Barcelona's Ivan Rakitic Will Be Unleashed by Sergi Roberto's Position Swap

Ivan Rakitic opened the can against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

That's what they call it, in Spain, when a player breaks the deadlock. Rakitic “abrelatas”—opens cans.

Being the man to do that job is nothing new for the Croatian. In fact, he's done it several times in his Barcelona career, from clashes in La Liga such as the aforementioned 1-0 win over Athletic to the Champions League final.

It was Rakitic who opened the scoring in Berlin as Barcelona beat Juventus 3-1 to win European club football's most prestigious prize in 2015, and in total, he has netted the first goal in a game for Barcelona on 10 occasions since signing for the club in the summer of 2014.

Over half of his 18 goals have been the opener in a game.

Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press

And it could happen on an increasingly regular basis this season, as for the first time in his Blaugrana career, his role is changing.

During his first two seasons, he has played as a right-sided interior midfielder with just as heavy an emphasis on defending as attacking.

That was largely down to marauding right-back Dani Alves, whose constant forays forward often left a gap down the wing that opposition teams could exploit, with the Brazilian not as diligent in getting back to defend as he used to be as he aged.

It was also because he had a safety net in Rakitic. Sacrifice is a word often used in Spanish football, but the Barcelona midfielder knows more about it than most in the squad.

Doing the dirty work Lionel Messi doesn’t want to do is always going to be part of the job description for Barca's right-sided central midfielder, with the Argentinian maestro on that flank, but the Croatian was also running for Alves too.

Antonio Pizarro/Associated Press

And Rakitic bore it with a grin. There was no complaining from the former Sevilla star, who was determined to do everything he could to make manager Luis Enrique happy.

Sport’s Ivan San Antonio conducted an exclusive interview with Rakitic in March, and when asked what he thought about the coach’s penchant for rotating and whether it sat well with him, the player replied:

"

Honestly, no. Sitting on the bench I don’t like. If a player likes being on the bench then they have a serious lack of ambition. We are a team but you fight to be there [in the XI]. “To give an example, I like [then-Bayern Munich manager, Pep] Guardiola’s words about [Robert] Lewandoswki, saying that he’s the best professional he’s seen in his life. I want to reach that level.

"

San Antonio asked whether he meant he wanted Guardiola to say he's the best professional he’s seen. "No," Rakitic responded. "That my manager here says it. I live for that. I live for football, to be 100 percent, to enjoy it and to enjoy it you must be at the top of your game."

Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Associated Press

It was a long, thorough interview, and Rakitic also touched on doing the running for the MSN trio of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar:

"

They have earned it. They have total freedom to move around because they are the best and if we have them, we must take advantage of them. ...

We know that with the quality they have, it’s normal that they’ll sometimes cover less ground and when you see the statistics...that does not matter so much. Each person has to know their role in the team. I can’t dribble like Ney, shoot like Leo and I don’t have the strength of Luis, but I have other things that maybe they don’t have.

"

Rakitic has been eating up the pitch, one stride at a time, and his performances over the past two years, during which time he has won the treble, followed by a league-and-cup double, as well as various less prestigious trophies, have attracted attention from overseas giants.

According to Mundo Deportivo (h/t Tom Farmery of MailOnline), Rakitic rejected moves from Manchester United, Chelsea and Juventus this summer.

And for his performances and loyalty, he will be rewarded with a new Barcelona contract. The club’s director of professional sports, Albert Soler, explained that was the plan, per the official website.

"We have closed 22 transactions [this summer], with three renewals of Mascherano, Busquets and Neymar Jr, which are very important," he explained. "The duty we have now is to renew Rakitic, Suarez and then Messi. The club does not stop."

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

While the negotiation process and signing of the deal might take a while, his new start at Barcelona begins now.

With Alves out of the picture, Sergi Roberto has been handed the right-back role, and that is good news for Rakitic.

While he has at times needed to suppress his creative instincts, he can this season play with more freedom.

Roberto is an incredibly smart player and a good judge of when to charge forward and when to stay back.

While the creative outlet Alves offered was a big part of Barcelona’s success in recent years, if the Catalan continues to adapt to the position and play with the same quality he has shown there thus far, it will not weaken the club.

Emilio Morenatti/Associated Press

When Barcelona brought in Andre Gomes and Denis Suarez this summer, adding them to a heap of other impressive midfielders, it appeared that something had to give.

Sergi Samper was sent to Granada on loan, and Roberto shifted out of the battle for places in the middle of the pitch.

Now he is playing at right-back, the fact Rakitic has started the season in impressive and exciting form, particularly going forward, is no coincidence.

This could be a huge season for the Croatian, who has to continue to build on the hard work he has done so far.

Rakitic will still be required to put in a hard shift in midfield, but don’t be surprised if he starts getting in better positions to shoot and has more efforts on goal.

At 28, the Swiss-born star is at his physical peak, and Barcelona will continue exploiting his talents, both in terms of athleticism and also his gifted technical abilities.

He scored eight goals in his first season and nine in his second. Thanks to his adjusted role, barring injury, he should easily crack double figures this term.

When the MSN can’t break the deadlock, Rakitic has often proved he can. And that is a useful skill to have, with Barcelona looking forward to reaping the benefits once more.