Barcelona manager Hansi Flick has confirmed that starting goalkeeper Joan Garcia will not feature in his team’s Copa del Rey Round of 32 tie against Guadalajara on Tuesday night.
Flick was asked at a press conference on Monday if he plans to rotate his squad to give reserves and youngsters an opportunity to play and the coach said there will be changes to his usual starting XI, though he did not want to go into detail into who will get the nod, including in the goalkeeper spot where both Marc-André ter Stegen and Wojciech Szczesny are in contention to start.
“Joan Garcia will rest tomorrow. First I want to talk to the players and then we’ll announce the starter. I want to wait until tomorrow because we’re in a recovery phase.
“[Rotations] could happen, obviously. We have everyone available. Robert has been training individually but he’s also available for tomorrow. We’ll make some changes, but we want to win and that’s the most important thing.
“Marc is a fantastic goalkeeper, and we have three excellent goalkeepers. We’ll see what happens. I’ve already said that Joan is number one, and from there we’ll see what happens. Tek played last season, and we won three titles with him. This season, when he was injured, he gave us stability. Tek is also a very important player for us in the locker room.”
Choosing the goalkeeper for Tuesday is not a straightforward decision. Szczesny has been the backup this season and started big games while Joan was recovering from knee surgery, but Ter Stegen is fully fit now and would love to get some minutes before deciding his future in January.
Who do you think should start in goal on Tuesday, Barça fans?
