The 21-year-old midfield pillar of Hansi Flick’s Barcelona | OneFootball

Throughout the club’s storied past, FC Barcelona has always been a team that has counted on its youth. Without the youngsters from their academy and even those who arrive from other clubs, La Blaugrana may not have enjoyed the success that they did. Fortunately for Barcelona, that traditions remains alive even today.

Previously, the club was always open to integrating the most impressive youngsters into the first. That is how the likes of Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, and Sergio Busquets managed to find their opportunities and become the players that they did at Barcelona.

Now, however, there is both faith in the youngsters but also a certain necessity that was never there before. Previously, the club actively chose to entrust their youngsters with the burdens of tomorrow. On the other hand, Barça’s recent financial limitations have essentially forced them to find cost-effective ways to assemble a strong team.

Yet, out of the many youngsters who have broken into the first team in recent memory, perhaps only a few share the peculiar progression of Marc Casado. From a player who never seemed to be destined to become a starter to a a new fundamental pillar of Hansi Flick’s team, Casado’s development was a mixture of his talents and the luck he took advantage of.

As highlighted by MARCA, the 21-year-old La Masia pivot’s obsession with tactics is one key reason why he is as prominent in Flick’s system as he is today, coupled with the fact that he took advantage of the injuries around him to win over the German tactician and become a key player for his team.
Moreover, apart from Pedri, Casado has been the midfielder who has played the most minutes this season for Barcelona. His positional awareness, ability to adapt within games, and overall technical ability are just a few things that make the former Barcelona Atletic captain such a reliable option in Hansi Flick’s double-pivot.

While Casado may not have been the first choice from the start of the season, he truly began to get his opportunities once Marc Bernal got injured as well and joined the likes of Gavi and Frenkie de Jong on the sidelines. Since then, he has not looked back and has undoubtedly become one of the pillars of the team.

It remains to be seen how well he retains his place in the team once the other injured midfielders begin to return. As it stands, several key players are set to return against Sevilla and it will be a challenging ask of Casado to maintain a high enough level to keep those midfielders away from the starting eleven.