With the La Liga title already secured, Barcelona manager Hansi Flick is now beginning to shift his focus towards managing the final weeks of the campaign carefully. While Barcelona can now approach their remaining league matches with less pressure, there are still important decisions to make inside the dressing room. In that regard, one of the biggest talking points surrounds goalkeeper Joan Garcia and his strong push to finish the season with the Zamora Trophy. Extraordinary campaign The Barcelona shot-stopper has enjoyed a remarkable campaign and officially entered the Zamora rankings after reaching the minimum requirement of 28 league appearances. By the time Barcelona faced Real Madrid in El Clasico, Garcia had already established himself statistically as La Liga’s best-performing goalkeeper. Another clean sheet in that match further strengthened his case and highlighted just how important he has become during the title-winning season. The Barcelona keeper has now kept 15 clean sheets in 29 league appearances, meaning Barcelona have managed to avoid conceding in nearly half of the matches he has played this season. Joan Garcia is leading the Zamora race. (Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images) Statistically, very few goalkeepers in Europe can match what he has produced this season. Across 29 league appearances, Garcia has conceded only 20 goals, leaving him with a remarkable goals-against average of 0.69. That figure currently places him comfortably ahead of Thibaut Courtois, who has let in 26 goals in the same number of matches, leaving a sizeable gap between the two rivals with only a few games remaining. Flick’s dilemma Right now, Flick finds himself facing an awkward decision. With the title already wrapped up, Barcelona’s remaining fixtures against Alaves, Real Betis and Valencia no longer carry major pressure from a league perspective. That creates an unusual situation, as Barcelona can rotate players freely and experiment with the squad, but continuing to play Garcia could also expose him to unnecessary risk if the team loses focus defensively during the final weeks. As such, there is a practical logic behind the idea of protecting the goalkeeper’s average by taking him out of the spotlight for the final stretch. In this regard, Flick could instead hand opportunities to Wojciech Szczesny or even reward a younger academy goalkeeper with valuable minutes.
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