That's how XAVI turned TER STEGEN into an ABSOLUTE BEAST again! BARCELONA' new leader!

That's how XAVI turned TER STEGEN into an ABSOLUTE BEAST again! BARCELONA' new leader!

Marc-Andre ter Stegen has become the first goalkeeper in the history of La Liga, who has kept a clean sheet in 10 of the first 12 games of the same season! The German has risen from the ashes like a phoenix and in today’s video we are about to tell you the secrets of Blaugrana goalkeeper. Subscribe for our Football Club project, and let’s get started!

Numbers

Yeah, you have heard that right. At the start of the campaign, Barcelona did not concede in 10 out of 12 matches! In fact, not very observant football fans might not have paid enough attention to this, given the Catalans failures at the Champions League, as well as the recent defeat by Real Madrid in El Clasico.

However, judging solely by La Liga, Barca's defensive results are quite impressive, with the lion's share of the credit should belong to Marc-André ter Stegen. To be more exact, in 12 league fixtures, Barcelona conceded only 4 goals, and 3 of them in one clash against Real. As for the other 11 rounds, ter Stegen got the ball out of his own net only once until the duel versus Real Sociedad, in which the Catalans outclassed the opponent with a score of 4:1.

Believe it or not, Barcelona's defense is by far the best in La Liga. The closest competitors in this regard - Real Betis and Villarreal - conceded twice as many, 8 goals each. Meanwhile, their biggest rivals Los Blancos conceded 10 times in the race for the title.

Just for comparison. Last year, Ter Stegen had only 7 clean sheets in 35 La Liga appearances. Now he already has 10, with not even a third of the season passed yet.

At the time of this video’s release, Ter Stegen has made 25 saves. Moreover, not only does he help the team from time to time, he actually affects the final result. For instance, take the 0-0 draw against Sevilla, where he made a key save after a killing moment from Ivan Rakitic. After such a shake up, Barca scored 3 and eventually sealed a convincing victory. Needless to say, the German saves the day on a regular basis.

What’s more, Marc-Andre does a great job not only at catching and reflecting the ball. This season, the accuracy of his long passes makes 62 percent, which is a very solid tally for a goalie. No need to talk about the accuracy of short passes, as here the figure is higher than 90%. The goalkeeper’s ability to play the ball with his feet cannot be overestimated in modern football, especially for the methods Xavi tries to implement.

By the way, in the La Liga Matchweek 7 game against Mallorca, Ter Stegen reached the milestone of 500 minutes without conceding goals in the Spanish championship. It was his best run during his eight-year spell at Camp Nou. Ultimately, the streak extended to over 600 minutes. In order to set his personal best, Marc-Andre had to work hard through many matches.

“Marc is in a stellar moment,” Xavi praised his goalkeeper in the post-match interview.

System

Sure, Ter Stegen does not conquer these numbers alone, as he is inspired by the way Barca have begun to defend this season. The progress compared to the previous campaign is unbelievably impressive - at the same point of the 2021/2022 campaign, Barça conceded 15 goals already.

“We have worked on our defense. We concentrate a lot to avoid counter-attacks and play high up the pitch. We have improved defending set pieces and we play more in the opposition half, and there is competition for places, which makes everyone more focused,” Xavi explained Barca's performance upgrade at the beginning of September.

Right after the aforementioned clash against Sevilla, Marc-Andre praised Xavi in the highest tones for finding the team’s new identity, which the goalkeeper believes has helped them improve in defense.

“He has a very clear idea and we haven't been doing it like that for years. He has recovered what we wanted. He is doing spectacularly. We fight for the teammate beside us and for the whole team,” Ter Stegen noted the manager’s fruitful work.

Simplifying the idea of ​​​​Barca's build-up from the goal, which suits Ter Stegen so well, here is how it looks like. Upon doing a goal kick, the 30-year-old German always has three options for a short pass and two options on the wings for a long one.

When Blaugrana place either Araujo or Kounde on the right wing of the defense, the build-up is formed with the right-back mixing these three options for short passes together with two centre-backs. The roles of options on the flanks, on the other hand, are carried by the left-back and the right winger. As a result we get some kind of hybrid formation, similar to what we saw in the match versus Sociedad.

#barcelona #terstegen #xavi

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