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Hansi Flick reaffirms his decision in Barcelona's goal, but not all fans agree

Hansi Flick prefers Szczesny over Iñaki Peña as first goalkeeper for FC Barcelona.

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Marc-André ter Stegen, German goalkeeper for FC Barcelona since 2014, suffered a rupture of the patellar tendon in his right leg in September, making him miss the entirety of the season. Hansi Flick then used the second keeper, Iñaki Peña, who has been in the bench most of his tenure at Barça.

However, the team still needed a replacement for the season, and the club hired Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, who had announced just weeks earlier that he had decided to retire from football. The 2023/24 season in Juventus would have been his final one, but Barça convinced him of postponing retirement at least one more year.

Initially, it seemed like Peña would be the starting goalkeeper. However, after Szczesny's debut with Barcelona in an easy 4-0 victory over fourth tier team UD Barbastro in January, Flick has picked Szczesny over Peña most of the time.

Asked about that in a press conference before tomorrow's Champions League game against Atalanta, Flick said that "my job is to make decisions. They are two great keepers and we have opted for Szczesny, and that's it. Iñaki has done a great job, but have gone for Tek. I try to do the best for the team, and that's what I have done."

One journalists even asked is it had been "his toughest decision since he joined Barça". He said that "it had been one of the toughest ones". He also praised Peña ("when I say something good about Tek, it seems like it's Iñaki's weakness. And that's not the case"), but left no room for doubts: Szczesny is his preferred choice... something that not all fans would agree.

In the few games he had played, he has already made fouls resulting in red card (against Real Madrid) and penalty (against Benfica). He caused another penalty against Valencia last weekend, but that was overruled by VAR because of a previous, unrelated foul.

The point is that, judging by Barcelona fans' reaction on social media, they are not entirely convinced on Szczęsny's reliability, at least not as much as Hansi Flick is. Time will tell is Flick was right.

Hansi Flick reaffirms his decision in Barcelona's goal, but not all fans agree
FC Barcelona

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