Almunia

[franksav63]

I am not one of Alumunia's greatest fans, and indeed he had a fine game yesterday, but he is not Arsenal class and his greatest weakness IMO is the way he gets beaten by shots high into the goal, Bentley, Giovanni and not too mention a low shot by Zat Knight that he waved into the net against Villa.

He is a number 2 in my book.

[BRAZILLIANT 19]

What were we doing with 9 players in their penalty box with 30 seconds to go anyway!!! A real lack of leadership.

Trying to get 3 points instead of 1 perhaps ?

[Rob]

Given would be a huge improvement. Without him City would have got beaten on Saturday, instead they won!
I just think that we need to address other issues with a greater priority than our goalkeeper at the moment. Seaman and Lehmann had the benefit of playing behind excellent back fours with a quality defensive midfielder. Almunia doesn't have that luxury. If we can strengthen in those areas (CD & DM) then his game will improve as he has confidence in those around him. I think at the moment he is constantly unsure what to do as he rarely gets a shout from his defence etc.
Lets address our more important issues and then we can look at the keeper.

Isn't Given @ 35. By the time a keeper starts to go beyond that age then his form drops.

Seaman was what - 37 when he left us ?


£8 million is an awful lot for 2 years and no return thereafter.

But you are totally right about Almunia not having the luxury of our famous back 4 infront of him.


I don't care what anyone says otherwise he's as good as Van de Saar. Why does VdS not conceed ? Because of the ten outfield players infront of him. They are so good that the opposition does not get the chance.

As you say, Almunia does not have that luxury.

[Eboue-Why?]

And I would say the same about Cech as well. He had a defensive Mourniho team in front of him for a couple of years and people were saying he was the best keeper in the world. Now, he's making mistakes that are as bad as anything Almunia as ever done (apart from maybe Almunia picking the ball up in our box in the first minute against ManU!!)

[corkbarry]

I have always thought that Almunia is a good keeper,and that if we had any other keeper you could name we would still be fifth.
Lately it has been the lack of goals that is stopping us from going higher in the table. Without Cesc we are easy enough to stop scoring.

[rodders999]

What were we doing with 9 players in their penalty box with 30 seconds to go anyway!!! A real lack of leadership.

Trying to get 3 points instead of 1 perhaps ?

While it's all very admirable going for the 3 points it was also very nieve to have a situation where three spurs players were baring down on our goal with noone home. It would have been a stupid waste of all our hard work had Modric tucked away what was essentially a very easy opportunity.

[mcdowell42]

Given would be a huge improvement. Without him City would have got beaten on Saturday, instead they won!
I just think that we need to address other issues with a greater priority than our goalkeeper at the moment. Seaman and Lehmann had the benefit of playing behind excellent back fours with a quality defensive midfielder. Almunia doesn't have that luxury. If we can strengthen in those areas (CD & DM) then his game will improve as he has confidence in those around him. I think at the moment he is constantly unsure what to do as he rarely gets a shout from his defence etc.
Lets address our more important issues and then we can look at the keeper.

Isn't Given @ 35. By the time a keeper starts to go beyond that age then his form drops.

Seaman was what - 37 when he left us ?


£8 million is an awful lot for 2 years and no return thereafter.

But you are totally right about Almunia not having the luxury of our famous back 4 infront of him.


I don't care what anyone says otherwise he's as good as Van de Saar. Why does VdS not conceed ? Because of the ten outfield players infront of him. They are so good that the opposition does not get the chance.

As you say, Almunia does not have that luxury.

given is 32

[franksav63]

Given would be a huge improvement. Without him City would have got beaten on Saturday, instead they won!
I just think that we need to address other issues with a greater priority than our goalkeeper at the moment. Seaman and Lehmann had the benefit of playing behind excellent back fours with a quality defensive midfielder. Almunia doesn't have that luxury. If we can strengthen in those areas (CD & DM) then his game will improve as he has confidence in those around him. I think at the moment he is constantly unsure what to do as he rarely gets a shout from his defence etc.
Lets address our more important issues and then we can look at the keeper.

Isn't Given @ 35. By the time a keeper starts to go beyond that age then his form drops.

Seaman was what - 37 when he left us ?


£8 million is an awful lot for 2 years and no return thereafter.

But you are totally right about Almunia not having the luxury of our famous back 4 infront of him.


I don't care what anyone says otherwise he's as good as Van de Saar. Why does VdS not conceed ? Because of the ten outfield players infront of him. They are so good that the opposition does not get the chance.

As you say, Almunia does not have that luxury.

given is 32

The same age as Pat Jennings when we signed him in the 70's!!!

[hutchy08]

Almunia's main problem is not his performances coz they have been good, its his NAME ...people wont be happy unless its high profile name like a seaman or lehmann, casillas or buffon... with proven credentials, but if almunia had made a quarter of the mistakes lehmann made then he wud have recieved worse criticsm than eboue!

[I Hate Hleb]

Alternatively, maybe if Almunia controlled his penalty area; claimed the crosses; made the match-winning saves that his predecessor did and was half the keeper Lehman was, then he would not get the stick he does!!

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

Alternatively, maybe if Almunia controlled his penalty area; claimed the crosses; made the match-winning saves that his predecessor did and was half the keeper Lehman was, then he would not get the stick he does!!

Fact.

IMO if we had a better keeper last season we'd have won the league. Same applies if Ade had finished off a quarter of the 100 clear cut goals he missed we'd have won the league. They're both mediocre.

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

Alternatively, maybe if Almunia controlled his penalty area; claimed the crosses; made the match-winning saves that his predecessor did and was half the keeper Lehman was, then he would not get the stick he does!!

PS: I like your avatar and, yes, i DO want to get high. Can you supply me?

[the playing mantis]

to class dodgy manuel in the same bracket as lehmann is somewhat disrepectful to mad jens.

almunia is an ok keeper, he does what you expect any keeper to do on the main, however good keepers win you points, like lukic, spunky and mad jens did by pulling off world class saves...i cant think of any instances of almunia doing this with truly great saves. sure lehmann dropped the odd clanger, but if his reputation of lunacy hadnt gone before him, half the fuss made over his clangers would never have been made.

i can think of quite a few occasions when you would expect alumunia to have done better (possibly all 4 sperz goals at home this season).

the argument of seaman and lehmann not being exposed by poor defences as almunia is, is stretching it a bit imo.....its more the case that a defence responds to having a strong, dominant world class keeper behind them, giving them confidence as a last line of defence, as happened with seaman and lehman.

to class alumina alongside a guy who played his whole career at the highest level, be it in the bundesliga, serie a, or premiership and was a consistent member of his national squad, when alumina has been a number two at poor clubs for the whole of his career is unfair on a true arsenal legend, an invincible, a great charachter and arsenal to the core in Lehman.

do agree though that gk is not our most pressing matter position wise, DM is, followed equally by GK and CB (the defence will look immeasuarably stronger if they had some midfield protection)

[hutchy08]

almunia dont make anywhere near the absolute howlers than lehmann made.....

but almunia wont make the world class save that lehmann cud make

overally not much between them...id rather almunia as i prefere a keeper to be more consistent than eccentric

also back then we had such a good team we were winning things, fanswere more patient and forgiving, there werent as many forums where fans cud voice there disscontent, if lehmann was our goalkeeper now and he made a couple of howlers there wud be 20 pages on him and his mistakes

[Magic Hat]

Almunia is a good keeper, very good on penalties and been very good at one on ones, he is often reliable a shot stopper, sweeps of his line. He is an absolutely wonderful second choice keeper for a club like ours

Problem is he isn't Lehman (hardly a big name when we got him), VDS or Reina, he doesn't control his box, he isn't capable of the spectacular. Some clubs perhaps Almunia's refusal to come out might suit them but we are a club that needs a keeper to come for crosses to take pressure of the defense and have a good throw out, neither of which Almunia does. In some cases, I think the more erratic Fabianski would suit our style a lot more as he does come out for crosses.