Barça want extra Flick magic in mild of Ter Stegen damage

Hansi Flick pulled off extra soccer wizardry in Barcelona‘s 5-1 thrashing of Villarreal on Sunday. Like all good magicians, although, it is time for him to swirl his cape, twirl his moustache, look the viewers straight within the eye and announce, “And now for my subsequent trick!”

The German coach’s Sunday sorcery was a devastating efficiency by which his crew may simply have scored 5 – 6 extra, towards a tough rival, utilizing three extra kids within the Barça lineup who, between them, had a mere 5 LaLiga begins for the membership: Gerard Martín (2), Sergi Domínguez (1) and Pablo Torre (2). Barcelona shrugged off their damage disaster, their tiredness having performed — and been overwhelmed — with ten males at AS Monaco within the Champions League on Thursday, plus the juvenile nature of their XI (by no means thoughts the truth that Villarreal attacked them with venom and will themselves have scored 5 – 6 occasions) but gained in beautiful vogue.

Within the brief time since becoming a member of, Flick has put large religion in a raft of junior and fully inexperienced gamers from his youth system and produced profitable, high-scoring, top-of-the-league soccer, which makes him, for those who pardon the comparability, Barcelona’s model of David Blaine or David Copperfield.

The explanation he urgently must prime these feats and conjure up one thing much more particular is the horrible injury to his first-choice goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen.

The Germany worldwide had made three incredible saves to maintain rampant Villarreal at bay earlier than collapsing in agony when clutching a cross simply earlier than half-time. Barça introduced that the 32-year-old suffered a “full rupture” of the patellar tendon in his proper knee, and sources have informed ESPN that he will be sidelined for months and is unlikely to play again this season.

The crux of the matter is that Ter Stegen’s deputy, Iñaki Peña, is solely not ok to assist the Spanish Liga leaders keep their extraordinary progress, and positively not ok to assist Barcelona obtain the top-eight standing required so as to progress routinely to the Champions League knockout rounds. No want to enter depth about Barcelona’s monetary honest play (FFP) issues, or their €1 billion international debt, the tough reality is that it is important Barcelona progress within the Champions League and grasp the income that may start to free them from their damaging monetary restrictions — or else the vicious cycle continues.

If I sound imply a couple of 25-year-old who managed to see out the victory towards the Yellow Submarine on Sunday, then let me remind you of the horrors that Barcelona suffered when Peña deputised for Ter Stegen final season. Statistics do not inform the whole story, however they’re an excellent starting.

Peña performed 17 occasions throughout 4 competitions for Xavi Hernandez’s aspect and conceded 32 occasions. Is a goalkeeper chargeable for each ball that flies previous him? No, however when you find yourself transport in such excessive numbers, after which there is a stark comparability when Ter Stegen returns to the aspect, the proof builds. (The German solely conceded 27 in 28 LaLiga matches final season.)

Peña additionally performed his half in among the landmark humiliations that contributed to Xavi’s eventual dismissal: 3-2 towards Royal Antwerp, 4-2 at house to Girona, 4-1 towards Real Madrid within the Spanish Supercopa closing, a 4-2 Copa del Rey elimination at Athletic Club, 5-3 at house to Villarreal. See the sample?

This isn’t, by any means, an assault on the keeper. It is the identical cold-eyed evaluation that Flick and his workers could have been finishing up from the start of their 162-mile journey house on Sunday evening.

Is Peña the reply to Ter Stegen’s absence? That is the place Flick’s subsequent magic trick must be his most spectacular piece of conjuring but.

By the point Ter Stegen returned from again issues final season, it was apparent that his Spanish deputy was relieved to be out of the firing line.

Peña, by trendy requirements, is a comparatively small keeper whose value relies upon agility and old-school save-making. The place he’s not glorious is in both his distribution of the ball from his toes or when he’s requested to be the “free man” sweeper on the again, when Barcelona play out by beating their opponents’ press. Whereas Peña was within the crew, Barcelona’s rivals rapidly understood that in the event that they harassed, hurried and pressed him, he would doubtless hand possession again or make an error.

Has Peña assimilated this expertise and benefited from it? Has he gone again and seemed on the tapes, discovered from his errors and change into a stronger, higher useful resource for his membership?

Bear in mind, in Spanish soccer, the backup goalkeeper does not get to play for the B crew. His solely work is in coaching; there’s little or no alternative to use the teachings discovered from that extraordinarily bruising and bumpy spell when he was in pole place.

Flick and his quite a few workers are nonetheless very new to the membership — remember that. They’ve been capable of see Peña in coaching since late July, that is true, however none of them have been first-hand witnesses to how he reacts underneath the highlight or shoulders the immense strain {that a} Barcelona aspect utilizing a really excessive defensive position locations on any goalkeeper.

Again to the requirement for Flick to supply some magic.

Can he, and his workers, mentor Peña and be sure that he competently sees them by to the following switch window not less than? I’ll declare my colors now: I do not assume a choice to stay with the No. 2 and continued trophy challenges are appropriate.

Had been it not for these pesky FFP laws that, keep in mind, meant that Dani Olmo could not be registered for the primary a part of the season as soon as he signed from RB Leipzig, then the membership would have introduced in a goalkeeper to make sure that this kind of scenario would by no means happen within the first place. They have been just too financially restricted to even ponder that, although.

They set sail into the brand new Flick period with fingers, and all the things else, crossed that their German captain would not be injured. Now, lo and behold, catastrophe.

Flick has choices.

He has been extremely daring (and profitable) in how a lot religion to put place in a stream of younger gamers with no earlier affect on the primary crew. So, may he attain into the youth ranks and choose somebody who vaults over Peña but helps keep this run of video games by which Barcelona have gained six out of six and scored 22 occasions within the course of?

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Barcelona wait on ‘large’ damage replace on Marc-André ter Stegen

Barcelona boss Hansi Flick is “unhappy” regardless of beating Villarreal 5-1 in LaLiga after Marc-André ter Stegen went off with a “large” damage.

The primary choice is 20-year-old Ander Astralaga, who, whereas he typically sits on the first-team bench, is, however, the Barcelona B goalkeeper. The Basque is patently proficient, assured and has racked up first rate expertise within the youth ranks, however he’s a little bit impetuous and identified for nonetheless having a number of too many errors in his recreation.

Budapest-born Áron Yaakobishvili is rated behind Astralaga so should not, in concept, be able to supplant Peña. The Miami-born golden gloves of the youth system, 18-year-old Diego Kochen, who’s the perfect of the lot, has a hamstring drawback that’s scheduled to maintain him out for almost a month.

The foundations on Barcelona buying a brand new goalkeeper, exterior the switch market, are crystal clear — and solely reasonably useful. If Ter Stegen is medically licensed to be out for greater than 4 months, then Barcelona will likely be permitted to hunt a substitute, however there are strict parameters.

Any goalkeeper they select wouldn’t solely should be out of contract however not registered with any membership when the summer season switch market ended, which means that if a keeper who was sad at his current membership was instantly launched from his contract, he wouldn’t be eligible to instantly play for Barcelona. Them’s the principles.

However, there are candidates: Keylor Navas, Edgar Badia, Jordi Masip, Tomás Vaclík. This listing brings us proper again to the necessity for Flick and his assistants to not solely produce a magical answer however to get issues proper, underneath strain, earlier than their exceptional momentum in LaLiga is upset.

The video games come thick and quick, towards Getafe on Wednesday, away to Osasuna this weekend after which an important Champions League fixture towards Young Boys of Switzerland subsequent Tuesday. They want time to assume and breathe, however there isn’t any time — besides time for a little bit little bit of Flick magic.