Jeepers Keepers

By Bill Howell on February 6, 2008 12:53 PM | Permalink

Villa Park used to be the bastion of the great keeper: Jimmy Rimmer, Nigel Spink, Mark Bosnich.

And they have never truly replaced David James in my book.

Sure he was guilty of a Cup Final howler but how many times did he come for balls that even his centre halves were shirking away from?

Peter Schmeichel was a disaster, well past his prime. Peter Enckelman, young and full of potential until St Andrew's.
Stefan Postma? I won't even start with that one for fear of an unintended pun.

So should Scott Carson have been called up by England? Not if Fabio Capello had seen him in action since November.

For the first three months of the season I was hugely impressed by the on-loan Cumbrian. He never dropped a cross and totally unlike Thomas Sorensen before him he could dominate his area.

But Wembley 11-07 as it shall be known for the purposes of this blog changed everything.

The spotlight was all of a sudden on him at Middlesbrough as he fluffed his first clearance but then produced a couple of blinding saves.

Since then I struggle to think of the great games he has played.

Maybe I am being over-critical. But do you know how many times he has reached eight marks out of ten in the match ratings on the Mail this season? Once. At Newcastle on his debut.

Do you know how many times Stuart Taylor has been awarded an eight? Again, once. Against Liverpool on the opening day in a handful of games.

Little wonder therefore that Martin O'Neill seems intent on bringing in Brad Guzan from Chivas USA.

Carson has undoubted ability. We all saw thast during those early months.

But he has to come out of his shell and start going bananas at his defenders, and he has to start to come for more outside that six yard box.

Sorensen was a decent top flight keeper but no more. Good on shots, good in the six yard box but a poor communicator (how many times did he amnd Olof Mellberg almost let in calamity goals?) and an even worse collector of crosses. He's no miss to Villa and Carson is clearly an improvement.

By all accounts Stuart Taylor is too happy just to sit on the bench than really try to become number one, which is a pity because he looks a decent, if not really top drawer, keeper.