*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

[Furball]

Seaman's comfortably the best English keeper I've seen. Was too young to remember Chris Woods.

 

[King Pietersen]

Seaman was brilliant at his peak. Best keeper I have seen for England along with Shilton. Hart at one stage looked like he may reach that level but has regressed.

Cech was great but not a match for Schmeichel in the Prem though Southall was better than everyone in the mid to late 80's.

Great shout. Big Nev pulled off some unbelieveable stops. I had the 85/86 season on VHS. The season where we'd won the league the year before, signed the best striker in the country (Lineker), and came 2nd, only to get rid of him the season after and win the league again. Southall was unbelievable in that season though, pulled off some fabulous saves; not seen many blokes that even compared to Southall in his prime. What a man.

 

[sledger]

I think the fact that Seaman wasn't an especially spectacular keeper (insofar that he rarely made really incredible saves) sometimes counts against him in these sorts of debates. But his positional sense and handling were absolutely exceptional. He was a fantastic athlete too, absolute giant of a man. He just looked like a goalkeeper, somehow.

 

[GIMH]

It's a shame Southall was turd in the 90s because he really was immense in early career from all I've seen

 

[BoyBrumby]

It's hard to say. He was better than any of those keepers for a while and now he's been worse than any of them for a while. David James at his worst was probably even more dire though tbf.

I wouldn't drop him at this stage of the qualifiers, they've made that mistake before with Schteve bringing in Foster for the crucial Croatia game. From what I've seen Ruddy is a really good keeper and none of the Norwich fans seem to think any different, I'd really be thinking about bringing him in for some friendlies before the World Cup (if they qualify). But you never really know how keepers will react to the increased exposure etc.

Wasn't it Carson, from memory?

To be fair Robinson was in uber turd form beforehand anyway (his performance in Croatia arguably dropped us in the mire in the first place; airkicked a Comrade Gary backpass, I think), so there's every chance he'd have been just as shyte anyway.

I'd always prefer a coach to have the balls to change things rather than stick with the status quo. I always think of the Trott for Ravi move in the 5th test that won us the Ashes in 2009.

It's a shame Southall was turd in the 90s because he really was immense in early career from all I've seen

He was certainly immense when he played that one time for Bradford too...

 

[GIMH]

Can't say I remember that but his spell at Stoke was memorable for all the right reasons if you don't like Stoke. And let's be honest, why would you?

 

[BoyBrumby]

Ha, I meant "immense" in the literal sense. He was almost completely spherical when he played for the Bantams.

EDIT: Pictorial evidence:

 

[Uppercut]

Wasn't it Carson, from memory?

To be fair Robinson was in uber turd form beforehand anyway (his performance in Croatia arguably dropped us in the mire in the first place; airkicked a Comrade Gary backpass, I think), so there's every chance he'd have been just as shyte anyway.

I'd always prefer a coach to have the balls to change things rather than stick with the status quo. I always think of the Trott for Ravi move in the 5th test that won us the Ashes in 2009.

Yeah I think you're right about it being Carson.

Not sure how brave the Trott selection was. They weren't exactly going against the grain, everyone and their granny agreed it was the right call. And he didn't have the potential to lose England the game in the way that changing keepers does. I wouldn't mind if they picked Ruddy, I think he's quality, but I can see why they wouldn't. It's a bit of a disaster waiting to happen.

 

[cpr]

Foster on his days a pretty good keeper, though for all his flashy saves for WBA he always came accross as having poor footing to me, never had a decent jump when at Utd. If he wasn't injured I'd suggest him in for Hart. Not 100% sure on the others ahead of him though.

Was a fan of Rob Green though, yeah he had his howler in a World Cup of all places, but always seemed dependable for West Ham.

 

[Uppercut]

Foster on his days a pretty good keeper, though for all his flashy saves for WBA he always came accross as having poor footing to me, never had a decent jump when at Utd. If he wasn't injured I'd suggest him in for Hart. Not 100% sure on the others ahead of him though.

Was a fan of Rob Green though, yeah he had his howler in a World Cup of all places, but always seemed dependable for West Ham.

Don't remember that, at his best he was one of those keepers that puts in a great performance one week and a shocker the next. At worst he was agonising to watch, like a bad British sitcom where a fairly likable man keeps finding new and innovative ways to humiliate himself in front of the whole world.

Foster's OK, but he's admitted before he couldn't deal with the pressure at United, plus IIRC he's refused to be in the squad a few times.

 

[grecian]

I hate being boring, despite all the evidence to the contrary, but in the end very hard to judge 'keepers unless you watch them live a lot of the time, particulary in these modern days, command of area, which instils confident in defence is generally the main thing. See I never much liked Seaman or Shilton, but everyone said they had that, whilst others didn't.

Tim Flowers for instance looked as good on t'telly as most of them, but apparently not so much otherwise.

 

[sledger]

Don't remember that, at his best he was one of those keepers that puts in a great performance one week and a shocker the next. At worst he was agonising to watch, like a bad British sitcom where a fairly likable man keeps finding new and innovative ways to humiliate himself in front of the whole world.

Foster's OK, but he's admitted before he couldn't deal with the pressure at United, plus IIRC he's refused to be in the squad a few times.

Rob Green was (and may still be) one of those keepers who'd make a couple of saves each match that'd make the highlight reel on match of the day, which would obscure the fact that he played in a team which conceded a lot of goals. This doesn't necessarily mean he was at fault for any of them, mind you, but I'm always suspicious of picking goalkeepers who play for teams which are basically relegation fodder. They're always going to make more saves than keepers playing for better sides by virtue of the fact that they have a cack defence in front of them and will face more shots. Law of averages and all that.

The best keepers are the ones who are maybe called into serious action once or twice a game and come up trumps imo. It's hard to judge the quality of a keeper who pulls of a handful of decent looking saves every match but also has 3 goals put past him. Though it's arguable that the reverse may also be true, I suppose (i.e. that a good defence can make a keeper look better than he is).

 

[Eds]

Pretty interesting IMO.

 

[Scaly piscine]

BBC News - Gary Madine jailed for Sheffield nightclub attacks on fans

Here's hoping he gets a good hiding in prison. Scum.

 

[Pothas]

Rob Green was (and may still be) one of those keepers who'd make a couple of saves each match that'd make the highlight reel on match of the day, which would obscure the fact that he played in a team which conceded a lot of goals. This doesn't necessarily mean he was at fault for any of them, mind you, but I'm always suspicious of picking goalkeepers who play for teams which are basically relegation fodder. They're always going to make more saves than keepers playing for better sides by virtue of the fact that they have a cack defence in front of them and will face more shots. Law of averages and all that.

The best keepers are the ones who are maybe called into serious action once or twice a game and come up trumps imo. It's hard to judge the quality of a keeper who pulls of a handful of decent looking saves every match but also has 3 goals put past him. Though it's arguable that the reverse may also be true, I suppose (i.e. that a good defence can make a keeper look better than he is).

Rob Green a keeper in the great tradition of keepers that you yourself were part.

Not being a terrible footballer is also important. One of the contestant features of lower league football is keepers with absolutely terrible distribution.

 

[Uppercut]

I hate being boring, despite all the evidence to the contrary, but in the end very hard to judge 'keepers unless you watch them live a lot of the time, particulary in these modern days, command of area, which instils confident in defence is generally the main thing. See I never much liked Seaman or Shilton, but everyone said they had that, whilst others didn't.

Tim Flowers for instance looked as good on t'telly as most of them, but apparently not so much otherwise.

Yeah that's definitely true. Communication on the pitch is incredibly important for defenders too, it's something you don't get a feel of watching on TV, or even in the stands sometimes.

I think positioning is a hugely underrated skill for keepers too. Some of the really spectacular-looking saves that keepers like Green make would have been routine for Cech because he'd have been standing in the right place. The stats on what % of shots on target lead to goals are always interesting imo, and they're usually pretty close to what you'd expect (Lloris has been the best so far this season).

 

[sledger]

Rob Green a keeper in the great tradition of keepers that you yourself were part.

Not being a terrible footballer is also important. One of the contestant features of lower league football is keepers with absolutely terrible distribution.

Yes, that is true. To some extent I am still a part of that tradition to this day. The last law society team I played for were absolutely awful, and we lost nearly every match. The only game we won was ironically against the best team in the league, in a match where we scored a terrible goal in the first 5 minutes and then just defended horribly for the remainder. Remarkable that we weren't thrashed really.

In short though, it's a tradition of which I am proud to be a part, but am deeply suspicious of others who belong to it.

 

[Uppercut]

England expects ? quite wrongly - FT.com

Some interesting musings on the national side.

 

[sledger]

England expects ? quite wrongly - FT.com

Some interesting musings on the national side.

People have been saying the sorts of things mentioned here for years, but it's infuriating how this sort of thinking hasn't filtered down to (or perhaps up) to the people who actually make the decisions on these sorts of things. I thought the bit towards the bottom about youth systems was especially true.

 

[Cevno]

Kompany seems to get injured an awful lot.