Liverpool FC Forum

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 9:31 pm**

Watched the lad play in Villareal's 3-3 draw with Barcelona yesterday at the Nou Camp(Diego Forlan scored a hat-trick for the visitors) and was not impressed at all with him. Maybe it was not his night.

Does someone know a little bit more about him

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 9:45 pm**

I don't know too much about him but iv seen him play once or twice and he is a good keeper, you have to be good to be in the spanish national squad. Erica seems to know a bit about spanidh players.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 9:50 pm**

Thanks mate

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 9:53 pm**

It was a bad day for him. He's been solid this season, as he's kept 24 or 26 clean sheets this year.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:25 pm**

Only saw him 3 times. One of those was the other night. He's no Petr Cech.

Doesn't command his box well at all by the looks of things.

Dudeks two biggest faults are being beaten at the near post and not commanding his box.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:34 pm**

So you're going to judge him based on three games out of the 40 some games he's played?

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:36 pm**

A.B. wrote:So you're going to judge him based on three games out of the 40 some games he's played?

Easy fellas, we all know where this is heading already

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:40 pm**

I've always been suspicious of Latino, South American and African goalkeepers, give me a boring old Scandinavian, German or Englishman any day of the week.

I wouldn’t get to excited just because he has kept 20 odd clean sheets. Anyone who watches Villarreal with any regularity will tell you that they are the best organised team in Spain, they are excellent defensively (normally), and they keep the ball really well, they are an underrated team, and I think they will do well in the competion if they get into the Champions League, they are a really well balanced outfit and so comfortable on the ball, and defensively awesome.

Reina doesn’t look the biggest to me, and he doesn’t come out to collect many balls in his area. If we do buy him we are taking quiet a big risk, especially with the fee involved.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:40 pm**

If he wasn't better than Dudek at commanding his box then why would Rafa be after him (whether we'll sign him or not we don't know, just pure speculation) in the first place?

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:41 pm**

i still rate dudek. i know hes made some awful clangers but hes been there for us alot already. id sell kirkland as the guy is always injured and buy rob green from norwich, then go from there. Reina is a class act but i dunno, i dont wanna do to dudek what cheatski did to cudicini, would rather let him play for us more

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:52 pm**

A.B. wrote:If he wasn't better than Dudek at commanding his box then why would Rafa be after him (whether we'll sign him or not we don't know, just pure speculation) in the first place?

If Veron wasn't suited to the Premiership, why did Fergie spend 28MIL on him? And why did Chelsea spend 15MIL on him even after he had failed in the Premiership?

If Jeffers was never that good why did Wenger spend 8-10MIL on him? If Richard Wright was so overrated why did Wenger spend 6MIL on him? If Almuina is so rubbish why did he keep getting in the Arsenal first team ahead of Lehman?

All people are open to mistakes and misjudgements, just because Rafa is going buy him, it doesn’t mean that he will be better than any of our current goalkeepers.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:54 pm**

Benitez isn't Fergusson or Wenger for that matter. If we as fans are well aware that the goalkeeper position is one position we need to improve on then so is Benitez.

Can Reina be worse than Dudek? Surely Benitez wouldn't be a fool to buy a keeper who won't do a better job than Dudek in the Premiership, especially now that he knows the league better and what it requires from all players on the pitch.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 10:57 pm**

It doesn’t take a fool, it just takes a misjudgement, and anyone can do that.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 11:16 pm**

Cool Hand Luke wrote:It doesn’t take a fool, it just takes a misjudgement, and anyone can do that.

Have to agree with this. Loathe him or hate him, Fergie's no fool but he's had a torrid time finding a keeper since rudolph upped sticks. Bosnich, Taibi, Barthez, Carroll, Howard have all tried and failed. Apparently Fergie was absolutely convinced he had found the answer each time.

Finding a top top keeper is just about the hardeset scouting job there is particularly as mind-set and prescence figure just as highly as ability.

My favoured option (discounting Cudicini as it simply won't happen) would be Niemi or Canizares.

Posted: **Mon May 23, 2005 11:23 pm**

The thing you have to remember is that Rafa is quite tight with his money and won't spend a lot on a player unless he is a good player, i.e Xabi, no one is a certain success but I trust Rafa