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Petr Cech: Retiring at the end of the season
- Thread starter Rex Stone
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Dennis_Bergkamp_10
Established Member
Credit where it's due. I've been a huge critic of him last season but that performance was very good.
That one pass was a mess but he saved us from a total humiliation several times.
That one pass was a mess but he saved us from a total humiliation several times.
Mark Tobias
Mr. Agreeable
Also thought this. I think he'll give us one final good season before he is done at the top.
scytheavatar
Established Member
Translation: Leno is looking like a terrible purchase, so people should probably stop expecting him to take over from Cech anytime soon.
razörist
Soft With The Ladies, Hard With The Mes
Country: Morocco
I hope you live in a safe, developed and politically stable country. You're probably one of those easily influenced people that will stab his 'enemy' neighbour because of media propoganda.
Would those be the same whispers from the training ground that told him Martinez was going to be the no.2 goalkeeper last season? The bloke knows **** all.
9jagooner
Well-Known Member
Don't know what Merson is talking about. Ederson with all his 'quality' made two big passing mistakes in the game that on another day, Arsenal strikers would have scored two goals from.
I do agree with the part where he says that players were not showing up for the ball though. I think the players (midfielders and defenders) need to give the keeper enough options to pass the ball to. The strikers also then need to position themselves so that if the keeper decides to go long, he has someone he's aiming for.
As for the keeper, Cech and Leno should talk to Özil more on passing. As a midfielder, you're always looking around you for available players even when you don't have the ball. The modern day keeper needs to have this quality too. Look around when your defenders have the ball and always expect the ball so that when the ball finally comes, it's not a surprise and you always have at least one person to pass to.
BobP
Memri Fan
About Leno and Cech:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-means-petr-cechs-days-are-numbered-bqzzrjrvw
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...-means-petr-cechs-days-are-numbered-bqzzrjrvw
tap-in
Nothing Wrong With Me
Not sure about saving us from total humiliation, agreed he made a few very good saves but in addition to the near own goal he also passed out a few times and the ball was nearly cut out by a City player. If that had happened the headline would have been Cech at fault for Arsenals total humiliation. Clearly Emery feels Leno isn't ready yet but once he is he'll become our No1. It will happen this season at some point, in the meantime our defenders need to stop passing back to Cech all the time. Why force a player to do something he's not comfortable with!
Good to see Emery keep Cech in.
Hopeful he can have a good season & then a keeper war next year between Leno / new guy / Martinez.
Team Martinez!
Hopeful he can have a good season & then a keeper war next year between Leno / new guy / Martinez.
Team Martinez!
Preacher
Always Crying
Can somebody copy/paste all the article to here ?
Well done, no complaints. He may not be the best with his feet but his shot-stopping has been class.
Been in great form since preseason. Multiple big saves in both games so far & buying into the passing game even with two lemons infront.
Hopefully we can pick up some clean sheets now & Mustafi / Sokratis can cut of the danger balls + create better angles.
Hopefully we can pick up some clean sheets now & Mustafi / Sokratis can cut of the danger balls + create better angles.
if Emery want to stick with Cech why did we waste 20M on Leno? would be better spend 20-25M on CB.
DasBootist
Well-Known Member
Cech won't last forever. 'Tis a long season...
He deservs praise today for the saves and for the effort he made in trying to follow Emery's tactics. It's obvious he's worked hard during the week.
part 1
In his spare time Petr Cech likes to play the drums. He has a YouTube channel with 46,000 subscribers where he periodically posts covers of songs by Nirvana, Stereophonics and Foo Fighters. He has even played with Roger Taylor of Queen. And in a way Cech’s choice of hobby feels strangely fitting for a man whose game is based on the percussive fundamentals of goalkeeping — he is an archetypal, old-school “shot-stopper” — but in the modern game, clubs are keen for their goalkeepers to be more than just blunt instruments. Increasingly they are expected to pull the strings.
In Arsenal’s first game of the season, against Manchester City, Cech looked like a man out of time. Unai Emery, the new Arsenal head coach, is attempting to impose a build-from-the-back style of play that is not a natural fit with Cech’s skillset. One moment in particular encapsulated his discomfort, and quickly went viral: receiving the ball from Mattéo Guendouzi deep in his six-yard box, Cech tried to play a left-footed pass to a team-mate but ended up miscuing the ball narrowly wide of his own goal.
Why does this matter? Surely a goalkeeper’s job is to save shots? Ultimately it all goes back to the culture of high pressing that has swept the Premier League in recent seasons. Where once teams were able to knock it around at the back under little or no pressure, now it has become more and more normal for teams to try to win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible, to the point of pressuring the goalkeeper and blocking the easy short pass to his defenders. Consequently the importance for goalkeepers of being comfortable with the ball at their feet and able to pick a pass has increased. The overall pass accuracy of Premier League goalkeepers has steadily risen from 42.4 per cent in 2009-10, the first season that Opta recorded that statistic, to 54.3 per cent last season. The “pure shot-stopper” who lacks those distribution skills is increasingly a predated species, preyed on by packs of mobile and aggressive forwards eager to force him to lump the ball upfield or harry him into a mistake.
In Arsenal’s first game of the season, against Manchester City, Cech looked like a man out of time. Unai Emery, the new Arsenal head coach, is attempting to impose a build-from-the-back style of play that is not a natural fit with Cech’s skillset. One moment in particular encapsulated his discomfort, and quickly went viral: receiving the ball from Mattéo Guendouzi deep in his six-yard box, Cech tried to play a left-footed pass to a team-mate but ended up miscuing the ball narrowly wide of his own goal.
Why does this matter? Surely a goalkeeper’s job is to save shots? Ultimately it all goes back to the culture of high pressing that has swept the Premier League in recent seasons. Where once teams were able to knock it around at the back under little or no pressure, now it has become more and more normal for teams to try to win the ball back as high up the pitch as possible, to the point of pressuring the goalkeeper and blocking the easy short pass to his defenders. Consequently the importance for goalkeepers of being comfortable with the ball at their feet and able to pick a pass has increased. The overall pass accuracy of Premier League goalkeepers has steadily risen from 42.4 per cent in 2009-10, the first season that Opta recorded that statistic, to 54.3 per cent last season. The “pure shot-stopper” who lacks those distribution skills is increasingly a predated species, preyed on by packs of mobile and aggressive forwards eager to force him to lump the ball upfield or harry him into a mistake.
part 2
Belatedly these subtle tectonic shifts in the way football is played are beginning to be reflected in the market. After years of undervaluing goalkeepers, the market boomeranged this summer, with two, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Alisson Becker, attracting the two highest fees paid by Premier League sides (£71.6 million and £65 million). Both fit the modern, ball-playing prototype. In signing them, Maurizio Sarri and Jürgen Klopp came to the same realisation that motivated Pep Guardiola to sanction the purchase of Ederson a year ago: that making a change at the goalkeeper position is not just about conceding fewer goals; it is also a chance to unlock the way you want to play.
Cech was the future once. Now he returns to the stadium where he made history looking increasingly like the past. On Saturday, Emery’s Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea, the club where Cech won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three golden gloves, one Champions League and one Europa League. Perhaps, because Cech was never the most voluble or visible character in those Chelsea teams, his legend has been underestimated — only three non-British or Irish players, Mark Schwarzer, Sylvain Distin and Brad Friedel, have made more Premier League appearances, all with vastly less success. There have probably been greater imports than Cech, but arguably none who have been so excellent for so long.
It is interesting to recall that Cech was seen as so utterly dependable, such an innate winner, that when Arsenal signed him in 2015 it was greeted as a game-changer, perhaps even more so than the signing of Mesut Özil. Several pundits hailed the signing of Cech as the last jigsaw piece in predicting Arsenal to win the title. It did not quite work out like that, even if he did give Arsenal two seasons of above-average shot-stopping. Last season, however, his shot-stopping declined. For the first time in six years, he conceded more goals than the expected-goals value of the shots that he faced. Sam Jackson, a data analyst for the agency World in Motion, who specialises in goalkeeping, describes Cech’s shot-stopping last season as “only about average”, though he points out that Cech has always been good at shot prevention (stopping the opposition taking shots by claiming crosses, making interceptions etc).
The other looming problem for Cech is the arrival at Arsenal of Bernd Leno, a £19.3 million summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen. Although he did not command the same sort of top-tier fee as Kepa or Alisson, Leno is still the eighth most expensive goalkeeper of all time, and unsurprisingly all the other members of the top ten are or were their team’s undisputed No 1s. Although Emery has publicly backed Cech as his starter for now, there is a suspicion that ultimately Leno will prove better suited to the demands of an Emery team.
The perception of Cech as a poor distributor is unfair, Jackson says. “He probably didn’t have his best game at the weekend, but he’s an above-average distributor. Something that is overlooked in terms of keepers’ distribution is throwing — it often does not make the highlights reel on Match of the Day, but Cech is one of the best in the game at that.” Among Premier League goalkeepers, Jackson says that he would rank Cech “sixth, seventh, eighth” for distribution.
There are two hefty caveats, though. The first is that one aspect where Cech is not so good is open-play distribution with his feet — a key skill for a goalkeeper in a build-from-the-back team who want to beat the press. “Open-play with his feet is probably Cech’s main weakness,” Jackson says. “He’s good enough, but it’s a relative weakness if you’re looking for top-four ability.” In 2009-10 Cech’s pass of 58.1 per cent compared favourably to an average of 52.7 per cent for goalkeepers at the big six clubs but the standard of goalkeeper distribution at the top clubs has shot up — last year, the big six goalkeeper pass- figure was 70.7 per cent, leaving Cech’s 65.4 per cent lagging behind.
The second caveat is that the man waiting in the wings is one of the silkiest distributors in the game. “Leno’s distribution is top, top-drawer,” Jackson says. “With his feet in open play he’s very, very good; he’s good at throwing it; he’s good at kicking it from hand; he’s comfortable on the ball and makes very few errors on the ball. Other than Ederson I’d say Leno would be in the discussion to be the best in the Premier League.”
There are, however, significant weaknesses in Leno’s shot-stopping: in fact, some models suggest he has underperformed in terms of expected goals for each of the past seven seasons. The interesting question is: is that a deal-breaker any more? Jackson points out that, according to his model, Ederson’s shot-stopping was below average last season. Some teams do not need their goalkeeper to be a shield so much as a scalpel. “I think that having a keeper who is so good at distribution can outweigh shot-stopping,” he says. “If your team believes that they can benefit from having more of the ball and using the ball better, and the opposition are going to have fewer shots as a result, then does it matter that your keeper is not as strong at shot-stopping?”
Cech nearly embarrassed himself in last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Manchester City, attempting to pass sideways but almost putting the ball into his own net.
Over the past nine seasons in the Premier League Cech’s passing accuracy has gone from above average compared with his rivals to falling below them in the past two campaigns.
That is perhaps more of a reflection of the influence of City’s Pep Guardiola and Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp and their desire for possession football, rather than a suggestion of Cech’s ability declining. His accuracy last season was his second highest but 5 per cent behind the average of ‘Big Six’ rivals.
Cech was the future once. Now he returns to the stadium where he made history looking increasingly like the past. On Saturday, Emery’s Arsenal visit Stamford Bridge to play Chelsea, the club where Cech won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three golden gloves, one Champions League and one Europa League. Perhaps, because Cech was never the most voluble or visible character in those Chelsea teams, his legend has been underestimated — only three non-British or Irish players, Mark Schwarzer, Sylvain Distin and Brad Friedel, have made more Premier League appearances, all with vastly less success. There have probably been greater imports than Cech, but arguably none who have been so excellent for so long.
It is interesting to recall that Cech was seen as so utterly dependable, such an innate winner, that when Arsenal signed him in 2015 it was greeted as a game-changer, perhaps even more so than the signing of Mesut Özil. Several pundits hailed the signing of Cech as the last jigsaw piece in predicting Arsenal to win the title. It did not quite work out like that, even if he did give Arsenal two seasons of above-average shot-stopping. Last season, however, his shot-stopping declined. For the first time in six years, he conceded more goals than the expected-goals value of the shots that he faced. Sam Jackson, a data analyst for the agency World in Motion, who specialises in goalkeeping, describes Cech’s shot-stopping last season as “only about average”, though he points out that Cech has always been good at shot prevention (stopping the opposition taking shots by claiming crosses, making interceptions etc).
The other looming problem for Cech is the arrival at Arsenal of Bernd Leno, a £19.3 million summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen. Although he did not command the same sort of top-tier fee as Kepa or Alisson, Leno is still the eighth most expensive goalkeeper of all time, and unsurprisingly all the other members of the top ten are or were their team’s undisputed No 1s. Although Emery has publicly backed Cech as his starter for now, there is a suspicion that ultimately Leno will prove better suited to the demands of an Emery team.
The perception of Cech as a poor distributor is unfair, Jackson says. “He probably didn’t have his best game at the weekend, but he’s an above-average distributor. Something that is overlooked in terms of keepers’ distribution is throwing — it often does not make the highlights reel on Match of the Day, but Cech is one of the best in the game at that.” Among Premier League goalkeepers, Jackson says that he would rank Cech “sixth, seventh, eighth” for distribution.
There are two hefty caveats, though. The first is that one aspect where Cech is not so good is open-play distribution with his feet — a key skill for a goalkeeper in a build-from-the-back team who want to beat the press. “Open-play with his feet is probably Cech’s main weakness,” Jackson says. “He’s good enough, but it’s a relative weakness if you’re looking for top-four ability.” In 2009-10 Cech’s pass of 58.1 per cent compared favourably to an average of 52.7 per cent for goalkeepers at the big six clubs but the standard of goalkeeper distribution at the top clubs has shot up — last year, the big six goalkeeper pass- figure was 70.7 per cent, leaving Cech’s 65.4 per cent lagging behind.
The second caveat is that the man waiting in the wings is one of the silkiest distributors in the game. “Leno’s distribution is top, top-drawer,” Jackson says. “With his feet in open play he’s very, very good; he’s good at throwing it; he’s good at kicking it from hand; he’s comfortable on the ball and makes very few errors on the ball. Other than Ederson I’d say Leno would be in the discussion to be the best in the Premier League.”
There are, however, significant weaknesses in Leno’s shot-stopping: in fact, some models suggest he has underperformed in terms of expected goals for each of the past seven seasons. The interesting question is: is that a deal-breaker any more? Jackson points out that, according to his model, Ederson’s shot-stopping was below average last season. Some teams do not need their goalkeeper to be a shield so much as a scalpel. “I think that having a keeper who is so good at distribution can outweigh shot-stopping,” he says. “If your team believes that they can benefit from having more of the ball and using the ball better, and the opposition are going to have fewer shots as a result, then does it matter that your keeper is not as strong at shot-stopping?”
Cech nearly embarrassed himself in last Sunday’s 2-0 defeat by Manchester City, attempting to pass sideways but almost putting the ball into his own net.
Over the past nine seasons in the Premier League Cech’s passing accuracy has gone from above average compared with his rivals to falling below them in the past two campaigns.
That is perhaps more of a reflection of the influence of City’s Pep Guardiola and Liverpool’s Jürgen Klopp and their desire for possession football, rather than a suggestion of Cech’s ability declining. His accuracy last season was his second highest but 5 per cent behind the average of ‘Big Six’ rivals.
Country: Canada
Honestly he's been very good both games, aside from some clumsy feet in the first game. He's made every save you'd want him to and more.
It's clumsyness that spreads the nerves to his team mates and the fans. It's a problem that I think will remain every time he has the ball at his feet.
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