13 Feb 2016 03:44:15
ed 1 is it just me or is the standard of goalkeeping getting worse. I think one of the reasons de gea, courtois, cech and loriss get lauded is the rest are bloody awful, take butland for example ed I think he has been decent nothing more now he is worth £20million. now we all agree lfc need a new goalie, who would you go for ed.? I would also like to hear your thoughts on neuer and my favourite goalie of recent times buffon. cheers ed.

{Ed001's Note - very few can even catch a ball these days. I know they are full of excuses about the balls being lighter and so blown around a lot, but these days the pitches are better so they tend to be better struck, so the flight is more true than it used to be. It is poor coaching, everyone wants to take the easy way out, and it is much easier to punch than to catch.

Butland is not bad, been one of the better keepers this season, but I agree, he is far from special. Joe Hart is another one, dodgy as hell yet he is seen as some kind of top class keeper. Keepers very rarely even bother to organise their defences any more, as coaches set it all up and that is why so many teams are able to create good scoring opportunities against each other. Players no longer have initiative defensively. They have turned into defensive robots, with jobs to do and no one to say, "hang on, there is a free man there, go mark him".

I suppose coaches have to justify their jobs somehow, but I was always told the best coaches are a lot less involved with minute details and just helped guide players to improving themselves. They teach players specific things, rather than just helping them to understand the game better for themselves, so that they can figure out what to do for themselves depending on the situation.

Neuer is good, but he is not Grob or Clem is he? They were sweeper keepers, but they were also organising the team, spotting issues ahead of them, changing the corner defensive systems to suit how the opposition set up etc. Buffon is a bit of a throwback, he is old enough to have been around and picked up football before everyone got over coached, which is why he is still able to cope today as he can figure out for himself what he should be doing.}

1.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 07:31:39
Interesting stuff about the whole coaching aspect and there do seem to be far fewer top keepers around. I also agree that Joe Hart is not as good a keeper as he's made out to be. My question is Ed do you rate Fraser Forster he seems to have been pretty solid since his injury and would he even be a viable option for us?

{Ed001's Note - I am not a fan of Forster, he flaps at crosses and is just a typical modern keeper - big and imposing but not actually that good at controlling his area or catching. No I don't think he is a viable option, though to be fair to him, he has improved in recent years.}

2.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 08:11:12
thanks for your reply ed. it is quite shocking how the basic skills for a goalkeeper has declined in recent years. it has even reached the point where they are guessing which way the ball is going and diving, instead of standing upright and making themselves big. I would also add to that some of these so called "world class saves" are down to poor finishing as well, but that's a different story. If ian rush was playing today, I would expect him to score 50 goals a season.

{Ed001's Note - 50? I think he would break all records if he was playing today as defenders can't defend either. He would smash 50 easy.}

3.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 08:25:42
Not sure how good or bad are the current GKs on average but the best of this era - Neuer, Buffon, De Gea at least are the best I have ever seen.

4.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 08:59:46
Quick question what about ter stegen? Or however you spell it.

5.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 08:59:46
Quick question what about ter stegen? Or however you spell it.

6.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 09:04:54
Ed what about begiovc your opinion on him would be nice.

{Ed001's Note - he is not bad, one of the better keepers at Prem level, I do have fears over his attitude though now he has chosen to be a number 2. I like the fact he turned down offers to stay and set up the charity in Stoke, as he said it would be wrong to leave Stoke when setting up a local charity, but then he really went for the money. Though the offers were not exactly flooding in and Stoke had told him they wanted to use Butland so he would be number 2 there, it still feels like he could have found himself a number one role somewhere on less money if he had really wanted to.}

7.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 10:13:33
Met Begovic on a number of occasions.

Horrible arrogant get.

8.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 10:25:53
A bit like Stevie then 😉.

9.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 11:16:37
Edd001 neuer is a lot better than good. He is a magnificent goalkeeper.

{Ed001's Note - he's the best modern keeper, but he is not at the level they used to be. Goalkeeping is one part of the game that has regressed massively recently.}

10.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 11:55:35
I've only ever seen clips of the days you're no doubt speaking of and they are usually of goals etc but the keepers usually look awful maybe what they lacked in shot stopping they had in organisational skills.

{Ed001's Note - you have never seen the shot that Grobs had to race back and fly into the air to tip over the bar in a cup final after being caught off his line then? Or the Banks save from a header? Seriously this kind of thing is just annoying. You only watched goals then claim they can't be good shotstoppers. It just makes you shake your head at the ridiculousness of the comment.}

11.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 12:13:52
this is why average goalkeepers get praised today ed. also we have this myth that nothing was good in football until sky created the premier league. my favourite is the, it was easier to win the European cup back in the 70s and 80s, complety ignoring the fact only champions entered the competition, just because forest, and villa won the trophy somehow the standard was poor, always makes me laugh that, going by that logic next years will be the worst yet because Leicester have had the nerve to qualify.

{Ed001's Note - it was more difficult to win if anything, back then.}

12.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 12:19:13
I know that was why I made the comment to show I'm completely ignorant apart from seeing the goals (which obviously shows keepers in a bad light in terms of shot stopping because they're showing the goals) but lots of the goals seem like the keepers weren't very good. And no I don't think I have saw the saves you describe and I wouldn't know banks from Adam.

13.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 13:05:42
Ed would do you make of Cech? I heard he learnt the language of the defenders in front of him so it would be easier for him to tailor his instructions to the player and so organise the defence.

{Ed002's Note - Petr Cech can speak Czech & Slovak, German, French, English, and reasonable & Italian. He did not learn these to speak to the defenders at Arsenal.}

14.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 13:57:33
Ed is right. Gk's today are over coached and don't have the basic tools to match the top class talent of back in the day. Back then, gk's were like defensive coaches, never stopped talking, never stopped organizing and had this attitude of hating to lose or getting scored on. Take Scmiechel or Buffon. They are or were old school. Always commanded the defence, shouting and grabbing players who weren't doing their jobs, pointing to where certain players needed to be on set pieces etc. Now, gk's are coached to just do as their told with no input and lack that mean streak.

15.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 14:21:08
Oliver kahn.

16.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 15:23:18
I remember Grob making a save from Brian McClair, I think in 1989, which at the time I thought was the best I had ever seen. Think it can be found somewhere deep into you tube. I also found Ronnie Whelan's amazing own goal on there too.

17.) 13 Feb 2016
13 Feb 2016 16:01:41
I remember that save, Ed. It was breathtaking and still is every time you see it. The Gordon Banks save from Pele is one from the ages. Pele famously quoted about the save, "I scored a goal. Gordon Banks removed it". Priceless!