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Is Szczęsny a Top class Goalkeeper?

Juan Matas Beard

Pronouns: dat, guy 🫶
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
Curious how you feel about him. Taking into account what you've witnessed him do for you and what you see from his Juve performances.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
I feel he definitely has the potential to be, if he isn't one already...he has all the technical and physical gifts, for us at least he just needed to sort out his head a little...which with our terrible goalkeeping coaching team, we weren't really able to sort out.

I imagine the smoking-gate and how he left Arsenal has grounded him a little, plus working with Buffon would help any keeper...all the interviews I have seen from him since he went to Italy, it seems like he has matured.

Still feel we ballsed it up though, shouldn't have dropped him permanently for Ospina and definitely shouldn't have sold him for Cech in hindsight...I also feel if we signed Shay Given in 2008 it would have helped him significantly...the only top keeper he worked with since he joined our first team here was Jens, and that was only for a few months, real shame.

That all being said, I still feel he was great for us, or at the very least had more good games than bad ones...our best keeper in The Emirates Era on performances, imo...
 

Notorious Big

Drunka In Friend Zone
To be frank,didn't watch him a lot since he left Arsenal for Italy so can't say that he has improved over time.He had good mentality and character in him.Something that we needed on pitch and with our poor defence.

Think that he had potential to become top keeper when he was at Arsenal and he wa better than Ospina,Fabianski and Cech already passed his peak when he came to us.Think that he was better than Leno.

Still won't put him in same category with likes of Neuer,Cassilas,Van Der Sar,Buffon etc.Those goalkeppers were just class above.
 

Heskey

🌑 🌘🌗🌖🌕🌔🌓🌒
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How can you not love Big Woj?

I think he had tremendous potential while with us and we never saw what it could have been.

Almost 200 games for us when he left in 2015 - he was 25 by then - so I think the reason some people won't acknowledge his quality now is due to having seen his seasons where he was blooded into a rough era.
25 is also very young for goalkeepers who typically peak near their 30s.

We didn't always have the greatest defensive structure either, and he was still young and boyish in his antics. There's no question to me though that he wanted to be good, and had we had better support to him, and handled the smoking situation and some other situations differently as well as some better coaching (or someone to mentor him like Buffon has been able to do - ffs all he had was Almunia...) we would have seen an even better Szczesny with us.

He has done really well since leaving for Juventus and recently extended to 2024. It's no easy feat to take over the reigns from a legend like Buffon, and to not only take over but be succesful and get extended like he has should be testament to how far he has come and what level he is at.

Juventus wouldn't replace Buffon with just anybody.
 

Heskey

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https://www.arsenal.com/news/szczesny-what-i-miss-about-special-arsenal

Speaking on the In Lockdown podcast, the Poland international goalkeeper opened up about his time at the club and said he will always have some regrets.

"More than anything, I miss the boys," Szczesny said. "We had a fantastic group of players. We were young, we had a lot of energy, we had a lot of banter and we had some good and bad moments together, but we really united as a group. It was a great joy to be with them every day.

"I miss them. I miss playing at the Emirates. I think that was something special for me, the quality of the pitch, the fans, the big nights in a north London derby.





"The emotions were quite different because whatever you do in your career, and some of us have gone on to make great things and have made a great career whereas some have maybe made a step back, there's nothing like playing for the club that you love. The emotion of that is something special.

"That's why I was always jealous and why my dream was always to follow the Gerrards and the Scholes, the Tottis of this world. I think it's just beautiful that you can play your whole career for one club and just appreciate that emotion of going out to the pitch and having that extra little bit. Your heart rate is a little bit higher because you know it means that little bit more to you than to the others. That was just really beautiful.

"You go on and make a big career. You do your best, you're professional, but that's always missing and always will be. That's fine I think. The pain of not being able to live that emotion again is also something that can push me through it and really make the best career that I can for myself."

Make sure you don't miss an episode by subscribing to In Lockdown now on the following platforms:
This makes me sad..


(Also WTF is that horrible cringe-fest of a podcast thing ad on Arsenal.com. The 1 minute teaser made we want to vomit.)
 

Corbulo

Active Member
Almost a top class goalkeeper. He hasn't inspired any confidence this season.

He's just like Poland after World War II. Szczesny is beset by chaos, disorder and foolish incursions, not by Red Army, but by his ego and mentality. He hasn't grown up. Young enough to go after what he wants, but not yet motivated to really chase anything.


As someone who religiously follows Serie A, I thought he was very good last year. Buffon’s handling of the ball, and his habit of parrying shots right at the feet of opposition strikers, costed Juventus in their last few seasons. He's dating older women now and Ilaria is a fine lady who deserves better than Torino, the city where one feels the presence on the fringe of a howling, raging mob, a mob with empty bellies.

Szczesny saves all regular shots and sometimes provides something extra and I can't say that on every GK. I'd say his weakness is misjudging the flight of the ball when running out to clear. I don't think he's their long term GK.

Juventus are the kind of club that will always bee looking for an upper hand and improving the squad and it's the hot prospect from AC Milan, Gigio Donnarumma. Premature love marked by a fierceness that so often destroys adult lives.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
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Country: Wales
If you look at advanced stats he’s in elite company this year. In terms of PSxG/SoT and PSxG+/- he’s either top or top two in the league.

I back them both as top level stats because when I’ve referred to them in other cases they usually confirm the eye test. I’ve seen a few Juventus games in the league this year, usually if they’re playing against young players I’m trying to watch but he’s impressed me.

Compared to what he was he’s improved certainly, think he’d never hit that level with us though as our coaching set up had grown so stale. Happy for him taking his career to that next level.
 

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
Absolutely not top class. He's very good. Amazing reflexes, still extremely error prone and he's not always convincing. Helped out by playing behind a top class defence I think more than anything. He's in and around the same level as Leno you'd say, tho Leno seems to have the ability to make match winning saves.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
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Country: Wales
Absolutely not top class. He's very good. Amazing reflexes, still extremely error prone and he's not always convincing. Helped out by playing behind a top class defence I think more than anything. He's in and around the same level as Leno you'd say, tho Leno seems to have the ability to make match winning saves.

Think that’s overrating the Juventus defence tbf. They’ve had the second most errors leading to shots on target in the league this year.

Szczesny’s save % is 84.6 which is godly and the highest of his career. No one else in any of the top 5 leagues is close, second place is Allison who has 80 and has faced twenty less shots.

Those are the only keepers to get above 80% this year. In terms of xG per 90 metrics he also ranks as a truly phenomenal keeper.
 

Tir Na Nog

Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes

Country: Ireland
Think that’s overrating the Juventus defence tbf. They’ve had the second most errors leading to shots on target in the league this year.

Szczesny’s save % is 84.6 which is godly and the highest of his career. No one else in any of the top 5 leagues is close, second place is Allison who has 80 and has faced twenty less shots.

Those are the only keepers to get above 80% this year. In terms of xG per 90 metrics he also ranks as a truly phenomenal keeper.

Save % can be a bit mis-leading can it not? I accept Juve haven't been great defensively this year, I think prior to that under Allegri they were pretty good tho.

xG per 90 is more interesting tho, I can accept that one. I still don't ever feel convinced that he's top class all the same, probably the tier below.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
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Country: Wales
Save % can be a bit mis-leading can it not? I accept Juve haven't been great defensively this year, I think prior to that under Allegri they were pretty good tho.

xG per 90 is more interesting tho, I can accept that one. I still don't ever feel convinced that he's top class all the same, probably the tier below.

Yeah I don’t trust save percentage for someone like Nick Pope who plays in a team that sits deep for 90 minutes but for a team like Juve a percentage that high is ridiculous.

It’s so far above anyone else in Europe it’s pretty mad. Have to see if he continues like this going forwards in future seasons, his stats under Allegri were good but they’ve rocketed up this year.
 

Country: Iceland
Save % can be a bit mis-leading can it not? I accept Juve haven't been great defensively this year, I think prior to that under Allegri they were pretty good tho.

xG per 90 is more interesting tho, I can accept that one. I still don't ever feel convinced that he's top class all the same, probably the tier below.

Surely we agree he is levels ahead of Leno?
 

UpTheGunnerz

Vrei sa pleci dar una una iei

Player:Elneny
He probz is better than what we have now (for the time being), however he would not have developed as he have done if he had stayed. Wenger stuck with that bum GK-coach that was completely useless. I feel like Leno could be better than him the coming season, he only gets better!
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
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Country: England
Lol who remembers when Scez and Fabianski had that interview and they were laughing at how bad Arsenals goalkeeping coach was :lol:
 

Mitch

Blonde Brigade Grand Wizard
Gerry Peyton was supposed to attrocious by all accounts, even Mr nice guy David Seaman had a dig at him publically once saying the wrong GK coach left it should have been Peyton.

Cech was great in his first season with us but was Peyton'ed and very poor the next 2 seasons for us.
 

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