By Richard Lee - 14/09/2008

Keepers Get A Raw Deal!

After watching Liverpool face Man Utd something became quite apparent to me: keepers really do get a raw deal! It wasn’t this game alone that has guided me to this conclusion but it was more apparent in this game than most.

Van der Sar didn’t have his finest afternoon but the commentators were quick to pounce on his mistakes and offered little credit when it was deserved - yet later in the game Robbie Keane missed a good chance and instead of criticism, the comment made was "Don’t worry about it Robbie, they’ll come soon and once they do they’ll come like buses". Far kinder than the words used to describe Van der Sar’s mishap which ranged from "shocking", to "catastrophic"!

It seems to me that when a striker misses a good chance it is very rare that they get pulled up on it. Maybe I am biased being a keeper myself but it disappointed me to see Reina make a fantastic tip over the bar and 90 per cent of the credit went to whoever it was taking the shot and not Reina.

The save itself was very good for a few reasons; It was a bouncing ball which meant Reina instantly read the situation and dropped three yards expecting a dipping volley - had he not made this movement then the situation would have undoubtedly ended in a goal. A small detail but a crucial one, one that many commentators wouldn’t have a clue it had even occurred. Then the save itself needed some incredible agility and acrobatics which were almost a given. In, fact Reina was faultless all afternoon and some of his distribution was awesome and went without mention.

In my opinion the problem on this occasion was that all the pundits and commentators involved were all outfield players before they retired. This is quite common and it often leads to some bizarre analysis of goalkeepers. It can be quite frustrating being a goalkeeper and knowing exactly why a keeper has done what he has done and having some ex-centre forward explaining what he believes he should’ve done!

I don’t want to sound like a bitter keeper because I’m really not, we all understand what to expect when becoming a goalkeeper, you really do put yourself in the firing line.

I guess my only wish would be to have more goalkeeping pundits to offer a different point of view but there seem to be very few of them about currently. Oh well, hopefully 10 or so more years playing then I’ll be sure to apply!