I have just been browsing the stats for 2014/15 and surprised to see which goalkeeper leads the Premier League clean sheets table 1 Fraser Foster = 13 2 Simon Mignolet/Ben Foster = 11 4 Lucas Fabianski/David De Gea = 10 6 Joe Hart = 9 7 Thibaut Courtois = 8 The clean sheet stats suggests that Fraser Forster is the best goal keeper in the league, with Courtois 7th.. !!! Everyone seems to agree that De Gea, Courtois and Lloris are the best keepers in the league, so my question is are clean sheets down to the keeper or the defence ? And how else can you judge goalkeepers.. ? Number of saves to shots etc. Should a goalkeeper playing for a "big" team not benefit from a better defence and thus more clean sheets. ??
De Gea is about as good as Mignolet but gets more attention because his saves are the only thing keeping Man Utd top half of the table Lloris has given up and is already planning his move to a CL club that he threatened Spurs with last season
Cleans sheets are a reflection on the keeper and defenders. They are one unit - they all have to have confidence in each other. And credit to Fraser Forster - he has been good and certainly has been one of the best keepers this season. De Gea has looked good this season because he has been exposed by his defence, and has had more shots to save thus looking good. He is a very good keeper, but keepers behind poor defences look better than what they are - you only have to look at Shay Given who looked immense at Newcastle but actually was an average keeper. Keepers in the best teams generally have little to do so concentration and decision making are crucial. The best keepers are the ones who you don't really notice during a game because if they and the defence do their job, they should be incident free.
Yeah lad, the keeper who lost his place to Brad Jones is on a par with the keeper being tracked by Madrid.
The best keepers are the ones who make the most saves to shots faced over a meaningful measuring period. A great keeper can win you as many points as a top drawer striker. United won their 1st PL title primarily off the back of Cantona and Schmeichel, I lost count of the number of times the latter saved their bacon and they won by one goal.
Given in his prime was far from average, he was one of the finest reflex shot stoppers in the game. The last line is piffle as well, great keepers are always seen, what you're referring to there is a great side with a great all round defence.
There's more to goal keeping than merely stopping shots. You have to able to command your area, organise your defence, make brave decisions. That is why Given is only known as being a good shot stopper. Nothing more, nothing less.
Clean sheets are a reflection on the team in question. Of you had just the keeper and defenders you would concede every game!
Spot on. Given if anything was very underrated. A great keeper in every sense and as you posted earlier about Schmeichel, won his team many points. Anyone who's watched De Gea for a sustained period (even at atletico which I doubt many have on here) knows he was always going to be world class. Just hope we can hold on to him.
Without De Gea this season utd would be lower midtable, that in itself not only shows how good he is but also how crap their defence have been.
Very true. But closer analysis of De Gae's season shows how much he's been overworked due to defensive failings, if things were as simple as you suggest you'd be right.
Don't think we can really compare Mignolet to De Gea. Yeah De Gea has looked really good this season because of a poor defence, but he's saved most shots anyway, hasn't he? He's one of the top young goalkeepers in the world. Mignolet is good. Not top 10 IMO but still good. I'll be happy once De Gea pisses off to Madrid. It'll weaken United and set them back in terms of goalkeeping. What I'm worried about is that we haven't done the same as United/Chelsea (and to some extent Arsenal). All three of them invested in a very young goalkeeper with promise. They've let them develop into stars, and with patience they've seen returns. Szczesny is suffering from a lack of significant competition but they are promising. We went for the keeper that was already approaching his prime. In less than 4 years we'll have to replace him again. That's a long time, but I'd prefer using those 4 years to train a young starlet into a rock that will serve us for a decade. There aren't too many on the market right now though.
Hes 26 and you think he's in his prime and we'll have to replace him in 4 years? Keeps peak around 30 so plenty of years In him and in next few years we can get a young keeper in to learn. You say schezney is suffering from serious competition... But he's been dropped for the last 4 months or so
Yes, because he was suffering from lack of competition. I was talking about the last few years. He was seen as a huge talent, and still is one. He's just dipped in form this season. Ospina and Martinez have taken his place for now but that won't last too long. As for Mignolet, I'm not saying he's in his prime. I'm saying he's approaching it. When I said "replacing" him, I meant that once he hits 30 the club will need to start looking for a long-term project again. I wish that we were on the same stage of our project as United are with De Gea or Chelsea are with Courtois (who played a lot at Atletico). Mignolet is the finished article and that's good, but when you see that at the age of 22 Courtois is already better, you start to wonder I want of those talents. I'm not a Mignolet hater, I value him and think he'll be good for the next few years. But I'd rather already have someone like Courtois. I know we're not Chelsea and those talents are rare, but we don't really develop goalkeepers, do we? We should start.
