Barça Needs Urgent Fix: Marc Bernal's Departure Fuels Concerns Ahead
More than a pivot: Barcelona should change how they see Marc Bernal For the outside world, Marc Bernal’s recent goals have come as a pleasant surprise. For FC Barcelona, though, this should feel more like a rediscovery. Bernal has been widely framed as the next Sergio Busquets emerging out of La Masia: a pivot who is tactically disciplined, positionally astute and secure in circulation.
However, ever since his academy days, he has always been more than that. For all his positional brilliance and defensive awareness, scoring goals has always been a part of his identity. And this is important because Barcelona are left with an important question.
It is not about whether Bernal can score goals because it has already been established that he can do that. The real question is whether or not they are profiling him correctly. The numbers were there long before the headlines At a club like Barca, it is often easy to be romantic and try and draw parallels between the present and the glorious past.
A tall, lanky, long-limbed Spanish midfielder coming through La Masia warrants comparison to only one player from the past, Busquets. However, if you dig into the fine print, it tells you a story. Bernal scored an astonishing 280 goals in 286 games across his years in La Masia.
Bernal is more than just a pivot. (Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images) In the U-8 team, he scored 58 goals in 28 matches, 50 in 29 for Benjamin C, and 39 in 35 for Benjamin A. Those are not figures you brush aside as a quirky footnote.
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