Claudio Bravo

[Ursegor]

I could see stegen being a CL keeper since I'm sure lucho realizes that both are immense talents.

That would be incredibly foolish if Lucho intends to put the 22 year old between the sticks against the best teams in Europe while leaving him without match rythm in the daily La Liga business. It's a guarantee for failure. Even Casillas almost cost Madrid which was most certainly down to lack of proper match rythm. And Casillas is the most experienced goalkeeper in the world.

This goalkeeper situation has already become an unnecessary headache. Can't really drop Bravo now for no reason. If Lucho does and MAtS makes a mistake the press will be all over him and demand Bravo back in goal although none of the clean sheets were down to Bravo doing anything of note except parrying 1 half-cross-half-shot against Athletic Bilbao after 4 La Liga games.

 

[DonAK]

That would be incredibly foolish if Lucho intends to put the 22 year old between the sticks against the best teams in Europe while leaving him without match rythm in the daily La Liga business. It's a guarantee for failure. Even Casillas almost cost Madrid which was most certainly down to lack of proper match rythm. And Casillas is the most experienced goalkeeper in the world.

This goalkeeper situation has already become an unnecessary headache. Can't really drop Bravo now for no reason. If Lucho does and MAtS makes a mistake the press will be all over him and demand Bravo back in goal although none of the clean sheets were down to Bravo doing anything of note except parrying 1 half-cross-half-shot against Athletic Bilbao after 4 La Liga games.

This.

If Bravo is gonna be the starter in La Liga and ter Stegen will only get to play in the UCL then it's not beneficial for the young german at all. Should rather loan him out if the management want Bravo as the starter.

 

[Povikas]

You can't loan out young foreign player, who has to adapt to the country.

 

[DonAK]

You can't loan out young foreign player, who has to adapt to the country.

And you can't keep a young foreign player chained to the bench most of the season and expect him to do well when he plays in those CL matches weeks apart.

Btw, I am not saying that Ter Stegen SHOULD play over Bravo all the time, but when you buy a young keeper and make him play only CL matches then you can't expect him to perform very well just like Ursegor explained and it's detrimental to his development as well.

So if we're gonna mess up a player's development and confidence with an excuse of that he should adapt to the country then it's much better to loan him out somewhere where he'll play regulary.

 

[suckabov]

Not sure as to whether Lucho has definitely and un-revocably made up his mind about the keeper situation and there's been no statement so far that would indicate that ("one of the two starts" etc). Rather than "wanting Bravo as the starter" there could be other factors that might change throughout the season, such as language issues, easing MAtS in etc, or he genuinely hasn't decided for one or the other yet, but we don't know for sure. Fact of the matter is, Lucho told Barça TV he thought rotating keepers at the top level was impossible to do, even though it's not clear whether that referred exclusively to his Barça B experiment of X games per keeper or to competitions as well it does show awareness/opinion from his side that top-levle gks need consistency. I think we'll know more after the next few lliga games (as I think Lucho might give game time to MAtS against Malaga if he intends to start him v PSG) and CL games.

I agree you can't really drop Bravo now though, but then again it also depends on training.

 

[DonAK]

^ I think he'll play vs Granada on Saturday with Bravo getting the start today.

 

[BBZ8800]

if the management want Bravo as the starter.

The management probably wanted Mats as the starter, but the current situation is that we are on top of the table and that we haven't conceded a single goal.
True, there weren't too many shots on our goal, but still.

You can't just bench Bravo, until he makes a mistake.
(Ok, people will now say: "that mistake will cost us points.")
-- true, but till then we will win a lots of points also
Ok, people will then say:
"But we would win those points with Mats also"

Ok, probably. But that is too much "ifs".
-- he is younger, new country and championship, language problems, he was injured in a key moment at the start of a season
Defense and Bravo already have a nice rhytm, or whatever, you just can't bench him now, that's it :/

Also, forum is biased towards Mats.
On the other hand, imagine if some of forum's favorites, like Deulofeu or Munir started a Season in the first 11 due to injuries of Neymar and a suspension of Suarez.

And imagine that, for example, Deulofeu scored 15 goals in the first 10 matches and that then we have to bench him.
Because Neymar is still better than him.
Deulo is good and played well, but Neymar is one of top 5-10 players in the world.

Would forum users then say: "Bench the damn Deulofeu and bring back Neymar/whoever"
Or would people ask for Deulo, as long as he is playing well and results are good?

Ok, people will now again say that Bravo isn't playing well since he had nothing to do at all, but you get the point.

Only a mistake or injury can bench Bravo in this moment.

 

[suckabov]

And imagine that, for example, Deulofeu scored 15 goals in the first 10 matches and that then we have to bench him.

Not conceding while making only 1-2 mentionable saf(v)e(s) isn't the same as scoring 15 goals in the first 10 matches (or anything really note-worthy) though. Bravo hasn't done much (or anything) wrong but hasn't done amazingly much right either, at least not enough to make benching him totally baffling. He's just not been tested so much. But to bench him when he hasn't been tested a lot and hasn't really done a lot wrong would always be controversial/undeserved, so that plays a bigger role than anything amazing Bravo would have done so far.

Only a mistake or injury can bench Bravo at this moment.

Not necessarily. If MAtS plays better than him in the games he gets or simply performs better in training, then naturally Bravo can be benched. Not really expecting it, but as I said I think we'll have an idea after the next few games.

 

[DonAK]

^^BBZ, if my memory serves me right then majority of the forum called for Neymar to be benched last season when he was horribly out of form and Pedro and Alexis were doing better.

Again, I am not saying that Ter Stegen absolutely must play ahead of Bravo and that Bravo is absolutely shit, but I don't think it's beneficial at all for Ter Stegen to only play CL matches if it leads to that. I think it will hit his confidence and development and with the lack of match practice, you cannot expect him to do very well either. Just as shown with Iker Casillas.

And wouldn't it be unfair to Bravo is he is benched after one mistake too?

All I am saying is that the management need to find a solution and decide what they want soon and if it comes to Bravo playing LL, Ter Stegen CL and Masip CDR, then I would rather have Ter Stegen loaned out somewhere else where he'll get regular matches and be able to continue his development as long as it takes(Like Chelsea did with Courtois).

I don't know what'll happen and what Lucho will do, but im only commenting on what I prefer in case of a such scenario.

 

[Irish_Cules]

Ye there's no way Bravo should be benched. Mats will surely prevail in the long run but Bravo has been solid so far. It would be extremely unfair to drop him.

 

[Barcadub]

Ah lads would ye stop, no goals conceded in 4 games.

Ter got injured. Bravo took his chance in brutal fashion.

He is number 1.

 

[spark]

Ye there's no way Bravo should be benched. Mats will surely prevail in the long run but Bravo has been solid so far. It would be extremely unfair to drop him.

It wouldnt be unfair at all. It happened to Pinto every time Valdes got injured and came back. Its what happens when there is a number one and two. I would compare ter Stegen's situation to Lloris when he first went to spurs. Although Friedal was already there first for a season before and didnt join the same time as Lloris so this situation is even dumber the more you think about it. Unfair would be losing your place because someone injured you and never getting a chance to win it back even if you look much better in your one appearance than the other person in the 4.

 

[spark]

Ah lads would ye stop, no goals conceded in 4 games.

Ter got injured. Bravo took his chance in brutal fashion.

He is number 1.

Brutal fashion what a joke. Will bump this when you change your tune a few months down the road.

 

[Kerrybai]

Ah lads would ye stop, no goals conceded in 4 games.

Ter got injured. Bravo took his chance in brutal fashion.

He is number 1.

Rightly so too. Plus Ter Stegen is only 22, nothing wrong with giving him Copa and CL group games and maybe the odd league game before making him number 1 next season.

 

[Neymessi]

It wouldnt be unfair at all. It happened to Pinto every time Valdes got injured and came back. Its what happens when there is a number one and two. I would compare ter Stegen's situation to Lloris when he first went to spurs. Although Friedal was already there first for a season before and didnt join the same time as Lloris so this situation is even dumber the more you think about it. Unfair would be losing your place because someone injured you and never getting a chance to win it back even if you look much better in your one appearance than the other person in the 4.

The situation is very different.Valdes was in his prime and pinto was a grandfather.He played only because valdes was injured.Bravo still is a very good keeper atm and MAts has not reached his peak yet.Granted that bravo's clean sheet record does not show the true nature of his ability but he has done nothing to deserve to be benched right now.If mats decides to stay at barca for a long period then I am ok with giving bravo some minutes right now and in the mean time prepare Mats for the future.