A lot has been made of Pepe's form over the the last few seasons, and I'm inclined to agree with the vast majority of criticism that has come his way. He has been by far the best goalkeeper I have seen at Anfield in my lifetime but his best seasons were under the tutelage of Rafa, since then he has been distinctly average (and even below average on numerous occasions). How many more mistakes can be made before it becomes unfair that Brad Jones has to stay on the bench despite being very consistent whenever he has been called upon? I used to play as a keeper and I understand that you need a significant run of games at all times because the mental aspect of being a goalie is one of the largest factors in performance. However I just don't see Pepe getting back to his best any time soon. I remember from 2007-08 every time he was called into action you could have complete faith in his ability to deal with it appropriately, whether it be punched clear or caught assuredly. I just don't have that level of confidence in him anymore, whenever it gets to the 80th minute I am waiting for the inevitable mistake. That sort of mindset shouldn't happen with a top level goalkeeper. At nearly 30 years old is it the right time to cash in on him and continue the trend of giving youth a chance by signing a younger keeper? Sadly I think so, I have loved to watch Pepe in a Liverpool shirt over the last 7 years, but maybe his time at Anfield has to come to an end like so many other influential members of Rafa's tenure
Despite his mistake, he made a few good saves on Saturday. I still have faith in him, give it time. I don't have much faith in our back up though, a bit of good competition wouldn't do no harm and if that meant stealing Pepe's place then so be it. I wouldn't call for him to leave the club. Edit: I WOULDN'T call for him to leave the club FFS.
While he is still our number one I will support him no matter what. But as it stands I would not begrudge him a move back to Spain if we were able to bring in an able replacement.
Also this article sums up a lot of my points, it really emphasises the dip in form he has experienced since Rafa left: http://basstunedtored.com/2012/06/29/the-decline-of-pepe-reina/
Seriously? What part of this article is wumming? Read through my past posts as well before you act like such a twat. If you're refering to my location as Manchester as clumsiness then you are mistaken. I have lived in Manchester my whole life, however I have supported Liverpool my whole life as the majority of my family are Liverpool fans (apart from a few City supporters, least they aren't United). So I would appreciate it if you retracted that comment.
Arse. This is a genuine thread and I don't appreciate you trying to derail it. I keep my information public because it shouldn't matter how old I am or where I was born, that doesn't alter the validity of anything I say considering half the Liverpool fans on here aren't from Liverpool either.
Think this is very harsh, OP is clearly a LFC fan and has expressed his opinion, the fact that you don't agree with it does not make Crumpet a WUM.
As people have already said, competition for Pepe couldn't do no harm. Personally I'd go for Jack Butland
As for the point in hand, from the matches i have seen of recent do suggest that Reina has dipped in form. however, there was a time when Reina was top class and Liverpool were not and Pepe stayed with us, for this loyalty i thank him and will carry on supporting him...for the time being ; )
It is purely my viewpoint. It matters not where he lives, who the members of his family support or how old he is. Pepe has pulled us out of the sh1te more times than I care to remember. That is why some of the mistakes he's made recently stand out like a sore thumb. If you look at my posting history, you will see, quite clearly, that I'm genuine. I just don't like 'supporters' sniping at our players, especially almost legendary ones. That is all.
Butland would be a brilliant keeper to get in, a year or two and he will be hot premiership property, why not buy him now for cheap!?
I am not sniping at our players. It should be evident from my post I have a lot of affection for Reina. I am all for giving players time to adjust and grow, but Reina has slowly but surely begun to consistently decline over the course of a few seasons (see the stats from the blog I posted further up). I agree with Hau5fly that he deserves more time than many other players would due to his strong commitment to the cause during his time here, but you can't have blind faith in someone in football. That's the reason Kenny had to go and Brendan had to come in, if sentiment ruled football then we'd still have Graeme Souness in charge considering he was one of our great players. But no, football is football and players and managers alike should be judged on performance, potential and workrate. If we are to judge Reina based on those three factors then it doesn't seem a ridiculous idea to plan for the future and bring in a young, talented keeper as competition. Nobody should command a place without having first earned it, people are all too quick to eject Gerrard from the team at the first lacklustre display despite the fact that he is still one of our best players, and has consistently been so for the last 10 years. Reina shouldn't be immune from criticism.
Reina is a great keeper, but he's having a bad patch. He is a fantastic player for us and he'll always have the fans' support for his previous heroics and his club loyalty. We do, however, need to give him some competition. We need a good young prospect as his understudy, to push him. We need to start phasing in a new keeper in the next 5 years. 30-35 is usually when keepers are at their peak, so Reina will be here for a while yet, if he performs and, more importantly, if he wants to stay. A quality, young number 2 keeper is absolutely vital though.
Competition, could have been Doni but he was used so sparingly last year, we had that competition for him but I don't think we used it correctly.
