He's basically being carried by Arthur and Busi now who are much better with dealing with the press, recycling the ball and controlling the game.
There's really no shame in being worse at any of those things than Busquets is, seeing as Busquets is clearly one of the best in the world in the aspects you mention. However, I would say that the jury is still out on Arthur, even if he has been impressive so far. He hasn't even played the equivalent of five full games for us.
I think Rakitic is being vastly underrated here. He's looked a little under the weather recently, but I think he was excellent before the summer break, even in the periods where we struggled as a whole and especially had issues in the midfield. He was extremely important last year in several phases of the game, and was heavily involved in our build-up play. Statistically speaking his impact was much, much bigger than that of Modric as seen with his xG Buildup (check the stats on understat.com for yourself if needed).
Rakitic is a proven midfielder, who's been a keyman in our midfield for the past four years. I understand that he's not performing as well as we'd all like right now, and maybe giving him a break or two would do the trick. What I
don't think we should do, is overreact and call for his head. He doesn't deserve to just be benched like that. Especially not when the alternatives aren't better than they currently are.
