The biggest talking point from Barcelona’s first defeat of the season in their Champions League opener against Monaco was the error made by Marc-André ter Stegen in trying to play out from the back, which led to Eric García’s red card and forced Barça to play the final 80 minutes with 10 men.
The goalkeeper has been the subject of much criticism over the years and his poor performance on Thursday made those critical voices even louder, but the German’s coach is standing by him.
Hansi Flick was asked in a press conference on Saturday about Ter Stegen’s mistake, and while he acknowledged an error was made the coach still believes the goalkeeper’s ball-playing ability is a crucial piece of his system and has given Ter Stegen strong instructions to avoid such a mistake in the future.