Gennaro Gattuso vs Sergio Busquets vs Javier Mascherano

Who was the better player in their prime? Who would you want on your team? Rank them in order.

Busquets is by far the best technically. Mascherano is really a poor mans Gattuso. It depends on the system but I'd go Busquets then Gattuso then Mascherano.

I know busi and masche are more technical players but Gattuso would singlehandedly beat both of them with his






























baseball bat

As pure DM's, not as tiki-taka ball retention midfielders, by far Mascherano over anybody for me. I can only imagine how revered Mascherano would be all these years if only he played in his natural DM position.

How players like Busquets continues to be rated as the best is just beyond me.

Depends.for defense Mascerano.his tackles are the best in the world.very underrated defender

for midfield its busquets. his brain alone is enough for me

Then again , it depends of your system and the players you've got. for a tiki taka team obviously Busi but for a more defensive-minded team he's the last one I'll choose.

Overall I'd go with Busi ( considering I'd like to omplement tiki taka and all of that ) .

Mascherano is one of the best tacklers I've ever seen. He is a leader, and is very decent with the ball on his feet. I wouldn't exactly say it would depend on the system, because if you have Mascherano in your midfield, he can expertly cover the holes in your defense if you have a half decent center back who can push forwards.

Of course, under a possession team Busquets is ideal, because apart from his antics he is a hell of a player. You might not see him gritty and on the ground as the other two, but it's because he doesn't need to: he has excellent positioning and if you have 60%+ possession, you basically won't ever see the ball.

Overall, I'd pick Mascherano because of his flexilibity. He can play pure DM, a more offensive player and can definitely keep the ball going under a fluid system. Being an awesome leader always helps out, too.

Busquets is more suited to having the ball, because he's not really an expert on absorbing pressure: he's used to being in control and always looking forwards.

Gattuso . I love Gattuso. I love that he can with a look throw you off balance. But he's extremely limited to one thing he does like no other: kicking the shit out of you.

busi, masch, gatusso

Mascherano as a pure DM beats every other current DM on the planet.

Busi in a single DM system, Masche in a 2 DM system

System players

Busquets is overrated

Best midfielder in the world currently

gattuso for me....these days, anytime there's not something fancy about a player, he is regarded as crap, even though his position doesn't entail him to posses any fancy attributes. most people nowadays would have done the exact same thing flo did with makelele cos he wasn't the best "passer". for a defensive midfielder, one who can recover the ball, tackle, mark, defend, without needing his team to have the ball for 92 percent of the game, its gattuso for me....i could care less about my defensive midfielder being able to pass the ball backwards and sideways

mascheran's good but as mentioned he has barely if ever been played in his position. the very few times barcelona are on the backfoot, and are actually required to defend, his presence is usually felt. the second leg against atleti is one example, the times when atleti broke on a counter, mascherano was the only one i saw on the defensive end doing anything of note. even though success counts for something, there's a difference between 'who one rates better' and 'who is more successful'

I dont understand why people claim Gattuso is limited, he can involve himself in the attack just as well, its just more often than not he has to coverfor Pirlo and Seedorf. I've always been reclusive to label him a 'DM', a true DM we've had during those years was Ambrosini. Anyways, point being, i think people recall Gattuso as brash and aggressive and attribute him as a DM. He was a bit more than that, he didn't spray 90m passes and orchestrate, but he can participate if need be.

Anyways, are we arguing over who has the best overall skill here? If we are then its probably Busquets

S wrote:As pure DM's, not as tiki-taka ball retention midfielders, by far Mascherano over anybody for me. I can only imagine how revered Mascherano would be all these years if only he played in his natural DM position.

How players like Busquets continues to be rated as the best is just beyond me.

Because he is the best. Nobody covers spaces and half spaces better than Busquets. A player like Masch dives around making last ditch tackles. It looks good. Busquets doesnt need that because he is far more intelligent than Masch. He cuts off attacks before they even occur.

S wrote:,

How players like Busquets continues to be rated as the best is just beyond me.

I have to say normally u are very well read, informative and also majority of times a objective poster , Surag, but for some reasons when it comes to Barca ur opinion gets clouded by ur hatred and u say things which sound very not intelligent.

Come on now lads, even Casemiro has a higher whoscored-rating than Busquets. Overrated player if I ever read one

Busquets, Gattusso, Mascherano

Only issue with Busquets is that he can sometimes be dispossessed in dangerous areas looking needlessly for a foul. His skillful dragbacks dont always work with a clever player and if they are patient without fouling, can steal the ball. Just pass the ball to a free player.

Busquets imo.

He is the poor man's Redondo with less exciting skills. Followed by Gattuso.

However, Busquets absolutely sucks when he is defending against dribblers in large space while Gattuso and mascherano have no problem defending in such situations.

Gattuso like a lot of midfielders in his day was more B2B than a DM so i'm not sure why he's the comparison here.

S wrote:As pure DM's, not as tiki-taka ball retention midfielders, by far Mascherano over anybody for me. I can only imagine how revered Mascherano would be all these years if only he played in his natural DM position.

How players like Busquets continues to be rated as the best is just beyond me.

Totally agreed

when ac milan were on top, ambrosini spent the bulk of that time on the bench or sometimes injured, it would be seedorf, pirlo, gattuso and rui costa or kaka. out of those four gattuso was the one tasked with mopping out the dirty situations which is why the dm tag is bestowed on him. pirlo used to mark as well, i think up till say around 2005/06 he was more defensive minded, and seedorf used to help out, but gattuso probably had more highlights of getting angry and roughing you up than offensive highlights or offensive highlights compared to his other midfield partners..... by the time ambrosini became a starter at milan they were going downhill

Adit wrote:Busquets imo.

He is the poor man's Redondo with less exciting skills. Followed by Gattuso.

However, Busquets absolutely sucks when he is defending against dribblers in large space while Gattuso and mascherano have no problem defending in such situations.

Wrong on both counts. He is better than Redondo ever was.
And he is better against dribblers than those two, space or no space. He is slow but his long legs allow him to tackle effectively and steal balls from dribblers. I think it was dani who called him an octopus.
I can barely recall any dribbler consistently getting the better of him. His only issue is that he tries to be cheeky in dangerous situations.