Hansi Flick has plan for goalkeeping position at Barcelona as Marc-Andre ter Stegen return nears | OneFootball

Strangely, the position that has been most uncertain over the course of the season at Barcelona has been the goalkeeping spot. Their plans were thrown into disarray after Marc-Andre ter Stegen suffered a serious knee injury in September, and Hansi Flick has had three different number ones at various points.

After ter Stegen’s injury, Barcelona persuaded Wojciech Szczesny to come out of retirement and sign a one-year deal until the end of the season, but Flick maintained faith in back-up goalkeeper Inaki Pena. That faith lasted until Christmas, when Szczesny began starting in cup competitions, and then took over as number one in La Liga – Barcelona have not lost since.

The Polish veteran, 34, is happy at the club, and is set to extend his contract by a year. Diario AS say that it could even include an option to extend the deal by a further season, in which case Szczesny would be on board until 2027. With ter Stegen now in the final stretch of his recovery though, another decision will be forced upon Flick: to return his captain to the starting line-up, or to stick with Szczesny?

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Ter Stegen is seemingly set on ‘doing a Courtois’, referencing his Real Madrid counterpart’s recovery from a cruciate ligament injury last season, which culminated in the Belgian starting the Champions League semi-finals and final. However Sport maintain that if ter Stegen goes get back to fitness, he will be given game time as a reward for his recovery. However the plan is for Szczesny to play out the season as the undisputed starter in goal.

For ter Stegen to play in Europe, Barcelona would have to unregister Szczesny and would not be able to bring him back into the fold. Thus Flick would have to have a faith in ter Stegen based entirely on one or two games in domestic action, throwing him into the highest pressure situation. The German goalkeeper looks set to resume full training at some point in April if his recovery continues at the same pace.