Liverpool FC Forum

It's a tough call but I've narrowed it down to a short list of:

Dino Zoff
Iker Casillas
Gianluigi Buffon
Gordon Banks
Ray Clemence
Sepp Maier

I reckon it's between Casillas and Maier. Maier was just so damn reliable with his massive gloves.

Modern keepers such as Ali, Van der Sar, Cech, are good but not in the same league as the above.

What do you think?

It's tough to say, there have been lots of great keepers, only really saw the likes of Zoff and Maier etc at World Cups and in the odd European Cup/UEFA Cup game so difficult to comment on them, tv coverage wasn't as comprehensive back then as it is now. Shilton in his late 70's prime was exceptional as were the likes of Southall and Schmeichel at their peaks too.
Yashin often makes the shortlist of these things as well.

Older keepers did not have to deal with those crazy light balls and were allowed to pick up a back pass with their hands, so didn’t have to be good with their feet.

On the flip side, the pitches are much better now so not so many bad bounces as well as more protection from the refs, any bump on a keeper is a foul now and that wasn’t the case before.

Hard to compare like for like as the game has evolved so much.

In my opinion Allison is the best keeper we ever had even though growing up I idolized Ray Clemence.

Southall was unbelievable.. I've never seen a keeper so athletic. He looked like someone who could eat you under the table but his shotstopping was some of the best I've ever seen.

I always rated that German keeper Oliver Khan.. he was a leader, a madman, everything you need in a goalkeeper.

It's hard to say who's the best because the game is so much quicker today.. plus the balls used to weigh a ton back in the day.

Ray Clemence

Hard to judge.

As others have said, the game has changed so much over the last several decades.

Starting with , Rule changes, Pitch conditions, and the general physical contact allowed in the game. (there was a time you could bundle a keeper into the net with the ball in his hands and be awarded a goal !       )

Personally, given all the above,  I have no idea who was the greatest keeper ever .

If I had to vote, it would be a fine line between Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton

BUT !

Really surprised Pat Jennings doesn't get a mention. Maybe if he'd played for us he'd get my vote   

I would add Angelo Peruzzi to the list, he was a top notch keeper in his day.