As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Ikechukwu1 wrote:Question is, is Ospina as good as the Citeh, Chelski, S'oton and Yernited keepers?
Answer: nowhere near. Lloris is also miles better. He isn't good enough to be Arsenal number 1! As with people talking up Chez as he basically replaced turd Almunia; Ospina just happens to not be utter shite like Shez.
Ospina did some good things on Saturday but frankly, he takes a lot of blame for that first goal. Courtois, Lloris, Foster etc would have all been in a position to catch that weak first header - instead he palms it straight back to Kane. That ball shoulda been caught. Ospina isn't a kid, he's old enough and was at flipping Nice!
I still look at him as our number 2 mate - in which case I'm happy with him and think he compares pretty well to most second choice keepers in the PL (perhaps with one or two exceptions).
Neither he or Ches are at the standard of those keepers you mentioned......but I wish you would get this into your head.....nobody was available at the right price, and nobody wants to sell....despite 24 hour searches, 365 days a year of every player in world football. Now that you appreciate that I hope you're back on message !
Lol Steve. Goalie is just yet another position that Le Cretin doesn't consider important. Just see him haggling over 500k for the £2m Schwarzer . Rendered even more ridic when you realise that this was the equivalent of 9 weeks of Almunia's wages!
It makes you doubly-sick when you see that Lloris joined Spuds for just £8m. Cech cost Chavs £11m. Courtois was a bloody snip! Keepers can win you an extra 5-15 points over a season, look how many De Gea has won that shocking LVG rabble? (See Emirates game for proof)...like Vieira he never replaced, since 2006 I have been waiting for a quality keeper. Van Der Sar joined Yernited for £2m in that time FFS. So, no keeper since 2006, no defence since 2006, no quality winger since 2006 and no class striker since 2012 was it. Incredible he gets away with this
Ikechukwu1 wrote:Lol Steve. Goalie is just yet another position that Le Cretin doesn't consider important. Just see him haggling over 500k for the £2m Schwarzer . Rendered even more ridic when you realise that this was the equivalent of 9 weeks of Almunia's wages!
It makes you doubly-sick when you see that Lloris joined Spuds for just £8m. Cech cost Chavs £11m. Courtois was a bloody snip! Keepers can win you an extra 5-15 points over a season, look how many De Gea has won that shocking LVG rabble? (See Emirates game for proof)...like Vieira he never replaced, since 2006 I have been waiting for a quality keeper. Van Der Sar joined Yernited for £2m in that time FFS. So, no keeper since 2006, no defence since 2006, no quality winger since 2006 and no class striker since 2012 was it. Incredible he gets away with this
Couldn't agree more - the keepers you mention have been worth their weight in gold....and certainly in points. Cech in 2005 / 2006 and De Gea this year probably the best examples of that in recent times. I'm trying to remember an occasion in recent times where a keeper has had such an impact for us in a single game. Ironically the first leg of the CL semi at Old Trafford was one when Almunia kept the score to a respectable 1-0 when we could have been battered by 6 or 7......but as has been pointed out before he then pissed that up the wall in the first 15 mins of the return.
I'm sure though he'll learn from this season's shortcomings and buy the CDM and GK that Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and David Blunkett have been urging him to sign.....after all, with all these commercial deals.....we're gonna spend BIG my man !
Am i the only one that rates Ospina? I dont consider him our number 2 he is equal to and i rate him better than Chesney. Hes far better than average Al, Mannone Flappy but thats not saying much
flash gunner wrote:Am i the only one that rates Ospina? I dont consider him our number 2 he is equal to and i rate him better than Chesney. Hes far better than average Al, Mannone Flappy but thats not saying much
Definitely much better than any of those clowns....and as I said, I can't really find much fault in anything he's done so far. Made some good saves tonight and on Saturday. Bit hyper-critical I think to blame him for their leveller on Saturday......where was the marking for the header and the resulting tap in.
I like him - he isn't a flapper or panicker like some of the crunts we've had
flash gunner wrote:Am i the only one that rates Ospina? I dont consider him our number 2 he is equal to and i rate him better than Chesney. Hes far better than average Al, Mannone Flappy but thats not saying much
I think he's acquitted himself well. His decision-making is certainly miles better than Szczesny's and he seems far less error prone. He did push quite a few balls back out into dangerous areas against Spurs but Michael Owen just couldn't think of anything else to say so kept repeating himself. Once he made a good save to deflect it wide and despite being about four yards offside Kane still couldn't get a touch and Owen slated Ospina just because he thought it gave credence to his point. I'm not convinced about him as a medium-term #1 but he deserves the rest of the season to state his case.
I said at the time we dropped a huge bollock not signing Lloris. That level of experience and established quality, that age, that price? For relative pennies it would have sorted our keeping situation for nigh on a decade and it was sheer madness to ignore that. But God forbid that may have put some pressure on Szczesny, thank fuck that didn't happen and we're reaping the benefits now aren't we.
Goalkeeper is probably the one position where at any given time you couldn't guarantee a quality option being available at the right price, because top keepers are like golddust and clubs are desperate to keep hold of them. Equally, keeper is the position you least want to be buying unproven or blooding youngsters in.
And if you are going to bring in young keepers you have to pay a huge premium and accept you won't see a return for years. United paid £20m for de Gea who looked a fish out of water for his first season but ultimately he had that experience at a good level already and a few years later is class. Even Courtois Chelsea paid around £8m for and immediately loaned him out for a good few seasons to get experience at a very high level first. Young inexperienced keepers are going to make mistakes so let them make them elsewhere. Young keepers coming into the first team with experience in League One and below only (like Szczesny and Martinez) is madness.
flash gunner wrote:Am i the only one that rates Ospina? I dont consider him our number 2 he is equal to and i rate him better than Chesney. Hes far better than average Al, Mannone Flappy but thats not saying much
As a number 2 he's ok, sure. But I think it comes down to all I always say about peer analysis. Our rivals (loosely), who are their keepers? Courtois, De Gea, Hart and Lloris. Add Forster too.
These are all the teams above us in the table. Would Ospina be good enough for any of them? Answer is a solid "no".
Therefore we shouldn't settle for inferior. He's ok as I said, but he'll never win you a big game and like Shay Given, I don't think he has enough stature to be a top keeper. Have a look at how big and commanding Courtois is, or Neuer etc. Ospina lacks this...
flash gunner wrote:Am i the only one that rates Ospina? I dont consider him our number 2 he is equal to and i rate him better than Chesney. Hes far better than average Al, Mannone Flappy but thats not saying much
I think he's acquitted himself well. His decision-making is certainly miles better than Szczesny's and he seems far less error prone. He did push quite a few balls back out into dangerous areas against Spurs but Michael Owen just couldn't think of anything else to say so kept repeating himself. Once he made a good save to deflect it wide and despite being about four yards offside Kane still couldn't get a touch and Owen slated Ospina just because he thought it gave credence to his point. I'm not convinced about him as a medium-term #1 but he deserves the rest of the season to state his case.
I said at the time we dropped a huge bollock not signing Lloris. That level of experience and established quality, that age, that price? For relative pennies it would have sorted our keeping situation for nigh on a decade and it was sheer madness to ignore that. But God forbid that may have put some pressure on Szczesny, thank fuck that didn't happen and we're reaping the benefits now aren't we.
Goalkeeper is probably the one position where at any given time you couldn't guarantee a quality option being available at the right price, because top keepers are like golddust and clubs are desperate to keep hold of them. Equally, keeper is the position you least want to be buying unproven or blooding youngsters in.
And if you are going to bring in young keepers you have to pay a huge premium and accept you won't see a return for years. United paid £20m for de Gea who looked a fish out of water for his first season but ultimately he had that experience at a good level already and a few years later is class. Even Courtois Chelsea paid around £8m for and immediately loaned him out for a good few seasons to get experience at a very high level first. Young inexperienced keepers are going to make mistakes so let them make them elsewhere. Young keepers coming into the first team with experience in League One and below only (like Szczesny and Martinez) is madness.
8 fucking mil they got him for
What's even more gutting is that this is the One market Le Cret is supposed to have inside track on. You'd assume a French player would wanna come play under Le Joker, right? But just like virtual signings Varane and Pogba, Arsene "knew about them" and was "very close"
I'm not going to write Ospina off after one or two slightly odd moments. Goalkeepers, like all players, can have bad games but it gets massively highlighted more than any other position. It's why I still hold out hop for Shez, that as he gets older he might mature into a better Keeper and a better person
Brentford's best keeper of the past decade.....an honour up there with being Wales best Formula 1 driver of the past decade or Oireland's highest World Cup goalscorer of the past decade
. Rendered even more ridic when you realise that this was the equivalent of 9 weeks of Almunia's wages! 
