It is said that great teams are built on great defences. Without a solid base, it is impossible to go on to dominate and win games at the very top.
A look at the four UEFA Champions League semi-finalists goes a long way to prove that point.
Headlines
Whilst the likes of Messi, Henry and Eto’o, Drogba, Lampard and Ballack, Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov, Adebayor, Van Persie and Walcott might pick up a vast majority of the headlines, there are other players who are equally crucial and some would say, even more so.
Where would Barcelona be without the brilliance of Danny Alves, Puyol and Marquez? Would Chelsea be such a force without Terry, Carvalho and Cole? Would United be looking for five trophies without Ferdinand, Vidic and Evra and would Arsenal have turned their season around without Sagna, Toure and Clichy?
Of course the answer to all those questions is no. We all need a strong a defence. Surely, behind every strong defence sits a strong goalkeeper, doesn’t there?
Strong
A look at these four teams, the best in Europe, and I don’t think the goalkeeping position is all that strong.
At Barcelona we have Victor Valdes. Approximately 90% of the comments on this site concerning Barcelona plead with Pep Guardiola to get in a new keeper.
The twenty-seven year old Spaniard played a few games for his country at under twenty-one level but has never been given a full cap. Valdes has played over two hundred and fifty games for Barcelona and has the record for the longest clean sheet in European competition at 466 minutes.
Successive Barcelona managers appear to have faith in him but the fans and the national team managers don’t.
Best
At Chelsea we have Petr Cech. Without doubt, up until a couple of years ago, Cech was one of the best keepers in the world. Is he now? I don’t think so.
The 6’5” Czech Republic international is still only twenty-six years old and has represented his country sixty-eight times. Prior to 14th October 2006 he was a truly great keeper. After that date he has not really looked like a shadow of his former self.
The collision with Reading’s Stephen Hunt that he suffered on that day was horrific. He suffered a depressed fracture of the skull and Doctors later reported that the injury could have been fatal.
Cech bravely returned after just a few months wearing his protective skull cap. He hasn’t been the same since and who can blame him?
Legend
At Manchester United we have Edwin van der Sar. Don’t get me wrong, the Dutch keeper is a legend of the game. He has won just about everything a keeper can win and earlier this season he broke the record for consecutive clean sheets in the Premier League.
There is no doubt that he is still a good keeper, but at thirty-eight, is he still great? There are one or two worrying signs that Edwin might be beginning to lose some of his powers. He doesn’t look too comfortable with crosses and the amount of times that Rio Ferdinand or Nemanja Vidic give him a piece of their mind seems to be increasing.
If Ben Foster hadn’t had such terrible luck with injuries, would Van der Sar still be Fergie’s first choice?
Injured
Last of the four we come to Arsenal. Their first choice keeper, Manuel Almunia is currently injured and his place has been taken by Lukasz Fabianski.
Straight away one has to ask if either of these keepers is truly world class. I suspect the answer is a resounding no. Fabianski is only twenty-three and he has fourteen caps for Poland already. He has potential and he will probably get better. Is he good enough to be in goal for the Champions League winners though?
Almunia is thirty-one years old and has done a decent job for his club. No better and no worse, just decent. He has never been capped by Spain and I expect he is even further down the pecking order than Victor Valdes!
Great
So there we have it. Four great teams with great attackers, great midfield players and great defenders. I would suggest that none of them have great goalkeepers.
There are great keepers out there but these top four teams seem to be managing OK without them.
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