Two of the best Defensive Midfielders: Sergio Busquets & Alex Song
Sergio Busquets is regarded as one of the spanish greats. His vision, technical ability, awareness is phenomenal however what Sergio does not have Alex Song does. Alex Song is in my opinion has been very underrated for what he has done in the 3 years at Arsenal. His awareness, vision, technical ability is up their with the best.
To compare Busquets to Song technically Busquets would win however Song is not that far behind. What makes Alex Song stand out is his ability physically to dominate opponents. He is quick, agile, strong in the tackle, and can read the game. Busquets reads the game very well however he is not quick. Barcelona have lately struggled with pace at the back and in the Defensive Central Midfield Role against Madrid. Song could be that player. Song is good enough technically to be able to posses and penetrate the Barcelona style of play. Barcelona already have Xavi and Iniesta or Fabregas to orchestrate the play and maybe they need that bit of physical dominance and speed to support the team defensively?
You cannot take away the brilliance of Busquets and his footballing mind though. He has been one of the main reasons behind Barcelona’s success: Here is a great video of Busquets’ attacking and defensive qualities.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijDdpNxPyPU
Here is a clip of Alex Song’s Defensive and Attacking qualities
More proof statistically of Song’s ability to create was the fact that he finished fourth in overall assists last season (via the EPLIndex Top Stats area):
Maybe Song will be his cover when Busquets is injured but I believe Song has all the attributes to fill the position and maybe give Barca another option. Both players are versatile (and can play Central Defender) and can fit into Barcelona’s 4-3-3 style of play very easily. Alex song was a great purchase by Barcelona as I feel they need a little more pace when defending against teams like Madrid on the counter attack.
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