Petr Cech

[DYC. 7,542]

Fair enough. Buffon is the exception. He's good at everything.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

So you are saying is still debatable?

Cause for me Cech is a top keeper. One of the top but he is not the best in the world, and errors like this proves it.

And the Casillas example does not seems like the best, compare to the bloopers that Cech give us, but oh well.

You obviously like Casillas more and that is perhaps affecting your judgement. My point was keepers are not judged by their odd mistakes, because they all have those, but by what they are able to do well.

Petr is the best in the world at positioning himself. He's the type of keeper that makes you feel it's all easy. In fact, some of Petr's most brilliant saves often go unnoticed because he makes them look like regular saves. His weakness is he is no longer as commanding in the air after his head injury and he sometimes lacks courage in his one-on-one challenges.

Casillas is more "dramatic" in his keeping. He likes to make his saves look like they are in slow-motion while he jumps acrobatically in the air. His reflexes are, imo, second to none in the world, but his positioning is not comparable to Petr. His worst weakness, however, is that his FK keeping is nowhere near world-class. He often messes up the wall and is half of the times positioned poorly for a FK.

As for Buffon, he was the perfect keeper in 2006. His skills have suffering with all the injuries and of course with him getting older. He had a bad season last year after he suffered a lengthy injury, he was decent this season but was never really tested much and was never forced to make many world-class performances due to the solidity of the Juve defense.

Overall, I'd say that there is no doubt that Petr had the best season out of all of them which makes him the best keeper in the world currently. But the main point is: keeping is not just about making the spectacular save, but more importantly about taking the right steps and closing the angle so that you are not forced to make the spectacular difficult save but an ordinary easy one.

That's what I think at least.

[M0rb1D4S 84]

Petr Čech is curious goalkeeper.. In Chelsea he's world class, but he made some silly mistakes at our national team, just like today.. But he had really bad defenders in our team.. He's world class keeper and belong to TOP 5 in the world..

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Really???

Yes.

Buffon has been injured the last few years, but this season he was class.

Petr's injury was potentially fatal. That creates psychological problems when it comes to physical collisions with players. It's only normal. But yes, that's a point against big Pete.

Buffon had a decent season, but nothing world-class. His stats were out of this world because of Conte's tactics and the solidity of the Juve defense. Trust me I've watched all his matches this season and he was rarely forced to make spectacular saves.

Didn't think people here would rate Casillas higher then Buffon, i regard Buffon a lot higher. For me he is the greatest GK of his generation and would defiantly go down as one of the best ever.

100% agree. 2004-2006 he was the perfect keeper

i have mentioned many times, Cech biggest flaw is his distribution skills. others top him in that category.

What do you mean by distribution skills? imo, his his biggest flaw is his domination in the air (after the head injury).

Right now i regard Neuer and Buffon as the best keepers in the world.

As I said above, Buffon had a solid season, but nothing world-class, not that he was tested enough. As for Neuer I think he is absolutely excellent is some occasions and makes some spectacular saves but he is far far from being the best in the world. He lacks consistency in his performances and is too prone to amateur mistakes that are due to lack of experience. He is very likely to be the best in the world in a few years.

Petr had, by far, the best season amongst the three which makes him the best keeper in the world currently.

[Jase 43,479]

What is up with people these days?! One mistake and everyone is overreacting!

Footballers are human and they can make mistakes like all of us do. Get over it!!

[Joker10 946]

What is up with people these days?! One mistake and everyone is overreacting!

Footballers are human and they can make mistakes like all of us do. Get over it!!

The only person i see overreacting is Justin.

by distribution skills i mean successful and accurate passing, passes that lead to attacks and keeping possession.

I also remember even AVB made a remark about how this an area he struggles with. Cech being a liability in the early days of AVB wasn't mentioned around here much, but he was a liability.

For the system AVB was trying to play you need a goalkeeper who is comfortable on the ball make successful passes.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

by distribution skills i mean successful and accurate passing, passes that lead to attacks and keeping possession.

I also remember even AVB made a remark about how this an area he struggles with. Cech being a liability in the early days of AVB wasn't mentioned around here much, but he was a liability.

Oh you're right, but that has rarely been highlighted since our strategy is usually lump the ball forward and DD will win it

To be fair to him, under AVB he was extremely over exposed. At the end of the day, even a world-class keeper, is as good as his defense. But that's not to say that he did not make mistakes (the Wigan goal away in the last 5 mins springs to mind) or have a couple of bad performances (Arsenal at home). But he also saved many points for us.

[Justin_3d 1,140]

A best GK discussion is useless due to the different requirements of different leagues. Van der Sar didn't do well in Italy but was incredible in England. Casillas is not a GK suited for the PL due to his weakness in the air.

Cech made a silly mistake. It happened, move on. All GKs make mistakes, all of them.

Can you explain this?

Examples and such?

[Superblue 6,331]

Have people forgot that he saved three penalties out of six and a contribution just as important as any other member of our squad to win the Champions League??!!

The guy is world class, but as some have said every keeper is prone to mistakes and will be under even more scrutiny when the defence infront of them is pure wank!

[Justin_3d 1,140]

I am still trying to find about Casillas weakness in the air?

How you come to that conclusion DYC?

[capriccioso 2,545]

When he's on top of his game, like he was for the latter months of last season, he is among the best in the world. Sadly he's lost that consistency he once had.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Cech could easily get best gk award, but after this...

It happens, Czech defence after all isnt anything special

[Justin_3d 1,140]

Cech could easily get best gk award, but after this...

It happens, Czech defence after all isnt anything special

I would think that if you had a bad defense you would truly shine to make yourself look good?

Like Enyeama at the last WC?

[English Freak 456]

I would think that if you had a bad defense you would truly shine to make yourself look good?

Like Enyeama at the last WC?

Whats your issue with Cech?

He's a world-class GK for club and a decent GK for country.

He just hasn't been consistent enough for his country since the injury...

[DavidLuizFan 23]

He's having a shocker of a tournament at Euro2012, but you know what, that doesn't mean he now sucks.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I would think that if you had a bad defense you would truly shine to make yourself look good?

Like Enyeama at the last WC?

On the contrary, a keeper is as good as his defense. If he feels that his defense is shaky and that he can't trust them, his performance will suffer.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Apparently he went to the hospital last night after the match to get an x-ray after he felt some pain in his shoulder. I hope it's nothing serious.

[capriccioso 2,545]

The only person i see overreacting is Justin.

by distribution skills i mean successful and accurate passing, passes that lead to attacks and keeping possession.

I also remember even AVB made a remark about how this an area he struggles with. Cech being a liability in the early days of AVB wasn't mentioned around here much, but he was a liability.

For the system AVB was trying to play you need a goalkeeper who is comfortable on the ball make successful passes.

He's quite a good long passer. Or perhaps that's been masked because Drogba wins virtually every high ball hit in his general direction