UEFA Champions League action is upon us again as our beloved club kicks off another campaign to win their fifth Champions League title. Luis Enrique dropped some starters for today’s encounter against APOEL FC. However, the big question on the Blaugrana faithful’s minds is who will start in goal today and whether Luis Enrique will pull a Carlos Ancelotti and have two goalkeepers start in different competitions?
When Victor Valdés announced he would be leaving the club more than a year ago, we braced ourselves for a new goalkeeper signing. After it was decided that the club would no longer need the services of veteran backup keeper Pinto, Barça B keeper Masip was promoted but the idea was the club was going to sign a new keeperMarc-André ter Stegen’s signing was one of the worst kept summer transfer secrets of the summer but we were all caught off guard when the club also signed Claudio Bravo. Suddenly we had two keepers who should be starting and a young keeper who probably would not be seeing many minutes.
Clearly, Ter Stegen was Zubizaretta’s signing, and I have no problem giving credit where it’s due since I have been giving him hell for the past three seasons, but this was a superb signing. Ter Stegen is a young up and coming talent from Germany who many believe will eventually be the starting German keeper. Besides preseason, we have not seen much of the German player because of a back injury he suffered in training from Alex Song. His injury though presented Claudio Bravo with the opportunity to shine and that he has.
Perhaps it was a good idea to sign both Ter Stegen and Bravo after Ter Stegen had to miss action because of an injury; Déjà vu to last season. Claudio Bravo has started all three league matches for Barça this season and he has kept three clean sheets. Quite a start for the Chilean international keeper, although he did not have to make a save in the two first matches against Elche and Villarreal but in the end, he was victorious against the likes of Villarreal and Athletic and that’s not too shabby. Claudio Bravo was a Luis Enrique signing, who was requested by his assistant, former Barça keeper, Juan Carlos Unzué. So suddenly we have two players who are both good enough to start in goal for this club.
Which brings us to today and the Blaugrana faithful will be wondering who will start in goal today. Ter Stegen has been declared fit to play in today’s game. Will he finally get the start and play today or will he find himself on the bench watching Claudio Bravo? Will Luis Enrique decide to use Claudio Bravo for the Spanish League and rely on Ter Stegen for European nights? Real Madrid’s manager Carlos Ancelotti did just that last season when Diego Lopez was his starting goalkeeper for the Spanish league but preferred Iker Casillas for the Champions League.
I am sure many managers would love to have this sort of problem where they too much talent to pick from. We will see what Luis Enrique has in store for tonight and perhaps the rest of the season. It is tough to please everybody so unless he plans of rotating keepers, I expect one keeper to be upset. Nevertheless, we learned last season what happens when you don’t have a suitable replacement if your starting keeper is injured. In the end, it’s good to have more than less.
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