La Masia has produced some of the best modern-age footballers in Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Leo Messi. The academy is quite well known for its brilliant state-of-the-art infrastructure that produces world-class talent and Marc Cucurella is one of them – joining La Masia aged just 14. What’s not known for the most part is Cucurella’s history with Barca’s rivals Espanyol, where he spent six good years before moving across town to Barcelona.
Although the shaggy-haired left-footed played just 7 minutes for Barcelona in a Copa Del Rey tie against Real Murcia, he never received the call-up with the senior squad after that – appearing regularly with Barcelona B for two seasons and helping the team gain promotion to the Segunda Division previously.
His talent posed new-boys-on-the-block Eibar to pounce on the opportunity to sign him on a loan transfer. The Basque club exercised his €2M buyout clause, making him a permanent transfer – for only 16 days! Barca bought him back with the €4M buyback clause and sent him out to loan few days later to Madrid with Getafe. Once and for all, the Madrid club triggered his €6m permanent transfer option – fully exercising their option to buy.
Initially deployed as a left-back, Cucurella has grown into an exciting prospect in the left midfield/wing-back role that he so often excels in. His versatility allows him to be deployed in a variety of positions on the left hand side of the pitch, where he performs both attacking and defensive duties in a resilient manner. His defensive duties come as naturally to him as him attacking threat and Getafe’s formation puts him in the spotlight in that area of the field.
The 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 played by the team fits Cucurella’s natural abilities due to the Spaniard’s talent for incisive passes and pressing skills, which he performs well with good team understanding.
23-year-old Mathias Olivera has registered himself as a starter in Jose Bordalas’ team as a left-back and with the Uruguayan behind him in that position, Cucurella now has the freedom to operate in a more attacking sense in the final-third. With his playmaking skills and crossing abilities, one would certainly think of him as a natural winger.
Standing at 5’8”, he is a energetic and agile athlete capable of great acceleration and pace with the ball at his feet. He is a player who is naturally fit to be part of counter attacks due to his explosiveness and fairly strong understanding of play. Cucurella maintains great stamina throughout ninety minutes, rarely failing to track back and compete with incoming attacks.
His versatility pitches him perfectly to conduct a transitionary style of play – whether it be starting a counter attack from back in defense or tracking back and opting for a defensive position when the opposition are on the front foot.
He tends to hug the left touchline, commanding the area with his presence. His lack & lapses of concentration at times makes him a liability during defensive situations where the counter attacking team are on the front foot. While he does really well in cutting lines of play in the midfield and especially on the left side, his positional sense of play poses him to largely be ineffective in other areas of the pitch such as in the center midfield and deep lying areas.
At only 22. Cucurella is one of La Liga’s brightest young talents and Barcelona may well ponder of luring him back to Camp Nou, given that he excels in a 3-5-2/3-4-2-1 formation as a wing back – the same formation Ronald Koeman has been experimenting with in recent times.
With a market value around €20M, several other teams might as well be interested in him as he develops into an effective player capable of making staggering differences during ninety minutes.