Since his first team debut in January, the youngster Pau Cubarsi has established himself as a trusted component of Xavi’s team. The defender has been playing at such a high level in these few months that he has gone on to become one of the starting defenders for the Barcelona head coach.
The young defender has never been afraid of stopping attackers having a vastly greater experience than him and rarely makes a mistake.
However, his best quality still remains his passing, which Xavi has utilised to break lines and provide good balls to the interior midfielders and forwards playing in the channel.
Furthermore, as SPORT has noted, there is another role that sometimes goes under the radar, but one which has also had a significant impact on the team.
Xavi has been stationing the centre-back near the opposition goalkeeper whenever his team wins a corner or another set-piece, with the purpose of hindering the goalkeeper’s movements. This approach has paid significant dividends for his team, as the team’s productivity from set-piece actions has increased.
Only in the last league game against Real Madrid, Cubarsi played this role as he contained Lunin, and Christensen took advantage of this situation to score the first goal of the game for Barcelona.
This was also the case in the match against Paris Saint Germain, which also resulted in a confrontation between Cubarsi and the Italian goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Even before his ascent to the first team, Cubarsi had been involved in corners and set pieces during his time at the youth levels at Barcelona and got his name on the scoresheet from these situations a couple of times.
His physicality and size help him become a nuisance for goalkeepers in set-piece situations, and Sergio Alegre, one of Xavi’s assistants, has designed a role that is perfect for him.
