Coach Hansi Flick performed another football magic trick in Barcelona's 5-1 win over Villarreal in La Liga round 6. However, like all good magicians, there came a time when he had to turn his cloak, look the crowd in the eye and announce: "now for my next trick".
Flick helped Barcelona put in another devastating performance that they could have scored another three or four goals if they had taken advantage of their opportunities. It was even more surprising to learn that the three young players in the Barcelona squad - Gerard Martin, Pablo Torre and Sergi Dominguez - had only started once or twice in La Liga before. Barcelona overcame the injury crisis and fatigue of the Champions League defeat to AS Monaco to beat Villarreal.
In the short time since joining, Flick has put his faith in a host of young and inexperienced players from La Masia. He has still managed to produce winning football, despite many problems. As a result, some fans have dubbed Flick "Barcelona's David Copperfield".
And in the coming time, perhaps Flick will need to create more magic due to the serious injury of number 1 goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. The German goalkeeper made a series of miraculous saves to stop Villarreal before collapsing in pain after a dangerous landing.
Barca announced that the 32-year-old had suffered a "complete rupture" of the patellar tendon in his right knee. The Germany international will be sidelined for several months and is likely to miss the rest of the season.
The problem is that reserve goalkeeper Inaki Pena is simply not good enough to help Barcelona maintain their record. Moreover, they also need a solid foundation to advance further in the Champions League arena. This is a must if the Blaugrana do not want to continue falling into the financial spiral that has plagued them for many years now.
Pena is, by modern standards, a relatively small goalkeeper. His strengths are his agility and his old-fashioned shot-stopping ability. His most obvious weakness, however, is his ability to distribute the ball with his feet. In fact, Pena had a spell as a replacement for the injured Stegen last season and was relatively disappointing.
However, Barca also face many obstacles if they want to buy a new goalkeeper. If Stegen is medically certified to be out of action for more than 4 months, then Barcelona will be allowed to find a replacement, but there are strict requirements.
Not only will the goalkeeper be out of contract, he will also not be able to register with any club when the summer transfer window closes in 2024. This means that if a goalkeeper is unhappy with his current club and suddenly has his contract terminated, he will still not be eligible to play for Barcelona immediately.
However, there are still good options for Flick such as Keylor Navas, Edgar Badia, Jordi Masip or Tomas Vaclik. The upcoming schedule of Blaugrana is extremely dense. They need time to think and hope that Flick will come up with a miracle solution, but Real Madrid or their opponents in the Champions League will not wait long...
