How do Barcelona fix their goalkeeping situation?

I’m sure many of you reading this would have been glued to your telly sets a few days ago to watch the pinnacle of club football, the El Clasico. The £85 million winger Gareth Bale proved his quality as he  stamped his authority on the game and helped pull of an impressive 2-1 win over their arch rivals.

Overall, the result was deserved and Madrid ran the show, outplaying Barca for large proportions of the match. For once it looked as if Barcelona were lacking a certain quality to their play. Lionel Messi looked off colour, they didn’t manage to score in open play and their defence – well we won’t go there.

I think it’s time for Gerardo Martino and the board room to find the root of their current problems before they’re knocked off their high horse as The World’s Best Club. Losing to Granada last week means they’re basically out of the race for La Liga, they’re out of the Champions League before the semi-finals (that’s shocking by their standard) and their loss in the Copa del Ray final can’t do any good for team moral.

Now, with the Barca’s preferred keeper Victor Valdes currently injured and looking set to leave at the end of the season, it leaves the rather shocking Pinto in goal. He’s certainly not good enough to be the keeper for one of the world’s best clubs and The Catalans will certainly need to find a replacement – quickly. He seems a liability to the Barca team, his kicking from the floor is poor and so too is his throwing. He certainly could have done much better in keeping out Di Maria’s goal.

They’re plenty of quality goal keepers out there, but Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the Borussia Moenchengladbach keeper (try saying that quickly!), seems to be heavily linked with making a potential move to the Catalans in the summer.

The 21 year old has bags of potential, plays in the German U21s and has even got 3 caps for the national side under his belt. Sounds promising? Well, there’s one big problem. FIFA have banned Barcelona from buying any players until 2015 due to illegally buying a number of Under 18 players.

The only way Marc-Andre ter Stegen could play for Barca would be if there was a clause in his contract from his new club, allowing him to move to Barca after one season. Highly unlikely as whoever makes a move for the lad won’t want to let him go, but nevertheless it’s a possibility.

So, what do Barca do now? Persuade Valdes to stay? Find some trust in Pinto? Or just weep in the corner? A possibility is to look into the youth team. Everyone knows how good their Academy system is. With this FIFA ban in place, it’s time for a youngster to make a name for himself. I mean, anyone’s better than Pinto!

What’s your views? Who do think Barcelona should play in goal next season?

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