Leeds United’s Marc Roca could be one of the candidates to take Sergio Busquets place in the Spain squad after the Barcelona man’s international retirement.
Changes are afoot in the Spain camp after a disappointing end to their World Cup where they crashed out on penalties in the round of 16, losing to Morocco.
A swift departure from manager Luis Enrique means there’s a change in the dugout where former Spain youth coach Luis de la Fuente has taken over the role.
Having coached the Spain under-21s to European Championship glory in 2019, Leeds’ Marc Roca should be hopeful of being handed his first senior call-up, knowing the man who coached him back then.
Roca’s chances are boosted by the fact that he name-dropped the midfielder during his unveiling, when discussing how to replace the quality brought by the now-retired Sergio Busquets (via El Pais):
“There is Rodri, who has a stratospheric level, (Martin) Zubimendi, Marc Roca.”
For whoever takes the reins, it’s a tall order, but is Roca up to the task?
In terms of ball-retention, that is the main thing people look to when they think of Busquets’ influence on a game, very rarely doing anything ‘remarkable’ but also very rarely doing anything wrong in possession too.
That manifests in his impressive 90.9% passing accuracy this season (stats via Wyscout), compared to Roca who is a fair way lower at 79.6% in the Premier League. However, that should come with the caveat of Roca’s frequent risk-taking in Jesse Marsch’s direct and vertical setup, while also playing in a side at the bottom end of the table and not La Liga’s top side, Barcelona.
Coming under pressure is more of a common occurrence for Roca in the Premier League, with more far dribbles attempted than Busquets, meaning his success at 68.8% (still very good) is well below Busquets’ 100% success.
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The dominance of Barcelona in games does skew a lot of Roca’s comparisons to the Spain legend, with final third passes also tipping in the latter’s favour, as he registers an accuracy of 86.3% compared to Roca’s 72.9% – again, still good from the £10million Leeds man.
With defensive contribution in mind, Roca has proved his quality to play in the Premier League with 15.69 duels, 4.9 interceptions, and 9.07 recoveries per 90. All of these figures are very similar to that of Busquets, suggesting Roca would be more than capable of filling in on the defensive side of duties in the Spain midfield.
It could all be a futile conversation in major tournaments with Manchester City’s Rodri still in fact existing, but when it comes to being handed opportunities under a new manager, this is the best chance Roca will ever have of becoming a Spain international, and he’s earning that chance despite a talented pool for De la Fuente to choose from.