaining unflappable under intense pressure.

But the 31-year-old Busquets has reached the point in his career where he may no longer be a fixture of Barcelona’s starting 11 against the biggest opponents.

Trailing a goal to Inter Milan on Wednesday in the UCL, Valverde made the surprise move of removing Busquets and sending on Arturo Vidal. The move paid off when Vidal’s pass was blasted in by Luis Suarez, who scored again in the 2-1 win.

Valverde doubled down on that change on Sunday night at Camp Nou, when he left Busquets on the bench while starting Vidal in a 4-0 Spanish league win against Sevilla.

Vidal came through even more this time, providing muscle and hustle in the midfield and scored a goal which helped to put the result beyond doubt before halftime.

His inclusion in the starting 11 meant Frenkie de Jong shifted back into Busquet’s holding position. De Jong worked hard to do his best Busquets imitation, thrilling the crowd with a fancy spin move to escape two defenders and keep possession.

Busquets came on as a substitute in the second half.

The 32-year-old Vidal joined Barcelona before last season from Bayern Munich. The Chile midfielder has won league titles with Bayern in Germany, with Juventus in Italy, and in Spain last season. “I would have liked to play more games, but we have a lot of midfielders,” he said.

Valverde also left Antoine Griezmann on the bench after he had started every game since joining Barcelona from Atletico Madrid last summer. The Frenchman has scored three times but otherwise has seemed out of sync with his teammates for long stretches of games.

Ousmane Dembele took his place and scored before the break. He was later sent off after saying the referee was “very bad”. That means Griezmann will likely be back next round.

(AP)