[lfc-news] What a balls-up - Observer

The Observer, 19 Dec 2004
What a balls-up
Three top English clubs cannot decide who their best keeper is - and
some put it down to a crisis of confidence caused by the unpredictable
new Nike ball. Amy Lawrence reports.

The best keeper in the land? On this season's evidence, there is a
strong case to be made for Petr Cech, Nigel Martyn, Mark Schwarzer,
Antti Niemi.... But what a sign of the times that such a debate is
simply irrelevant at three of the Premiership's most ambitious teams.
Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool cannot even decide who is the
best keeper in the club.

For Jens Lehmann/Manuel Almunia, Tim Howard/Roy Carroll and Chris
Kirkland/Jerzy Dudek, it must feel as if it is one false move and you
are out. This goes against one of the fundamentals of football. The
establishment of a number one is standard practice and even when
rotation became fashionable, the eccentric individuals with the gloves
were left well alone.

The fact that all but one of England's Champions League representatives
cannot settle on a normal goalkeeping hierarchy indicates a lack of
faith in the custodians at their disposal. Bob Wilson, the former
Arsenal and Scotland player who became one of the game's foremost
specialist goalkeeping coaches, finds this particularly unjust.

It is, he believes, a tougher job now than ever. The modern game is far
more demanding on its keepers, with the hi-tech balls bamboozling basic
technique, and public scrutiny is unbearably intense. 'There is no
goalkeeper anywhere in the world, given the modern ball, that can play
consistently,' Wilson argues.

'If I was playing today, if Pat Jennings, Gordon Banks, Ray Clemence and
Peter Shilton played today, we would all be fallible and made to look
like fools.' Wilson believes that the ball officially endorsed by the
Premiership - Nike's Total 90 Aerow - is the root cause of most
goalkeeping problems. He recalls how a bag of the company's prototypes
for their professional balls was delivered to Arsenal's training ground
some years ago and when he tried them out with David Seaman and John
Lukic, they were horrified.

'When anyone wellied one as hard as they could - even me, with two
arthritic hips - the ball moved up, down, left or right. You didn't know
where or when and more often than not it moved very late. 'When the guy
from Nike came back we said, "These are joke balls." We put him in goal
and shot a few at him and he went very quiet. This was several years ago
and developments have made the ball more unpredictable.

The unpredictable nature of the Nike ball contributed to Dudek conceding
a late equaliser against Portsmouth in midweek. It was the first time
the Poland keeper had played in a match using the yellow Hi-Vis version
- introduced this season for Premiership matches in winter. 'I was
waiting for the cross and the guy miskicked it,' he said. 'I reacted and
tried to save it, but there was not much I could do about the ball going
to an attacker.'

It is not just the balls that make a goalkeeper's lot unhappier. Modern
rules present extra obstacles. 'I was famous for diving in amongst the
boots at people's feet. But you don't throw yourself at people's feet
today,' says Wilson. 'Now an attacker would probably dive over you and
you would be sent off and concede a penalty. I was never booked in my
entire career, but playing that way today I would miss half the season.
They have taken certain skills out of the game and others have come in
their place, like the sweeper role, which emerged after picking up a
backpass was outlawed. All these things make keepers more vulnerable.

'People are at last becoming aware of how difficult it is to be a
goalkeeper. But it needs more understanding from managers. Rotation is
neither good for the goalkeeper nor good for the team. 'The insecurity
of goalkeepers is crystallised this lunchtime at Anfield. In the
black-and-white goal is a man whose club have been forced to issue a
'not for sale' warning because their No1 is highly coveted. In the red
goal is a man who suspects that the slightest error will see him dropped
for a colleague who doubtless feels just as jittery as he does. Dudek
and Kirkland are short on the natural confidence of a keeper on top of
his game and both have been exposed after making howlers in recent
weeks. They are not alone.

Shay Given's worth to Newcastle is such that he was valued last week at
£8million by Freddy Shepherd. He is a heroic shot-stopper for the
Republic of Ireland and, even if he has dropped the odd clanger in the
Premiership, being his club's first choice must help his self-belief.
'Goalies survive on confidence,' says Wilson. 'They walk a tightrope
without a safety net every game. You can have a good game, but two days
later you can be made to look a prat. And it doesn't help that
everything is highlighted - I laugh at all the goalkeeping experts who
have suddenly emerged.'

When Clemence and Shilton used to play alternate games for England - an
oddity that was accepted because they were both top keepers of a similar
age - it was because the manager could not choose who was best. Today
you get the feeling that it is a case of who is less bad. It makes for
an unhealthy atmosphere, which will hardly help whoever is picked to
keep goal for Liverpool and Arsenal today.

It is a situation that does not seem to worry Liverpool manager Rafael
Benítez. 'In my mind always I already have two first-choice keepers
because both would start in the first teams of most other clubs in the
Premiership,' says the Spaniard, who brought in countryman José
Ochoturena as goalkeeping coach in the summer in place of Joe Corrigan.
'It is different with keepers.

'Keepers always need two or three games to get into the full swing of
things. I have seen a video of the goal Jerzy conceded against
Portsmouth and I'm not sure if it was a cross or a shot. Jerzy has
confidence and he has my confidence.'

In truth, there is always somebody worse off than yourself and for that
you can usually rely on Inter Milan. The Italians are so confused that
they have used three keepers in six Champions League matches this season.


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