Monday, May 31, 2010

FC Barcelona does not need Cesc Fabregas

Barcelona are a great team. They play a brand of football that impresses everyone. Their style of play is very creative and depends a lot on smooth flowing short passes and holding onto the ball. The creative genius of Xavi in particular and the trio of Xavi, Iniesta and Messi is general, more often than not, prove too much to handle for opposition teams. None of these players is leaving anytime soon so why is everyone related to Barcelona talking about signing Fabregas?

Cesc Fabregas is an extremely creative midfielder. The moves he creates and the passes he gives are exceptional and he can score goals too. All that creativity, most people argue, will be good for Barcelona who already have one Xavi who does the same.

My argument is simple. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Too much creativity in the center might be good if you have a lone striker in front but Barcelona almost play with 3 strikers. Yes messi starts behind the strikers but regularly dribbles past defenders and ends up scoring more than the actual strikers (Ibra, Henry, Pedro and Bojan). With so much fire power up front, with one of them (Messi) floating around and another (Iniesta) close by to compound Xavi's creative efforts, where would fabregas fit in?

But what if Xavi is injured? Who can fill his shoes if Cesc is not there? On such a day, Guardiola can switch the team to a 4-4-2 formation with Messi stepping back into central midfield to help Iniesta because with the arrival of David Villa the front line is more potent than ever and one can expect Villa to add the sort of clinical striking to barca which would allow the team to use Messi in a more anchor role, in Xavi's absence,to supply passes and through balls which is actually pretty good at.

In the end, I have to admit I would love to see Fabregas playing with Iniesta and Xavi in place of the overrated Busquets but then I would love to see Rooney and Messi play together too. Barca does not "need" to sign Fabregas right now. Let him play at Arsenal for one more season and focus more on defensive weaknesses.
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