Liverpool FC Forum

[jonnymac1979]

José Reina's impressive first season in English football was last night described by the former Liverpool players Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish as "world class".
Reina, 23 and a £6m signing from Villarreal last summer, kept his 29th clean sheet in 47 appearances for Liverpool in Sunday's win over Bolton to secure the club's 32nd shut-out of the season, the fourth best in their history.

"Back in September Pepe Reina had a difficult afternoon at Birmingham and I said at the time that we need to see how he reacts to that and adapts to English football," Hansen said."He's done so exceptionally well. He's worked out when to come for crosses and when to stay on his line. Basically, he's worked out what the right thing to do is. No one should ever underestimate how important having a good goalkeeper is to a team, and Rafa Benítez has signed a really good one.

"He said at the time that Reina was a great goalkeeper and that has been proved right. On Sunday we saw a good player in [Stelios] Giannakopoulos go clean through and although he didn't hit his shot too well Reina made a world-class save. Anyone will tell you what a world-class goalkeeper is there for, and the big teams have all got them. Liverpool have been missing that, but that's no longer the case."
The defensive shield provided by Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia has helped Reina to settle at Liverpool, though the Spaniard's contribution to a season that may yet yield the FA Cup and a third-place finish has not gone unnoticed. "When the defence occasionally lapse, as every team is bound to do now and again, they've got the perfect lifejacket there in Reina," Dalglish added. "He's superb.

"The hardest thing for a goalkeeper to adjust to at Liverpool are the long periods of inactivity. Those gaps in action test a goalkeeper's concentration and that's when you see those little slips that sometimes cost points. But Reina's powers of concentration are top drawer and that's why you can count his mistakes on the fingers of one hand."

GUARDIAN ARTICLE IN FULL