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Liverpool’s Keeper Conundrum

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Liverpool have not managed to replace the form of Reina from 2 or 3 years ago

Liverpool have not managed to replace the form of Reina from 2 or 3 years ago

Football teams are a complicated and intricate balance of playing styles, abilities, and egos. The best teams field great players in all positions that blend to form a perfect team dynamic; if any part is lacking, or does not fit, then the team never reaches its full potential. Forwards provide the firepower, their goal-scoring prowess crucial to their team’s success. Midfielders provide power and dynamism, supplying the forward line, creating plays, and protecting the defensive line. Defenders combine to produce a barrier between the opposition and their team’s goal, their aim to prevent opposing forwards from creating any scoring opportunity. In any team, these components vary from player to player with individuals combining in their tasks for the good of their club. Goalkeepers, however, stand alone as the resolute last line of defence, and are often the unsung heroes, or the hated villain, within a team.

I’ve always had favourite Liverpool players: Stevie G, Michael Owen, Jamie Carragher, Fernando Torres to name but a few. Throughout my time supporting Liverpool, and England, I have never felt a strong allegiance to a goalkeeper. Sure I used to chant ‘We’ve got a great big Pole in our goal’ along with the rest of the kop, and felt reassured when Reina’s name was on the team sheet, but I have never had a favourite player who was a goalkeeper. I instinctively don’t trust them, and have an inherent belief that they can make a match-changing mistake at any given moment (I blame the likes of David James and Sander Westerveld from my early supporting days!)

My distrust of goalkeepers is a) a little hypocritical, and b) unjustified, and yet I can’t shake it. I do have a go at a goalkeeper when they fumble the ball, or play a dreadful ball to the opponents’ feet, however, I know I could never pull on that shirt and stand in front of a goal knowing the opposition’s entire aim is to put as many goals as possible past me. They have an unenviable task. When everything goes right, and they play well, they are worshipped (look no further than Tim Howard and Guillermo Ochoa during the 2014 World Cup), but when everything goes wrong they are vilified.

Friedel has become one of the most respected and consistent EPL goalkeepers

Friedel has become one of the most respected and consistent EPL goalkeepers

In order to perform at the top-level, goalkeepers must finely balance the skills required to play in that position. But what are they? What actually makes a good goalkeeper?

In the last 20 years, two countries have stood out as goalkeeping factories, Spain and USA, producing Iker Casillas, Victor Valdes, Pepe Reina, David de Gea, Brad Friedel, Tim Howard, Brad Guzan, and Kasey Keller to name but a few. Liverpool have experienced the shot-stopping, long-throw specialist Reina keeping record numbers of clean sheets in the premier league, and Friedel’s commanding presence in the box, yet their games and styles differ greatly. Is one better than the other? In my opinion, they are pretty evenly rated, and I am not actually sure who I would pick – can we just combine them?

There are many skills that fans consider essential for goalkeepers to possess. Shot-stopping, presence in the box, good distribution, confidence under aerial balls/passes, strong, tall, and brave are all skills on my list, yet I can’t think of a single goalkeeper off the top of my head playing now who possesses all these listed skills. Spanish goalkeepers are considered to be some of the most proficient around, yet seem to have an inherent flaw when defending against aerial balls that are more prominent in the Iberian peninsula than anywhere else. German keepers are often considered to be a bit too brave, regularly given nicknames eluding to hot-headness and crazy antics, which makes them a liability at the back.

It seems to me that the days of having a great all-round goalkeeper, who is at least strongly competent at all the required skills, are gone. Peter Schmichael is, for me, the last of the great goalkeepers. Yes, he is considered by some to be the best there has ever been, so I may be setting the bar quite high, but if we don’t expect the world, we won’t get the world from our players. When did choosing a goalkeeper become less about which all-round keeper was better than which goal keeper has a flaw that can be best covered by the rest of our team?

Mignolet has reportedly yet to convince the Liverpool hierarchy

Mignolet has reportedly yet to convince the Liverpool hierarchy

In the past 10 years, Liverpool have often suffered from a keeping conundrum. Two great goalkeepers, one place on the team; whoever is left out of the starting XI too good to sit on the bench. Dudek and Kirkland, Reina and Carson, Reina and Mignolet – the choice as important as a forward partnership. The pros and cons of each player must be weighed against the rest of the team when choosing any player, but the trust placed in a goalkeeper to make a match-saving stop often means the difference between 3 points and a disappointing result.

This has been shown in the 2014/15 pre-season at Liverpool. With Reina back from his loan spell at Napoli, and Mignolet a season into his keeping days at Liverpool, the fight for the starting spot was perceived to be strong – until Liverpool sold one of the best goalkeepers in the world to be a second keeper at Bayern Munich. If he was going to warm a bench, surely he would be better on ours rather than the German champions’?

A forward can miss 20 shots in a match, but as long as he converts 1 chance, he puts his team a step closer to a victory. If a goalkeeper makes one mistake, the goal conceded could be the difference between a victory and a defeat. This pressure is bound to highlight the flaws of the individual players as much as the strengths, so am I being overly harsh and negative on modern day goalkeepers? Or have the days of the brilliant keepers been and gone?

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