Pau Cubarsi is the future of Barcelona’s back line alongside Ronald Araujo

Although the introduction of Pau Cubarsi into the Barcelona first-team may have been forced upon Xavi, fair play to the manager for believing in the youngster.

It would’ve been easier, given the pressure that Xavi has been under, to look elsewhere, but he evidently felt that the 17-year-old centre-back had what it took to be parachuted into the first team.

In that sense, and from what we’ve seen from Pau so far, Xavi has been proved 100 percent correct.

It’s as if the teen has been playing in the Barca back line all of his life, and yet he’s managed just 569 minutes in the first-team.

Ninety of those were played at the weekend against Getafe, and he was literally and metaphorically head and shoulders above his opponents.

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That match marked the third consecutive occasion that he’d played the entire 90 minutes, evidencing that Cubarsi has really taken his chance with both hands.

Although he spent the first four years of his youth career at Girona, he’s been at Barça since 2018, signing his first professional contract at Xavi’s behest last summer.

That’s proven to be an astute decision by manager and club, though Xavi will only be able to see Pau’s career blossom from afar given that he will be leaving his position at the end of the current campaign.

The defender’s performance against Real Betis earlier this year will have given everyone a clue as to just how special Pau Cubarsi is, and why he is so highly rated by the club.

Sixty nine touches in his 81-minute cameo included 58 passes with a 93 percent passing accuracy.

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Everything he did was assured and ‘clean.’ Even at just 17 he takes everything in his stride and, like every good defender, his primary concern is taking the ball from his direct opponent and keeping them as far away from the Barcelona goal as possible.

He eases through the gears, reads the game well, can bring a ball out of defence with authority and is brilliant in the air too.

In fact, it’s not too soon to suggest that there’s barely a weakness in his natural game, he just needs to get more experience.

With the likes of Jules Kounde and Inigo Martinez less than impressive of late, and Andreas Christensen seemingly being converted into a Sergio Busquets-lite in midfield, Pau Cubarsi has the perfect opportunity for the remainder of the season to make the centre-back position his own.