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Why Barca fans praise Turkey for Ter Stegen's unbelievable form this season – explained

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's impressive rise in form is mostly due to the fact that he has had his hair restored through a hair transplant.

The German began the procedure in 2019 by undergoing a transplant in Istanbul, Turkey. Now, he looks like Ter Stegen from mid-2010s.

0_UA_Inread

 (Twitter): "That visit to Turkey changed Ter Stegen's life."

 (Twitter): "God bless Turkey man, that country did wonders on him!"

 (Twitter): "Thanks Turkey once again 😭"

💭 17_AUBA (Twitter): "Ter Stegen since going to Turkey: ... "

The 30-year-old has conceded just 9 goals in 26 league matches this season, coming up with plenty of crucial saves along the way.

What's so special about Ter Stegen's goal-kick routine? More & more team will do it — explained

There was a time goal kick was just a chance to lump the ball forward as a rugby-adjacent ‘playing for territory’ tactic. Goalkeepers simply kicked the ball to the opposition end for both sides to wrestle over.

However, these days, this set piece has become an opportunity for teams to build an attacking play from the back. Goalkeepers are crucial. They act as the 11th outfield player and usually begin the process by passing the ball to the closest defender.

 have a unique way of doing theirs this season -- a defender takes the kick to the goalkeeper who in turn finds another defender.

 takes a short goal-kick by passing it to 

 who then passes the ball to one of the full-backs or centre-backs. By doing this, Barca maintain unpredictability and gain numerical superiority.

Take the conventional goal-kick routine: a goalkeeper passes it, say, to the left centre-back. A high-pressing opposition then immediately commits to that side of the pitch.

But at Barca, after Araujo has played the ball to Ter Stegen, the opposition has no way of knowing whether the German will pass it to the left (

) or centre (one of the defenders or midfielders).

If you've ever played FIFA or PES you've probably done this routine, too: passing it back to the keeper after a goal-kick. It turns out it's not just a silly thing (unless you dribbled past the opposition team with your keeper) but a real strategy that gives you a slight advantage in build-up.

There's also a bit of risk here, one that 

 is willing to take: Ter Stegen sometimes is faulty in his ball distribution but the coach trusts him to make this second pass which is more like the first pass.

Of course, Ter Stegen booted the ball forward instead of playing it from the back but even in this case we gained an advantage -- by playing it short at first, we attracted more players to our area meaning that there were fewer 

 players in the middle to fight for the ball.

Since more and more teams are looking for effective ways to get out of the press, we should expect other teams to involve their goalkeepers and start their build-up like this.

Explained: why did Ter Stegen and other La Liga goalkeepers wear black jerseys this weekend

 usually wears neon green jerseys during 

's home games but he sported a black jersey against 

, also wore a black jersey. They even took a picture together before kick-off.

The reason behind it is rather interesting. The black jersey is a tribute to legendary Spanish goalkeeper Jose Angel Iribar who turned 80 years old on March 1. 

 -- making over 450 league appearances -- and was also an undisputed starter for Spain, helping them win the Euros in 1964. The black shirt was his trademark.

It wasn't just Ter Stegen and Mamardashvili, though. Many other La Liga goalkeepers played in black jerseys this weekend.

Player		G
Artem Dovbyk	Girona	20
Alexander Sørloth	Villarreal	19
Jude Bellingham	Real Madrid	19
Robert Lewandowski	Barcelona	17
Antoine Griezmann	Atletico Madrid	16

Why Barca fans praise Turkey for Ter Stegen's unbelievable form this season – explained

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