Goalkeeping: Whose Hands are Safest?

[Me]

Everyone is entitled to an opinion I guess.

Which ten do you see ahead of them?

[Don1]

Which ten do you see ahead of them?

I think this is reasonable:


Just-Football's Ten Best Goalkeepers In The World 2008


Over at the impressive Soccer By Ives, a recent reader email prompted discussion as to the world's ten best goalkeepers. On that list are some of the usual suspects (Cech, Casillas, Buffon etc) and then two names that come as more of a surprise: Brad Friedel and Tim Howard.

Now, as anyone who reads SBI will know, the site in question tags itself as 'the world of soccer with an American voice' and so naturally one can expect such a slant to bring with it perhaps a slight bit of bias where American goalkeepers are concerned, but nonetheless the choice of these two keepers in particular provides ample food for thought.

I think that if you were analysing the finest goalkeepers in the English Premier League there would be no doubt that both Friedel and Howard are deservedly up there amongst the best and the most consistent. On their day both are keepers that can make the difference as Friedel did regularly for Blackburn Rovers and Howard continues to do for Everton. Whether they would make it into a world top ten though is highly debatable.

Lets take a look at hard stats. According to Premier League statistics Tim Howard made 233 saves in the two seasons prior to this and has made 48 saves in the 12 games so far during 2008/2009, including two clean sheets. Brad Friedel made 286 saves in his last two seasons at Blackburn and has made 41 saves in 2008/2009 during his first year at new club Aston Villa, also in 12 games, with three clean sheets to his name. Comparatively speaking, keep in mind that Friedel played more minutes than Howard in the two seasons prior to this one.

Both keepers are solid, reliable performers who can also offer the occasional superhero showing in which they heroically manage to keep the opposition at bay almost singlehandedly. However, having thought it through and looked around for alternatives we here at Just-Football would be inclined to leave both of them out of a World Top Ten and choose instead the following ten as Just-Football's best goalkeepers in the world, in no particular order:

• Iker Casillas
• Gianluigi Buffon
• Petr Cech
• Pepe Reina
• Igor Akinfeev
• Sebastien Frey
• Julio Cesar
• Steve Mandanda
• Andres Palop
• Manuel Neuer

Honourable mentions to Edwin Van der Sar who would have been an absolute certainty five months ago but has fallen down the pecking order due to a shaky start to this season, David James, Carlos Kameni, Rogerio Ceni and Alexander Doni. Of course it is always difficult to separate keepers performing at such a high level, in different leagues around the world in front of defences of vastly differing qualities, but overall we feel that these are the ten that currently deserve to fit into any such list.

[Me]

There isn't much different between most of the keepers on that list and Howard or Friedel. Cech form over the past year has been worse than both and Sebastien Frey is only better with his haristyles. Steve Mandanda has more talent than both, but he makes a few errors (he is young, so he should be clearly ahead in a season or two)

[Assasin]

What I am saying is if the list was compiled in England and was world list chances are these two keepers would be on it.

[HL]

The 'xperts' at Just-Football saw it fit to leave out Van der Sar out of the top 10...~~sigh~~groan~~

Tim Howard and Brad Friedel are in my top 10.

[Assasin]

Pepe Reina is not better than Freidel or Howard.

[Zeppo]

Steve Mandanda has more talent than both, but he makes a few errors (he is young, so he should be clearly ahead in a season or two)

He didn't look so hot for France in the Argentina friendly a few weeks ago when he let in both goals at his near post.

Needs to work on his positioning.

[Don1]

Pepe Reina is not better than Freidel or Howard.

I guess everybody is entitled to their opinion.

[Karl]

Never said any of those two were bad... they are very solid all round keepers.... debatable whether they are among the best in the world.

In my opinion having them both on a world top ten list is an obvious hometown decision.

Not Howard! ...but certainly Brad!
Brad may very well be the best in the world. He has done that well with so-so defenders in front of him.

Fact - He has never had *the type defenders before him/protecting him as the top 5 'keepers mentioned...never!!!

* or TEAM or TEAM defense!

[Jangle]

The same thing can be said about Shay Givens. He too never had any defender of quality standing in front of him during his many years at Newcastle. Manchester City's defenders are just a shade better than Newcastle's.