Are they ? Said by many goalkeepers in the world cup last year, and as far as i can remember they said it in the Euro 2004 as well. Probably we`ll hear about that in the upcoming Euro 2008 too.
Is the football being played more defensively compared to 5-10 years ago ? Nearly every team is using 2 defensive midfielders , even some of them use 3 holding midfielders and leave 1 in the forward ? Yes, that`s very common.
Combine these two and come to my argument: Goalkeepers are more or less the same in today`s football excluding world-class keepers. Well, because the teams are playing more defensively , not much of a threat is coming down to the feet of the goalkeepers. And Because the balls are high-tech and flying so fast, giving advantage to the offensive players, most of the goalkeepers can not do anything for some shots. That brings us to this point: If your goalkeeper doesn`t have outstanding skills, a balanced keeper, a succesful all-around goalkeeper ( but not in top 50 in the world let`s say ) fills the goalkeeper role in an important team.Robinson made some silly mistakes, now Cerny is the first choice. And he won`t be replaced unless he makes the same silly mistakes, or gets injured. Almunia played a long time after Lehmann made sloppy mistakes as well. Can we put Almunia to top 50 keepers in the world? I don`t think so. But , we don`t expect much from the goalkeepers. Simply, there are shots ( with the help of fast flying balls) that can not be stopped. It doesn`t matter if you are Lehmann or Almunia, it will be a goal. And because the defence helps the kepeers a lot , because the teams play more defensively, goalkeepers` responsibility will be minimal.
By the way i am not talking about high-class keepers here like Cech, Buffon or Casillas.
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