Sergio Busquets left FC Barcelona at the end of last season after having spent his entire career up to that point in the midfield pivot position at the Catalan club.
His experience, skills, and understanding of the game made him a unique player, and Barcelona or any other club would have been very lucky to get a similar replacement for him.
Keeping in view the difficulty of finding such a player, the Catalans took a different approach and got Oriol Romeu, who had impressed Xavi with his positional play and ability to bring stability to the midfield. Ever since his arrival this summer, Romeu has been a part of Xavi’s squad, mostly as a starter.
Barcelona not looking for another pivot
However, the midfielder had his worst game after returning to Barcelona in the Champions League tie against Porto. He lost numerous balls in that match, leading to dangerous chances for the opposition to score.
But the player had also been making such mistakes in the matches prior to the Porto one, leading to rumors of Barcelona looking for another midfield pivot in the winter market. These rumors have been countered in a report from Marca, which claims that Barcelona do not intend to sign another pivot during the winter.
Xavi and the sporting department have full confidence in Romeu, and even if he is out of form for some matches, Xavi can play other players like Ilkay Gundogan Frenkie de Jong, Sergi Roberto, Andreas Christensen, or Gavi or in his position.
Ilkay Gundogan has already played at the pivot position in the last La Liga match against Granada, as Romeu was rested in the first match after the Champions League tie against Porto.
New signings only to be made in summer
The report further claims that Barcelona will wait till the next summer transfer window to go into the market to strengthen the positions that only have one player available, i.e., pivot, center-forward, and right-back.
This is especially the case as the club has already gone beyond its FFP constraints, and is not confident about being able to change the situation by January.
Even if this situation is mitigated, the first priority for Barcelona is Vitor Roque’s incorporation into the squad. This operation is impossible in the current state of finances at the club, but the Catalans have three months to turn things around.
