Barcelona and Real Madrid boast of arguably two of the best defensive midfielders in the game right now in Casemiro and Sergio Busquets respectively.

These two players have been key to any success their teams have had in recent times because of how consistent they have been as well as their tactical understanding of the roles and what they need to do in the team.

Although both players play in the same position, the styles of football for both teams are totally different which means the role they play differs too.

Stats

The stats rendered by Whoscored will show how their roles differ although they are both holding midfielders.

For Barcelona, Sergio Busquets is a key contributor in possession of the ball. He starts up moves and pushes up with the midfield.

Against Betis, he had a passing accuracy of 95.5% with 67 completed passes.

One key statistic was that he had 3 key passes in the game and an assist as well.

Defensively he had 5 tackle attempts won 4 tackles with three of those tackle attempts coming higher up the pitch in the oppositions half.

Busquets is normally one of the first people to press the ball because of how he positions himself when Barcelona are in possession.

Casemiro has a few differences in his own game. He is not exactly an integral part of their buildup play like Busquets is.

He more often than not keeps it neat and tidy and passes to teammates who are better on the ball to make the key passes.

In his two games played this season, he has played just 1 key pass.

His passing accuracy in both games were 90% and 85.5% which do not go near Busquets’ 95% which he averaged on Sunday.

Defensively, Casemiro has attempted 11 tackles, winning 6 in the two games be has played this season with 5 tackle attempts being in the opposition half. That is just 2 more than the 3 attempts Busquets had in the match against Real Betis alone.

It is clear that Casemiro is the more combative midfielder between the two and Busquets is the more creative one but the fact still remains that they are indispensable players in the team because of their full understanding of the roles they play in the system they are under.