Barcelona have always been proud of their one-of-a-kind style of play.
It doesn’t take long to recognise that all of their players follow specific patterns or that they must be of a particular player profile before joining the club, even as youngsters.
This is true for all squad roles: the midfielders, defenders, forwards, and, believe it or not, goalkeepers.
Especially the goalkeepers.
“In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker is the first defender.”
As the late Johan Cruyff used to say, Barcelona are still respecting his blueprints.
As a result, every goalkeeper who wears the Blaugrana jersey has to be good with his feet and hands if he wants to succeed in the Catalan capital.
Inaki Pena is a young prospect from the famous La Masia academy.
His skill set is exactly what Barcelona is looking for in a keeper.
This tactical analysis will use statistics and examples to determine whether Pena truly has the potential to make the big step up to the senior team eventually.
Iñaki Peña Player Overview
Football started for this 19-year-old goalkeeper when he was only five, when he signed up for Alicante CF.
Some years later, after flourishing in the ranks of the Yellow Submarine, Barcelona bought him from Villarreal, and he arrived in Catalunya in 2012.
His first appearances were for the U-14 team, and the tall guy between the sticks was crucial as the team clinched the league title, and for Pena, his first Blaugrana trophy for the cabinet.
Today, he is a Barcelona B player.
He made the first big step up in his Barcelona career and started the 2018/19 campaign under Francisco Javier Garcia Pimienta.
His agility, composure and dominance in the air are what make him a standout player in his position.
But still, besides his great reflexes and incredible tendency to deny the opposition from the spot, Barcelona values his footwork the most.
Inaki Pena is a young and already quite complete sweeper-keeper who is slowly but surely climbing the ladder.
Style of play
Generally, when talking about goalies of all kinds in world football, we usually put them into two rough categories: a standard goalkeeper, who is more defensive-minded and prone to risk-free options when passing the ball or looking to kick it long.
On the other hand, the sweeper-keeper tends to rush out, play higher up the pitch and play a bigger role in the build-up of the attack itself.
Basically, we are talking about a defensive vs offensive mindset regarding the big men between the sticks.
Now, with those boundaries being (roughly) explained, we can almost instantly put Inaki Pena in the latter category of a sweeper-keeper.
This is the youngster’s preferred position and one you will find him in on most occasions.
Similarly to Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the senior team, Pena will often times get out of his box to assist his centre-backs in moving the ball from defence to attack.
Barcelona B play a very similar style of football to the senior team: they thrive on possession and playing out of the back, starting with the goalkeeper or in this case, Inaki Pena himself.
As Barcelona set up a pretty high defensive line, Pena not only contributed to the attack but also acted as a safety net in case the Blaugrana youngsters had to retreat all the way to their own half.
The goalie’s position allows them to play shorter passes and transition between the second and the first third more easily.
Although this is beneficial in the offensive sense of their play, it also invites pressure from teams that are courageous enough to exploit it.
With their tendency to give the ball to Pena (this season he averages 16.47 passes received), the opposition is often seen pushing for the interception and pressing for mistakes right in the youngster’s face.
This is the crucial part of the “Barcelona goalkeeper initiation”.
While many other teams won’t really have anything against clearing the ball out of danger, the Catalans insist on remaining in possession and starting the attack between the enemy lines.
Notice how Pena will rather opt for a riskier approach and pass the ball to an approaching midfielder rather than trying for a long ball into the final third.
The latter option would definitely be safer, but it would not guarantee possession of the ball, which is crucial in the team’s system.
As far as his short passes go, he is almost always on point with a staggering 98.1% success rate but this is mostly comprised of passes directly to one of his centre-backs so it’s also a deceiving stat, in a way.
Still, when we take all kinds of passes, risky or not, long or short, he still averages at a high 87.3% with 24.43 passes.
Let’s compare Pena to some of the finest goalkeeper names in world football to put that into perspective.
We’ll start with Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who is regarded as one of the best in the business regarding footwork.
The German sits on 89.3% passing accuracy, just below Manuel Neuer with 89.7%.
Alisson Becker is also pretty high with 88.6%; following him is David de Gea with 82.2%.
Finally, we have Jan Oblak, who is a brilliant example of a more traditional goalkeeper with 79.4% passing accuracy.
It’s difficult to compare such a young goalie who’s still playing in the lower divisions with the biggest names in his position.
The intensity of the game, the context, the opposition—everything is different and, without a shadow of a doubt, a lot tougher for the above-mentioned players than it is for Inaki.
Still, the 19-year-old is holding his own in terms of pure stats.
And that is already a significant achievement.
Distribution
One thing that is always closely analyzed when talking about goalkeepers is their ability to distribute the ball successfully.
This can be either in close or long range, but since we have already dissected Pena’s ability to play through the lines with his teammates close by, let’s now examine his long-range passing ability.
When we crunch the numbers, they tell a rather deceiving story.
A total of 59.8% passing accuracy on average, with 6.91 long balls per 90 minutes.
The fact that he plays almost double those figures when it comes to short passes is not really a surprise given the system he operates in.
Still, the reason I said this could be a bit deceiving is that Pena is, regardless of what the statistics might say, an excellent ball distributor.
He sends 1.3 passes into the final third with 25.4% of them always hitting the target.
This means that if he sees an opening or a good run by one of his forwards, he will not shy away from a good old-fashioned goal kick.
But it will often be a goal kick “with eyes”.
In the example above, which was taken from when he still played for the U-19 Barcelona side, Pena sends a pinpoint-accurate long ball into the final third and right into the feet of his forward.
Notice how this ball was threaded between two markers, while the third was pulled away into the wings by his teammate.
Not only is this pass perilous, and the chances of losing the ball are high, but it also requires sublime skill and precision to pull off.
Although one example hardly does it justice, Pena performs these kinds of “stunts” almost every single game, with his success rate varying from time to time.
In general, it doesn’t really matter if there are two, three, or more markers around his teammates.
If he sees an opening, and he will, you can expect a ball into the feet of one of the Blaugrana players.
With those excellent long balls and creativity when building from the back, Pena is an incredible asset in attack.
Especially since we are, after all, talking about a goalkeeper.
Defensive skill set
Now that we have dealt with his offensive side, it’s time we actually see what he has to offer in terms of facing his opponents head-on.
On average, he faces 3.11 shots per 90 minutes and concedes 0.72 goals per game.
While these stats are his own, a big part is also on his defence’s shoulders.
Still, when he is tested, his reflexes often save the day.
47.7% of all of his saves are reflex ones and he usually has to make 2.39 saves per match.
In this aspect, he is really remarkable, as his stats edge out those of Marc-Andre ter Stegen, who relies on his reflexes 43.9% of the time.
Note, however, that relying less on your reflexes does not mean you are worse at stopping shots; it does give you an edge in pure technical ability.
Again, compared to other goalkeepers: de Gea 44%, Alisson 42.5%, Oblak 41%, and Neuer 37.5%.
The youngster’s agility and reaction time are well above average, as it can be concluded after comparing him to the best of the best.
Still, we mustn’t forget the previous arguments: easier league, easier opposition.
Considering that he is expected to concede 0.83 goals but, in reality, concedes 0.72, Pena is still outperforming his xCG by a margin of 0.11.
One other aspect of his game that we cannot overlook is his tendency to leave his line.
More often than not, when facing a cross into the box or simply a rushing forward, Pena will opt to challenge him by advancing towards him.
This results in an average of 1.83 exits per 90 minutes, which is much more than any of our previously mentioned “heavyweights.”
The closest in pure numbers is Jan Oblak who averages 1.31 exits per game.
Pena’s dominance in the air is what makes him so optimistic when challenging his opposition in the box.
On average, he faces 0.64 aerial duels per game and wins an outstanding 95.3% of them.
The fact that he is 6’0” (184 cm) also helps.
Although goalkeepers win most of their aerial duels due to their use of hands, this is still a commendable output, which means that he doesn’t make many mistakes and knows when to engage and when to stay on his line.
For such a young keeper, it is truly a remarkable skill to have.
Conclusion
Inaki Pena plays in a high-risk, high-reward system that ensures all goalkeepers get their chance to shine.
As a result, he played only five games this season and conceded four goals in the process.
On paper, and slowly but surely on the pitch, this youngster is becoming something else.
His shortcomings are not huge: despite his excellent reflexes, he still suffers in 1v1 situations, and for all the “sniper-like” balls, the percentage of his long passes has to go up just a bit in order for Barcelona B to improve their already dominant possession style football.
Still, we should not forget that he is a work in progress and should also be analyzed as one.
Therefore, his flaws are pretty minor, considering his pros.
Seeing how Barcelona favours sweeper-keeper goalie styles, it should come as no surprise if Inaki Pena makes it to the first team in the foreseeable future.
There’s still a long way until then, and the competition is tough, but as of right now, it is definitely on the horizon.
