How Revolutionary Marc-Andre ter Stegen Transforms Barcelona's Game
Marc-Andre ter Stegen did not enjoy the perfect homecoming in Barcelona’s 2-1 win at Borussia Monchengladbach.
The goalkeeper could do nothing to stop Thorgan Hazard’s goal as the hosts sliced through Barcelona’s defence to open the scoring. Conceding won’t have mattered too much to him, though, with Barcelona taking the three points home in the end.
It is onwards and upwards for Ter Stegen and Barcelona. While a tip-top night in north-west Germany might have made a lovely memento for him, it will be forgotten in a blur of games as the team races towards titles. And if they win the league or UEFA Champions League, Ter Stegen will undoubtedly have played a huge part.
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Little over a year ago, he shipped four goals as Barcelona tumbled 4-1 at Balaidos against Celta Vigo, whom they face on Sunday. He was the subject of fierce criticism then, but although some remain unconvinced, things have been changing for the better ever since.
After Real Madrid’s game against Espanyol, a curious observation was made by Diario Sport. Ter Stegen had more successful dribbles than Cristiano Ronaldo this season. While the statistic itself doesn’t speak for much other than the Real Madrid forward’s change in style from the flying Manchester United winger to the poaching role he often employs these days at Madrid, it provoked amusement on social media.
Ter Stegen completed his one dribble against Athletic Bilbao. It was a heart-stopping moment for Barcelona fans, who saw their goalkeeper pick the ball up 15 yards outside his own penalty area, take it back towards his goal under pressure from a forward, before circling round at pace to surge away from his would-be tackler and start an attack.
But just because the man in the stands doesn’t know what Ter Stegen is about to do, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t. His actions are controlled, rather than rash moments like those we saw from Jose Manuel Pinto at Camp Nou, even if at times their actions provoke the same reactions in some fans.
Albert Masnou, a sub-director at Sport, wrote an opinion piece on Ter Stegen, calling him "Xavi with gloves." A Barcelona fan site misinterpreted the editorial as a news story and tweeted out to their several thousand followers that Barcelona were considering playing Ter Stegen as an alternative to Sergio Busquets in the pivote role, as Masnou suggested in tongue-in-cheek fashion.
And although this will obviously not happen, for a short while social media wondered what it would be like to see Ter Stegen pulling strings in midfield for Barcelona. "There is a pivote in the midfield and one in the area," wrote Masnou. "Barcelona’s game is richer for it, in variables, alternatives. It gives them a new dimension."
The likelihood is that with each passing game, Ter Stegen will become more confident than he already is—which barely seems possible—and as a result will attempt increasingly outlandish moves. Not because he’s a show-off or for the sake of it, but because his play at the back gives Barcelona so many more options.
"Sorry if my way of playing makes you nervous, but that’s how I play," laughed Ter Stegen ahead of Barcelona’s UEFA Champions League clash with his former side, Borussia Monchengladbach.
"I’m a goalkeeper that likes to play with a little risk, although I try not to risk too much. It is important for our play, to bring the ball out from the back, to keep possession. They’re things which are important to Barca and that’s my view of football."
Ter Stegen is the goalkeeper Pep Guardiola craves, even though he ended up with Claudio Bravo at Manchester City. The Catalan coach understands the numerous ways having a stopper who can play football—really play—can help the team, giving them so many more options when it comes to starting attacking moves from the back.
The German goalkeeper’s passing range is superb, able to pick out his team-mates with passes accurate to the millimetre, although this is something that a few players in his position can do. Where he excels is making the same passes under pressure.
Teams try to press Ter Stegen, hoping to push him into errors, but he rarely obliges, comfortable in executing dainty chips over onrushing attackers’ heads to find his full-backs or splitting a team’s midfield in half with a pass to Luis Suarez.
It can’t be long before he moves out of his goal to overlap a centre-back looking for a pass to help beat a high press, like the one Athletic employed against Barcelona at the San Mames.
Playing like this is not something goalkeepers have done before to any degree of regularity, beyond when their team is desperately chasing a goal in the final stages of a game.
Ter Stegen, and, of course, Manuel Neuer before him at Bayern Munich, is pushing boundaries. They should be allowed to, without too much noise when things go wrong, unless mistakes become frequent.
The German has made two glaring errors this season. One was tripping Moussa Dembele in the area against Celtic before saving the forward's penalty. The second was a poor pass straight to Benat Etxebarria against Athletic, but he salvaged that situation, too, quite literally taking it on the chin—he saved the midfielder's shot with his face.
The odd mistake that costs Barcelona a goal will not worry Luis Enrique, if Ter Stegen ends up helping create several for Barcelona at the other end. It is rare for a goalkeeper to get direct assists, even one like Ter Stegen, which makes it hard to calculate the effect he has on Barcelona’s attacking game.
However, circumstantial evidence suggests he is having a large impact. Barcelona look a far more dynamic team when he is playing than when Bravo was last season. It is no surprise that the Blaugrana’s worst display of this campaign so far came when Ter Stegen was out injured.
Jasper Cillessen played in the 2-1 defeat by Alaves at Camp Nou, and while he wasn’t at fault, he wasn’t Ter Stegen either. Few goalkeepers are.
Barcelona were disjointed, and although many of Luis Enrique’s rotations were culpable for that—there’s only so much you can dilute a drink before it loses its flavour—not having the same ability to build from the back was a big reason nothing worked for them.
When Ter Stegen is on the pitch, there are more solutions. It’s not just about being good at finding team-mates with the ball, but his positioning, speed off his line and reaction times.
Most teams utilise 10 players when they have the ball. Barcelona use 11.
Ter Stegen doesn’t do what he does because he’s egotistic, selfish or insane—he does what he does because he believes it’s the best way to win. And so does his coach. And slowly, the world at large should start to believe, too.
Rik Sharma is Bleacher Report's lead Barcelona correspondent. All information and quotes obtained firsthand unless specified. Follow him on Twitter here: @riksharma_.
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