Our Keeper Concerns and Young Options
Afternoon all, so Fabianski has signed a new long-term deal this week. This can be seen as a postive that the club is going in the right direction and may encourage others such as R.Van Persie to also sign on. its goot to see that our priority is to keep the existing players and build on what we have. My one and only concern though is, is Fabianski good enough to replace Almunia when he is injured or unable to play or even is Almunia good enough to Be our number one?
On Almunia: He has shown great ability this season as a great shot stopper and showing great agility. He has made very important saves which kept us in games and has proved a great penalty kick stopper also. In my opinion i believe Manuel was a more eager keeper and showed alot more determination when Lehmann was around. This is beacuse when there is competition for your place in a club it makes you try harder and indeed prove yourself worthy for your position. Almunia did this respectiveley and now has earned his right as number one. Saying this though, would he be better if he had someone also pushing for a starting call up?
On Fabianski: Did well this season, although young and inexperienced. Produced good displays in the cup runs. He did though make mistakes which cost us alot of goals for example 4-4 at anfield. He has been heavily criticised for running out too early and leaving the goal vulnerable. He is one for the future as it is known goalkeepers develop later than outfield players.
On The answer: I personally feel we need to bring in a keeper to challenge for the number one spot, although this is not neccesarily our priority. It will benefit the club to make us more solid in defence and make the players try harder to earn their place. Fabianski is still young (especially for a keeper) and has plenty of time to ahead of him and i feel a big name between the posts will help him develop also.
Other suggestions are to bring in a young goalkepper who could develop into our future number one (no-dissrespect to Fabianski);
Name: Guilermo Ochoa
Age: 23
Current Club: America, Mexico
Ochoa broke onto the scene at 18 years of age. He has made over 150 appearances and 47 international duty caps for Mexico.
He may be criticised beacuse the mexican league is not as competitive as the EPL.
Name: Igor Akinfeev
Age: 22
Current Club: Cska Moscow, Russia
Akinfeev made his debut at 17. Has captained his side twice in the champions league and has made over 30 appeareances at national level for Russia.
Other young goalkeepers worth a mention are:
Rene Adler: 24 years of age, The up and coming German number one and making 75 appearances for German side Bayer Laverkusen
Sergio Asenjo: First choice keeper for Real Valladolid at only 19 years of age
Let me know what you think. Are you happy with our two keepers now? Do we need to invest money in that department? You decide.
As Always. HarregasTheGooner
June 15th, 2009 at 6:26 am
‘In my opinion i believe Manuel was a more eager keeper and showed alot more determination when Lehmann was around’
I disagree. Almunia was younger then and a relative newcomer to first team football. Since then he has become more assured, confident and less emotional when playing. I see this as a good sign – he has become a world class professional player.
Fabianski has the ability to be an absolute amazing keeper – one of the best in the world. Again, though this will come with age and experience.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Cool Post, about almunia, i believe he has come on a whole lot this year, for example, against Man utd in the first leg of the champs league semi final- although we lost the match, almunia was at least 2 ratings ahead of everyone on the pitch (according to bbc player rater) – yeah he was that good. So i believe Almunia is definately able to fit into the no.1, and he has surely turned into a world class keeper (wow wenger can really skyrocket a player’s career e.g fabregas, henry, pires) as far as fabianski goes i believe hes a great keeper just check out his save vs wigan here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiC7LqcizW8 but he cracks under pressure e.g. his wembley nightmare, but i think he will progress and take the same route as almunia, he will be magnificent he just needs more time and experience like song. p.s i dont think wenger will sign any other keepers he really has faith in fabianski hes said it time and time again. and i dont think there will be a need for mannone unless disaster strikes or its an end-of-season game.