The struggles of Song and Fabregas at Barcelona show how far Arsenal have fallen behind Europe’s elite
Former Liverpool defender Rigobert Song has admitted his cousin Alex is finding life hard at Barcelona, and is struggling with the transition that has seen him go from being a leader at the Emirates to a bit part player at the Camp Nou. Song's situation isn't all that surprising considering the players he is competing with, and his lack of action coupled with Cesc Fabregas' similar struggle to prove himself at Barcelona can be looked at as part of a grander theme. Could it be that the difference in the duo's stature at the Camp Nou compared to their former home, the Emirates, is indicative of how far Arsenal have fallen behind Europe's elite?
With Robin van Persie perennially injured, few would doubt that during his peak years at Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas was the club's best player by some distance. The man who pulled the strings in their midfield, scored a decent amount of goals, and stepped up to the plate in pressure situations, including burying a penalty against his boyhood club in 2010, Fabregas was a true captain who led by example. At Barcelona, however, he is now forced to adapt to an entirely different environment.
Fabregas has gone from an established position at the top of the pile at Arsenal to facing the wrath of Barcelona's often fickle, but on this occasion, not unreasonable fanbase. The Catalans have explored a multitude of options in order to try and accommodate him in their starting XI, but in truth, he is still struggling to convince them that it's worth the effort. At the time of his transfer, the thinking was that Fabregas would ultimately replace Xavi, but when he is picked ahead of the Barca vice-captain in the centre of midfield, the team lose some of their dominance and miss the veteran's ability to control a game against even the finest of opponents.
As an alternative, former manager Pep Guardiola and his successor Tito Vilanova both explored the option of moving Andres Iniesta out wide, allowing Fabregas to play a central role alongside Xavi, and though that has worked to varying degrees on a few occasions, the general consensus is that the cons outweigh the pros, as it lessens Iniesta's impact on the game, with the number eight far more effective in the middle. Barcelona have also used him in place of Lionel Messi, in a false nine role, a job Fabregas has taken on with aplomb for the Spanish national team, and while he has been successful against weaker opposition on the domestic front, against quality sides the difference between Messi and his understudy has been clear.
Two recent games in the space of a week tell the story. The first was Barcelona's 5-0 victory over Mallorca on 6 April. With Lionel Messi injured, Fabregas got the nod, and as well as scoring his first career hat-trick, he provided two assists for Alexis Sanchez. It is one thing to dominate a team that were, at the time, propping up La Liga, and quite another to do so in a Champions League quarter-final however. Fabregas had the opportunity to prove he could achieve both when he started ahead of a half-fit Messi against PSG. The result wasn't pretty.
Admittedly, with the exception of Victor Valdes, Barcelona were generally not up to scratch across the pitch against the French side, but Fabregas's invisibility was particularly startling. Indeed, his only real moments of note were a careless backheel in which he conceded possession, and a handful of occasions when he opted against passing to a completely unmarked Dani Alves, instead taking shots on goal that ended up high, wide and ugly. Hogging the ball is tolerable if the player then goes on to create something dangerous, as Lionel Messi often does, but when the results are consistently wasteful it has to be attributed to poor decision making. Notably, within seconds of the Argentine coming on in place of Fabregas against Carlo Ancelotti's side, Barcelona scored, suggesting his showing against Mallorca was another false dawn, leaving the role he is best suited to at Barcelona still unclear.
It's safe to say that Alex Song isn't quite on Fabregas' level as a player. After all, the latter is a multiple trophy winner at international level and has played a key part in all of those campaigns, while the former has yet to win anything of note as a senior player. There is no doubt, though, that in Song's final years at Arsenal he was a key protagonist for Arsene Wenger, with Fabregas gone and Jack Wilshere often injured. Robin van Persie aside, there are many who would suggest Song was the most important player for the north London side in the 2011/12 campaign, providing vital assists and driving them on from midfield in the absence of Wilshere. At Barcelona, however, his performances have varied between unconvincing to, at times, those of a complete liability.
When Barcelona signed Song the PR line the club fed to its supporters was that they were getting two players in one. On the one hand, he was someone who could provide cover for Sergio Busquets in defensive midfield after the departure of Seydou Keita, who himself had struggled to adapt to the midfield pivot role in his final season with the club, and on the other, Song was billed as a competent centre-back. This was for the inevitable scenario that injuries and suspensions would take their toll on Carles Puyol, Gerard Pique, and Javier Mascherano.
Song's suitability to perform in defence has been all but shot down, though. At the start of the season he featured as a centre-back on several occasions, playing 360 minutes there before Christmas, and to say the Cameroon international was shaky is an understatement. His horror show against Sevilla was particularly difficult to watch, where he produced his best deer in the headlights impersonation as Barcelona conceded two goals and needed a stoppage time winner from David Villa to spare their blushes. As the season has progressed, Tito Vilanova has quietly abandoned the experiment of playing him in the back four. So much so, that the Catalans have opted to field converted full-back Adriano, ahead of him in the centre against Real Madrid and PSG.
In midfield, his performances have been more mixed. Things didn't look good initially, with Song's inability to read the game as effectively as Sergio Busquets obvious, while the lack of positional discipline Arsenal fans have complained of in the past was also evident. Gradually, he has improved, but when chosen ahead of Busquets there is a notable drop in Barcelona's passing rhythm, as Song lacks the Catalan's ability to receive, control and lay-off the ball in tight situations - that 'half-touch' Xavi famously spoke of that allows Barca to stay one step ahead of the opposition. Song has probably performed best when fielded alongside Busquets rather than ahead of him, allowing the team to compensate for his erratic positioning, but if that is the only way to accommodate him without losing control of a game, then by definition the Cameroonian has failed to achieve the duties he was tasked with when Barcelona signed him, namely to take pressure off Busquets and to cover at centre-half.
With years left on both of their contracts, both Song and Fabregas may yet go on to triumph in Spain, and the latter in particular may flourish when Xavi's career comes to an end. At a combined cost of around £42m, however, they are at genuine risk of representing poor value for money. The fact that Barcelona have had to explore multiple options in order to accommodate the pair, rather than seamlessly slotting them in to the system that has made the club so successful, casts doubt on their true suitability to the needs of the team.
At Arsenal there was no such problem, and if the pair were to return to the club today there is little doubt they would stroll into Arsene Wenger's starting line up, and improve the team dramatically as a result. While that says a lot about the difficulty of achieving success with talent like Barcelona, it also speaks volumes about how far Arsenal have fallen behind Europe's elite. For the moment, it seems the big fish in the Emirates pond aren't quite so big when they are forced to compete with fellow heavyweights elsewhere.
Arsenal fans: would you like to see Song and Fabregas back at the Emirates Stadium? Comment below…