Wojciech Szczesny: Should He Come Back As #1?

[albakos]

If he did his homework on Siggurdson, he always shoots like that on free-kicks. He is not Riise, Roberto Carlos or Alex that fires a rocket through the wall. As he is right footed and the position of free-kick, Chez should've expect the ball to go in that corner.

Say whatever you like about perfect positioning, conceding an "over-the-wall" freekick from over 30 yards, will always be a bottlejob from keeper

 

[Trilly]

Another average player who is far down the list of priorities in our squad. Good shot stopper but is involved in too many WTF moments for me. I would replace Gibbs, Mert, Welbeck/Giroud and Arteta before Woj.

 

[Penn_]

Not saying he should of saved the free-kick but spectacular saves look like that because 90% of keepers couldn't pull it off. Scz likes to think his up there with the best but currently there's nothing special about him.

 

[Jury]

If he did his homework on Siggurdson, he always shoots like that on free-kicks. He is not Riise, Roberto Carlos or Alex that fires a rocket through the wall. As he is right footed and the position of free-kick, Chez should've expect the ball to go in that corner.

Say whatever you like about perfect positioning, conceding an "over-the-wall" freekick from over 30 yards, will always be a bottlejob from keeper

All I can say is you're wrong and, with respect, make yourself sound like you don't understand the game.

 

[Dokaka]

If he did his homework on Siggurdson, he always shoots like that on free-kicks. He is not Riise, Roberto Carlos or Alex that fires a rocket through the wall. As he is right footed and the position of free-kick, Chez should've expect the ball to go in that corner.

Say whatever you like about perfect positioning, conceding an "over-the-wall" freekick from over 30 yards, will always be a bottlejob from keeper

That's just not true though.

Swansea set up to block his view. This is normally done to confuse the keeper as the taker can literally pick his side and the keeper won't know where it went before it reaches the top of the wall. You're expecting him to act on hindsight and not what was actually the situation presented to him.

Had he gone to his right early and Sigurdsson put it in the right corner, you'd STILL be saying it was a bottle job even though he did exactly what you just asked of him.

It was a perfect freekick. Szczesny did all he possibly could do. It was ****ing rifled into the corner, it barely dipped before it reached the goal and there were 8 or so people between Szczesny and the ball. You make it sound like he had a clear view of the ball as it was hit, which he most certainly did not.

He either guesses and looks like an idiot when he pick the wrong side, or he reacts. He nearly got the ball with less than a second to react, and saying it was a bottle-job is just simply wrong.

The bottle-job happened before the freekick.

 

[General]

Talent is one thing, having the intelligence to apply it is another. Mentally he's not all there as are many of our players. Our players just don't look well drilled.

 

[Jury]

In all fairness, I'd argue that you don't need a wall from there for anyone, and all it does in those situations is create blind spots and a target. There's no way Woj gets beaten from 30 yards without a wall. Players wouldnt even bother shooting from 30 yards if a wall wasn't present--they'd probably just lob it into the box. If only some club had the balls. What a game changer that'd be.

 

[albakos]

All I can say is you're wrong and, with respect, make yourself sound like you don't understand the game.

Ok, I understood Mr. Arrigo Sacchi.

 

[Crooner]

Don't understand how he is meant to stop that FK albakos. I really don't. Unless it flew through his legs which it didn't. Even if he got a hand to it it probably would have gone in... it had power and accuracy.

 

[Jury]

All I can say is you're wrong and, with respect, make yourself sound like you don't understand the game.

Ok, I understood Mr. Arrigo Sacchi.

Don't take it the wrong way mate. I did my best to word it so you wouldn't.

 

[a_fourteen]

This is the list of Golden Glove winners for the past 10 years. He is in very esteemed company and is probably the youngest to have won it by some distance. Not sure what all the criticism is about.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_Golden_Glove

 

[bingobob]

Hopefully Schzesney can begin to pick up some form and consistency. Seeing DeGea st united makes you appreciate the value of a goos goalkeeper, consider they were both made number one in same season 11/12 the development of the two are way off.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Szczesny looked unbeatable for a period during the 11/12 season, I remember he made a ridiculous save against Sunderland, an incredible penalty save vs Di Natale when we faced Roma and then a penalty + rebound save vs Liverpool.

The next season he somewhat fell down a great bit. I still think he's an excellent keeper though, you don't get the golden glove for nothing.

 

[Rex Stone]

I think a run in the team will do him good, out of all our younger players he's the one I'm most confident will succeed. Lad could be as good as Neuer potentially.

 

[Hunta]

Neuer.

Not a chance, he's a once in a lifetime goalkeeper, never seen anything quite like him.

 

[Rex Stone]

Neuer.

Not a chance, he's a once in a lifetime goalkeeper, never seen anything quite like him.

Once in a lifetime!? He's not even the best this century, Casillas and Buffon were better.

As for Germans, Neuer is half the keeper Oliver Kahn ever was as well.

 

[Dokaka]

Casillas is literally the most overrated keeper in the history of football. His stock is just so ****ing high because of the club he plays for.

Neuer not even half the keeper Kahn was? Get off it. You're just trying to go against the mainstream opinion.

 

[Rex Stone]

How was he better than Kahn? The guy was the dog's bollocks for years! What the actual f**k has Neuer done in that time to be compared to him? I'd say if anything saying Neuer would be the hipster choice.

Kahn pretty much dragged a piss poor Germany to the World Cup Final in 2002 and was the only keeper to win a Golden Ball, he won a bang average Bayern a Champions League with some ridiculous skills in the penalty shootout. The guy was a don.

Your Casillas argument is doubly true for Neuer who has only won things with top generational teams, Kahn never did.

 

[Dokaka]

Neuer has arguably been the top goalkeeper in the world for 5 years now. I struggle to think of more consistent keepers than him.

Nevermind the "sweeper keeper extreme" bullshit the media wanks over, the guy is just a world class shot stopper, handles crosses as well as anyone else and commands the area like a ****ing boss. He's got this aura around him that top class keepers have.

Arguing who's won what is completely irrelevant; this isn't Basketball where the performance of one individual can drag a team to championships. Judge a player by their performance on the pich, how they handle the situations they're actually involved in.

To paraphrase Schmeichel: "He does everything you can realistically expect a goalkeeper to do, and then adds to it by playing as a sweeper. He's the first keeper I've ever watched and thought "I couldn't do that""

Regarding Casillas, he's made some ridiculous saves in his time, but the public perception of him is inflated because of two things: The team he plays for, and his height. His height causes somewhat routine saves to suddenly become great TV saves, not unlike the wankfest that was Barthez. Casillas is a good keeper, and Kahn was a great keeper, but Neuer is just better.

Keep in mind you're also judging the career of a 28 year old keeper to one who retired at the age of 39. It's not really fair to say Neuer hasn't accomplished as much when he's 10 years younger than the retirement age of the other player.

Neuer did win a World Cup though, so he's got that going for him at least if you want to talk accomplishments.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Is Neuer even that good of shot stopper (I mean able to compete with De Gea or Courtois currently), he seems good at 1 on 1's but I can rarely recall him every making too many spectacular saves. He's commanding but I'm starting to get the feeling if it wasn't for his "fly goalkeeper" attitude he wouldn't get have the recognition.

De Gea is comfortably the best keeper on the planet for me currently, followed by Courtois and then probably Neuer. As for Casillas, I remember him being unbeatable at times during his very young days for Spain (especially in the 2002 world cup) and Real Madrid. Sort of like De Gea is now, Casillas was similar. Sure he's completely gone off it in the last 2/3 years but there was definitely a period where he was the world's number 1 keeper.