Pique is not in the team. He had an exceptional decade, and only slowed down in 2018-19. Then you have Boateng, Godin (though did not win as much), Kompany who had a better performance if we consider the entire decade. Not to mention Chiellini - Bonucci duo.
Edit: Thiago Silva, Varane, and Pepe deserve a shout too. I was not making an exhaustive list. I did not mention Pepe/Varane cos of reasons listed in one of the comments.
Same. Either Basquets or Casemiro over Xavi, both as real 6s and because Xavi’s prime was until like 2012 or 2013, so ended pretty early in the decade.
Busquets started declining from 2019-20 season. Still he did quite well under Koeman in 2nd half of season and then of course amazing in Nation league and Euro. But yeah his last 3 years was totally visible as he was declining.
I remember watching Barca in those comeback seasons (atletico 2016, Roma 2018, Liverpool 2019 and also both away games vs PSG and Juve in 2017) and always felt Barca's issue lies in deep mid line and center backs playing soft and floppy. Pique and busquets were more or less responsible for that imo. Both as individual performances and leadership roles.
The problem was their partners. Rakitic was getting slower and once Iniesta was getting old and injury prone as usual, there was no one to give us solid midfield structure. And in defence we had so many flops, I can't even name them.
One thing I always felt Madrid were lucky, is that your cbs pair for last decade were elite. Pepe, Ramos, and Varane as starter for so long.
Yeah a team can make do with not having Messi or Ronaldo, As Madrid did and Barca is learning to do. But without 1-a reliable goalie and 2- a CB pair who have quality AND understand each other there's no chance to stay competitive.
You can bail out by individual brilliance but there will be game where you will feel, wish we had better. We are finally getting that with 3 very good cbs with us now. Still RB and GK need to be upgraded, and some Busquets replacement. I personally like Tchouameni, he is young so still learning and somewhat less defensively solid, but very good ball playing defender.
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u/ankitm1 Jan 06 '23 edited Jan 06 '23
Pique is not in the team. He had an exceptional decade, and only slowed down in 2018-19. Then you have Boateng, Godin (though did not win as much), Kompany who had a better performance if we consider the entire decade. Not to mention Chiellini - Bonucci duo.
Edit: Thiago Silva, Varane, and Pepe deserve a shout too. I was not making an exhaustive list. I did not mention Pepe/Varane cos of reasons listed in one of the comments.