Barcelona’s strategy with two La Masia prospects to ensure their continued development

Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s injury left a void in Barcelona’s goalkeeping department and Hansi Flick immediately backed young Inaki Pena to fill the gap.

The youngster looked unprepared at first and Barcelona thus jumped into the market to sign Wojciech Szczesny to arrive as a backup.

Just when the Polish goalkeeper was looking set to debut for the club, however, Pena upped his game against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid and Szczesny is currently the second-choice keeper.

Apart from the duo, the management prefers to maintain a third-choice goalkeeper in the mix as well, and Barça Atletic stars Ander Astralaga and Diego Kochen have served as the candidates for that position.

A rotating opportunity

As revealed in a recent update by SPORT, Barcelona plan on rotating Astralaga and Kochen between the first team and Barça Atletic so that their development is not stagnated.

The season began with Astralaga as Barcelona’s third goalkeeper and Kochen in the subsidiary team’s plans. Kochen’s injury, however, forced the latter back to the B team for a while and the youngster impressed.

Now with the American prodigy back fit, Astralaga has begun training under Hansi Flick’s command once more and could return to the first team.

The report thus furthers that Kochen will likely return as Barca Atletic’s goalkeeper in the coming weeks with Astralaga travelling with Flick’s side. 

The manager’s idea, however, is to rotate both players regularly throughout the season to ensure that they both maintain continuity in their development.

Kochen is the player who interests the club more in the long run, but they will continue to groom both talents as potential long-term goalkeeping options.

Needless to say, the club are alert on the market for a young goalkeeping option as well and could jump in as early as next summer for a new signing.