Almunia should never wear an Arsenal shirt again (4/11)

[gooner.ed]

http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=820

usual thread starter… Wenger’s team selection undoubtedly played into the opposition’s hands. Yet here is a manager who is adamant that the opposition do not dictate the way Arsenal will play. A sign that things are on the slide.

[harryo45]

being saying that about golden boy for about 8 months. put a marker on him and he has not got the strength or pace to get away and dictate the game. this is when his head goes down usually followed by the rest of the team .say wat u like about dennilson but he has been twice the plyer fabregas has been this season . wat about dropping golden boy and lets see if dennilson can seace the chance to be our playmaker in midfield . it may just be the making of him

[SPUDMASHER]

We all know and accept that Almunia is not the best of goalkeepers. The problem though, and I've lost count of how many times I've said this, is that those who are better are not available. Sure, we'd all like Cech or Buffon (Spelling?) etc. but they're not available so we may as well forget it. Almunia has to take a portion of the blame for the goals against the Spuds and Stoke, nobody can deny that, but for christs sake people, if Cech got exposed as frequently as Almunia does then he would be beaten just as frequently.
The old saying is that a goalkeeper is only as good as the defenders in front of him. Looking along our back line is it any wonder he is suffering? Almunia didn't fail to head away Delaps throw ins did he? You can argue all day over the 'should he have come for them' issue but the bottom line is that the defence of supposedly one of the best teams in the world should be able to cope with a throw in from a championship level player!!!
Woeful defending is our biggest problem, not the goalkeeper.
I'm getting a bit tired of people using Almunia as a scapegoat. Yes I agree, he isn't the best, but I also know he is by no means the worst out there. The most amusing bit for me is that everyone is hailing Fabianski and calling for him to be promoted to the first choice. On what basis exactly? How many of you have seen him play a premiership game? How do you know he can cope better? He is an unproven commodity. He could be great. But then again he could be utter shite when the two goons in front of him start letting everyone including the ball boys have a shot at goal. I know people will say that we'll never know unless we try. The problem with that is they will be the same people that will slate AW for experimenting on other occasions. The hypocrisy of football supporters is endless like that.
I'm not happy with our goalkeeping situation. I want a top goalkeeper at our club. At the moment though I'd settle for keeping Almunia and getting defenders that actually know how to defend.

[Lord Peter of Highbury]

Mr Almunia, sad to say, isn't a patch on Jens "the Fuhrer" Lehmann who will be remembered for those errors at the start of last season, but who provided exactly the kind of authoratitive cover of the penalty area that any top side needs for many seasons.

Remember Almunia at Chelsea last season - we are under pressure late on and 1-0 up with 10 players on the pitch, and instead of coming and holding a cross he punched it, lost possession, and the equaliser came from the next move?

More than any moment or event last season, that one probably cost us the most. A safe pair of hands, take the sting out, and a long punt up the field or a roll out to a full back would have bought us time and space and who knows, maybe three points and the momentum to take us tghrough to the prem title?

Occassionally heroic, but too often fragile, our problems and weaknesses start, I'm afraid, from the very back

[SPUDMASHER]

I disagree, I don't think our problems start at the back at all.
A good goalkeeper can win you points, theres no doubt about that.
Going back to the days of GG it was well known that Smudger was our first line of defence. Almunia appears to have that role now!!!!
If you don't concede goals, you don't lose games! That's an absolute fact.
I don't care if you put Pat Jennings or David Seaman (in their prime) in goal with three extra pairs of hands each, if your defence is shit they will concede goals.
Sort the defence out and your keepers stats will improve, regardless of who that keeper is.
I agree, for the millionth time, we could do better than Almunia. What I cannot agree with is his being made a scapegoat for the inadequacies of Gallas, Toure, Silvestre etc. Count the goals we have conceded last season and this as a result of an Almunia fuck up, then do the same for a defence fuck up and you'll see where the biggest problem lies.

[Seven Kings Gooner 1]

If you watch Stoke's second goal he jumped out of the way to avoid the challenge, ok he may not command the penalty area but surely the six yard box is his?

[SPUDMASHER]

true, he's not without fault. My point is that....oh why bother

Beat the bloke up as much as you like. I can't be arsed with trying to point out that the crunts in front of him are a bigger problem than him.

I do wish people would read a whole post before firing off a response.

[r_keve]

Surely its obvious (and trivially true) that Almunia is not the best keeper out there and that our defense is particularly porous at the moment.

But Almunia isnt just not-the-best - he is absolutely not the calibre of a top 4. We need a keeper who at the very least is points-neutral, ideally one who can win points for us - like the best ones are. Alumunia has cost us points, and not on one isolated instance.

Of course he could do with better cover, all keepers could, and our defense is especially fragile at the moment. But he also needs to take responsibility for part of that. Defence plays more fluently and less nervously if they have confidence in the keeper and ours patently dont. Its not even just Almunia's mistakes in positioning and stopping that cost, its his poor judgment in punching instead of catching and knowing when to come out.

I think calls hailing Fabianski are premature - we cant possibly know if he is the answer or not. But the point is its not relative. Why should we care if Almunia is the actually the best keeper at AFC. Its been within the clubs control to buy another (bargain or proven) for the past 30 months since Lehman's decline - so the test is whether now or during that period we could have bought better. Of course we could.

I'm definitely not one questioning AW's position (I think he has earned far more headroom than this) but on Almunia (and the captaincy) I think he is absolutely wrong. Rather than dwelling on it though he should take assertive action and either try Fabianski or buy a proven replacement at Xmas.

[SPUDMASHER]

Surely its obvious (and trivially true) that Almunia is not the best keeper out there and that our defense is particularly porous at the moment.

But Almunia isnt just not-the-best - he is absolutely not the calibre of a top 4. We need a keeper who at the very least is points-neutral, ideally one who can win points for us - like the best ones are. Alumunia has cost us points, and not on one isolated instance.

Of course he could do with better cover, all keepers could, and our defense is especially fragile at the moment. But he also needs to take responsibility for part of that. Defence plays more fluently and less nervously if they have confidence in the keeper and ours patently dont. Its not even just Almunia's mistakes in positioning and stopping that cost, its his poor judgment in punching instead of catching and knowing when to come out.

I think calls hailing Fabianski are premature - we cant possibly know if he is the answer or not. But the point is its not relative. Why should we care if Almunia is the actually the best keeper at AFC. Its been within the clubs control to buy another (bargain or proven) for the past 30 months since Lehman's decline - so the test is whether now or during that period we could have bought better. Of course we could.

I'm definitely not one questioning AW's position (I think he has earned far more headroom than this) but on Almunia (and the captaincy) I think he is absolutely wrong. Rather than dwelling on it though he should take assertive action and either try Fabianski or buy a proven replacement at Xmas.

Okay, leave out the last two games and then give examples. For each one you give also give an example where either Gallas, Toure (Fuck knows why people still rave about him so much, he's been utter shite for the last year), Silvestre or Senderos have directly cost us points. You can leave out the last two games for them as well to make it fair. I'm sure you'll run out of Almunia examples before you do those four.
Once you've finished doing that please tell me who we should go and buy to replace him. When doing so though, please remember to only include those that are available and who would come to us. Don't bother with people like Petr Cech.
Once you've finished doing that please substantiate your claims that Fabianski would be a better choice. On what are you basing that? Personally I have seen nothing that tells me he is any better. I assume that you are not blaming him for any of the 5 goals that the spuds scored in the beer cup?????

[r_keve]

If your point is that Gallas and Toure (Senderos is effectively for underperformance so poor example) cost points too then of course thats true. But keepers generally cost (and occassionally win) points more so than an average defender. So even if Almunia where no worse than Gallas/Toure, it is still more critical to address the keeper issue - and as I say a strong keeper could in turn have a positive impact on the defenders and their confidence.

Secondly Toure and Gallas are having a rough time recently, for sure and not obviously gelling. But you cant compare them to Almunia, they are both proven and winners at the top level. Almunia isnt (at least yet).

Not sure why you think I feel 'Fabianski would be a better choice' - I said the opposite, I've no idea if he is better, but AW shd either him for extended period (as he did with MA under Jens) and find out or buy but not persist with MA

Finally the old argument of 'well who should we buy thats better' is absurd. Sure lets assume that we cant buy Buffon, Cech etc. But there are hundreds of top flight teams across Europe aline, each with keepers. Many are better (some also more proven) than Almunia. I'll leave it to our experts to decide which. But 'available' is moot. Besides from the half dozen top European teams who can afford to reject any offer, the other dozens cant, so even if the player wasnt actively clamouring to come to us money talks. The problem is we need to be willing to pay market prices (or even over the odds) to plug a critical gap)instead of rummaging around the bargain basements.

[SPUDMASHER]

If your point is that Gallas and Toure (Senderos is effectively for underperformance so poor example) cost points too then of course thats true. But keepers generally cost (and occassionally win) points more so than an average defender. So even if Almunia where no worse than Gallas/Toure, it is still more critical to address the keeper issue - and as I say a strong keeper could in turn have a positive impact on the defenders and their confidence.

Like I say, put Seaman in goal behind our current back four and he'll concede shitloads of goals. Put my mum in behind Adams Keown Dixon and Nutty Nigel and she'll do okay. Alright a bit extreme but my point is that it is futile getting a great keeper if we don't address the defensive frailties first.

Secondly Toure and Gallas are having a rough time recently, for sure and not obviously gelling. But you cant compare them to Almunia, they are both proven and winners at the top level. Almunia isnt (at least yet).

Almunia cannot be blamed for having not won anything yet. Let's look at our club and ask what those players have won. An FA cup for Toure? That's about it isn't it?

Not sure why you think I feel 'Fabianski would be a better choice' - I said the opposite, I've no idea if he is better, but AW shd either him for extended period (as he did with MA under Jens) and find out or buy but not persist with MA

Maybe misunderstood you there but it read to me like you thought he was better.

Finally the old argument of 'well who should we buy thats better' is absurd. Sure lets assume that we cant buy Buffon, Cech etc. But there are hundreds of top flight teams across Europe aline, each with keepers. Many are better (some also more proven) than Almunia. I'll leave it to our experts to decide which. But 'available' is moot. Besides from the half dozen top European teams who can afford to reject any offer, the other dozens cant, so even if the player wasnt actively clamouring to come to us money talks. The problem is we need to be willing to pay market prices (or even over the odds) to plug a critical gap)instead of rummaging around the bargain basements.

If that is the case then why have we not been looking for one? Whoever we get would be treated the same as Almunia. Available is anything but moot. If the player is not available then we cannot have him. If the club don't want to sell him then we can't have him. We have no money (don't be fooled into thinking we do) and so we can't have them. That's about as far from a mute point as you can get. The only way we can satisfy those that are not happy with Almunia is to sign an existing top keeper. Anything other than that will not placate them. There are none that we are capable of getting. Please tell me one! Just one will do!

[xDAVEYx]

manuel's problem is confidence and i tell you this now, id rather have him that victor valdez between the sticks.

see fenerbahce and his willingness to OWN his area, that is one of the things my dad used to yell at me, he owned the box and challenged everything that came his way, he stayed on his feet as laste as possible and put in a rgeat shift to limit guiza and fenerbahce to just 2 goals despite a woefully shocking display infront of him.

compare that to the spurs game where he was beaten by a freak fluke of a hit and hope (lets be fair, it was a fucking great goal) and he never recovered. he also had little else to do the whole night and was not responsible for either of the final, most costly goals. he was beaten four times and had little opportunity or need to territorialise his 18 yard box. he was, ultimately let down by the gaping hole in the midfield.

give the guy a break, the squad has more pressing issues such as the fagility of the centre pair and that gapinig hole in the middle of the pitch, more importantly they need a fucking great rocket up their arse to make them fight for the badge they so liberally kiss when all is well. the problem, which spuddy has highlighted above, is availability, you wouldnt lump the likes of frey and boruc in with buffon and cech (who is overrated in my opinion) but those are the level of keeper that our club could have an effect on with the draw of top level football for a top level club, anything or anyone else is just football manager dream-talk.

[SPUDMASHER]

Thank you, finally someone gets it

Without Almunia I think we would have lost in Turkey. He did superbly well. Two defeats later, in which 90% of the team were shite, and he is cast as the villian

[g88ner]

true, he's not without fault. My point is that....oh why bother

For what its worth, I'm with you on this.. defence is more at fault than the keeper, however, it's an argument you can't win, Spuddy.

Some will say Almunia, whilst others will say it's the defence..

But whoever we perceive to be mostly at fault, I'm sure we all agree, they both departments are pretty poor, and neither our goalie nor centre back pairing are of the quality befitting such a great club. (hell, throw in our centre midfield problem for good measure )

[SPUDMASHER]

true, he's not without fault. My point is that....oh why bother

It's an argument you can't win, Spuddy.

Some will say Almunia, whilst others will say it's the defence..

But whoever we perceive to be mostly at fault, I'm sure we all agree, they both departments are pretty poor, and neither our goalie nor centre back pairing are of the quality befitting such a great club. (hell, throw in our centre midfield problem for good measure )

Totally agree mate. I do think though that a decent back line would have a bigger impact than an improvement between the sticks. It's about being fit for purpose. If you have a quality back four then you can get away with an average keeper more easily. It doesn't really work the other way round though.
When things go bad as they are at the moment people will always look for an easy target. When you concede goals who is the easiest target? Not rocket science is it?
Of course, if that uselss Togotosser up front could score 10% of the chances he gets it wouldn't matter what was happening at the back.