Barcelona maintained their unbeaten start to the La Liga season with a 5-1 victory over Villarreal but it’s a victory that will cause concern for manager Hansi Flick as star keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen was stretchered off in tears before halftime due to a knee injury. Claiming a corner, he fell awkwardly injuring the same knee that he had surgery on in 2021. Replaced in net by Inaki Pena, Barcelona were able to see out the match but ter Stegen is set to miss several months, according to ESPN.
The German ranked seventh last season in save percentage among keepers to appear in at least five matches at 73.5%. His presence allows Barcelona to push forward with ease knowing that there is a steady keeper behind them to stop any chances that come his way. While scoring 22 goals in six matches is great for Barcelona, they’ve already allowed five goals in league play this season and with an xG against of 6.51, it could’ve been worse.
During preseason, players stated that Flick emphasizes chance creation and can be okay with conceding goals due to their front foot attack. But that’s a style that doesn’t work as well without a team having their best players available. Barcelona’s injury list has grown by the day with Gavi, Marc Bernal, Andreas Christensen, Frenkie de Jong, Ronald Araujo, Dani Olmo, Fermin Lopez and now ter Stegen all sidelined.
Having already dropped their first game of the Champions League league stage, Barcelona need to prove that they’re back to being contenders for the La Liga crown and for honors around the world. While there are young depth options at other positions around the pitch, keeper hasn’t been one of them.
Pena has featured in 13 league matches for Barcelona over the past few seasons and in 10 apperances last season, but he only kept two clean sheets. That’s a trend that won’t be able to continue as matches get tougher for Barcelona during October. Facing Bayern Munich and having an El Clasico against Real Madrid is when we’ll get to see if Barcelona are back but without ter Stegen, those matches will be tough to pull out results out of. That’s when Flick may have to shift tactics to protect his defense which will be something to keep an eye on as Barcelona look to keep their high-powered attack going.
