The technician of FC Barcelona, Ronald Koeman, surprised with his starting eleven in the match against Granada in Copa del Rey with several new features. One of them was the presence of Marc-André ter Stegen in goal, making it clear that Net has been relegated to a residual role in the culé team.
During the last winter transfer market, the goalkeeper surprised everyone at Barça asking to leave the club. According Sport, the Brazilian claimed to be able to look for a team due to his lack of minutes with Ter Stegen ahead, something that rejected the directive Faced with the impossibility of finding a replacement for him with so little room for maneuver.
🔵🔴 Barça bench: Neto, Arnau Tenas, Dest, Pjanić, Braithwaite, Dembélé, Riqui Puig, Lenglet and Mingueza # GranadaBarça
– FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) February 3, 2021
This has finished sentencing Neto, always in the shadow of Ter Stegen since his arrival at the club in the summer of 2019. He has only had opportunities to date in single matches, in some of which Barcelona did not play anything, Copa del Rey and while the German’s injury lasted at the beginning of this campaign .
This campaign, Neto has played 11 games and has only conceded eight goals, although it was marked by the three goals of Real Madrid in the Classical and, above all, by his error in the Alavés-Barcelona. The goalkeeper erred in control after a send back from Piqué and ended giving a goal to Luis Rioja which cost his team two points.
With his substitution in the Granada-Barcelona Cup, Ronald Koeman has shown that he no longer trusts Neto by placing Ter Stegen ahead in the Cup. The Brazilian’s future looks like it is far from the pitch at least for the remainder of the season.
Neto, during the match against Inter (Photo: FCB).