Why Barcelona Isn't Playing Wojciech Szczesny Despite Emergency Signing

On Oct. 2, in the aftermath of Marc-André ter Stegen's serious knee injury, Barcelona signed then-retired goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczęsny. Over two months later, Szczęsny has yet to make his Barça debut.

La Masia product, Iñaki Peña, assumed the starting role once Ter Stegen got injured and he hasn't given it up. Many assumed it was only a matter of Szczęsny returning to game shape for him to take over as the starter for the remainder of the season. That assumption was wrong.

Hansi Flick has fully backed Peña as his number one and his decision has paid off for the most part. The 25-year-old goalkeeper has played every single minute between the sticks since Ter Stegen's injury. In 14 appearances in all competitions, he's allowed 14 goals, kept five clean sheets and Barcelona has won 10 of those games.

There's no doubt that Peña has improved since Flick's arrival. Last season, Ter Stegen missed two months through injury and Peña stepped in to replace him. The Barcelona academy talent played 17 games in all competitions during that stretch, conceding an alarming 32 goals.

Despite Peña's growth, Barcelona is winless in its last three games in La Liga and Peña was criticized for his involvement—or lack thereof—in both goals conceded in the 1–2 loss against Las Palmas last time out in the league.

Nevertheless, Flick maintains a strong conviction on his starting goalkeeper. "I think at the moment there's not a plan to change that (the starting goalkeeper)," Flick said when he faced the media prior to Tuesday's game against Mallorca. "Iñaki (Peña) is number one, like I said it before."

"He's (Szczęsny) now really good, he performs really well in training," Flick said regarding the Polish goalkeeper.

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Szczęsny seems to understand the situation, or at least he did a month ago when he shared his thoughts on it. "Iñaki (Peña) hasn't given him (Flick) any reason to bench him," Szczęsny told Polish outlet Eleven Sports at the end of October.

"I'm back to 100% but the team is doing well. If it's not broken don't fix it. If I put myself in the manager's shoes, I wouldn't play me either. I'll get my chance to play down the line. Right now the team is working very well," Szczęsny said.

Barcelona has five more games before the year ends, all La Liga and UEFA Champions League affairs where Szczęsny seems unlikely to participate. The Copa del Rey, appears to be the only competition where the 34-year-old goalkeeper might get a chance to play as things stand, but the Catalans don't begin its cup journey until 2025.

The former Juventus and Arsenal didn't come out of retirement to warm Barcelona's bench and its pretty safe to say Barcelona didn't complete an emergency goalkeeper signing 10 days after Ter Stegen's injury for him not to play. However, two months on and Gianluigi Buffon's heir to Juventus's goalkeeper role hasn't been able to convince Flick to give him a chance.

Although there's no debut in sight, if Barcelona's recent struggles continue and Peña is unable to get back to the form that saw him shine with a clean sheet in El Clásico a month ago, then the door might open for Szczęsny to become what most thought he'd be when he ended his retirement: Barcelona's starting goalkeeper.