Victor Valdes: The Underrated Hero

You know, you really should look into Yann Sommer. Unfortunately, whoscored.com has only rudimentary numbers on him (they only give the EL passing accuracy which is 83!! percent there) to compare with that above list of barcablaugranes, but he is a really good ballplaying GK and he has virtually nerves of steel (like saving the deciding penalty 5 min in injury time in a CL qualifier), plus he just turned 24 in December.

You might want to check for his heroics in the first leg of last years CL Last 16 against Bayern for a number of really stunning saves (the second leg had a rather unfortunate result, but even there he was great, or it would have been a result in the double digits, though).

(BTW, just like Marc-André ter Stegen, he had a little dip in form during early autumn, but like him he is back to his best again.)

I think someone said it already but i think we need a keeper that speaks spanish, so he can communicate with our defensive line which is very important.

Well, Yann Sommer speaks German, French, English and Spanish, according to some articles (I only heard interviews of his in German and French, though).

Ah, found it: (HEiko) Vogel: «Ausserdem sprechen Yann Sommer und Germano Vailati spanisch. (Moreover, Yann Sommer and Germano Vailati speak Spanisch.)

http://www.20min.ch/sport/fussball/story/Ein--bersetzer-hilft-Vogel-bei-der-Taktik-30742018

Tbh JD i personally feel who ever Barca buy will be bought in the summer and Valdes will leave in the same window.

As for the De Gea comparison theres a few key differences..... De Gea was 21 and left Spain for a foreign country in a league which is a lot different to anything he is used to....meanwhile Guaita is 25 with plenty of La Liga experience so i don't see it being anywhere near as an issue not to mention Guaita is a totally different GK to De Gea.

De Gea is a shot stopper who is liable to mistakes but will make a ridiculous save now and again and Guaita is more in the Buffon/VDS mould of GK where he does everything with very little fuss and very reliable.

Also RWO i agree with you on Sommer i think he's a fantastic young GK but as i'm sure you're aware but clubs like Barca usually will want the name who has a great deal of hype surrounding them.

If we look at all the names.... Neuer, Ter Stegen, De Gea, Courtois and Guaita all have a great deal of hype surrounding them for different reasons.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Also RWO i agree with you on Sommer i think he's a fantastic young GK but as i'm sure you're aware but clubs like Barca usually will want the name who has a great deal of hype surrounding them.

If we look at all the names.... Neuer, Ter Stegen, De Gea, Courtois and Guaita all have a great deal of hype surrounding them for different reasons.

Well, in that case they probably miss out on good value for money.

As for Manuel Neuer, I wonder why he is in the contention here in the first place - prying him away from Bayern (especially with Guardiola coming in whose requirement will very likely be a confident ball-playing GK in Munich, too) will be as likely as signing Iker Casillas. ^^

I agree RWO its impossible, which is why i said the 5 man shortlist becomes 3. ( with Courtois IMO not being good enough)

But they had Alaba on their shortlist last season for a LB so anyone can dream

I'm sure they will try but Neuer is probably the best GK around and there's no way Bayern will let him go.

Well, Marc-André ter Stegen's main problem is that he doesn't speak Spanisch (AFAIK), and if that will be a requirement, then David de Gea and Vicente Guaita are left. As de Gea's contract still runs till 2016, he would probably become the 2nd most expensive GK transfer (I doubt anyone will reach Gigi from Parma anytime soon), so I think Guaita will probably be the most viable of the options.

In before Scezney.

rwo power wrote:You know, you really should look into Yann Sommer. Unfortunately, whoscored.com has only rudimentary numbers on him (they only give the EL passing accuracy which is 83!! percent there) to compare with that above list of barcablaugranes, but he is a really good ballplaying GK and he has virtually nerves of steel (like saving the deciding penalty 5 min in injury time in a CL qualifier), plus he just turned 24 in December.

You might want to check for his heroics in the first leg of last years CL Last 16 against Bayern for a number of really stunning saves (the second leg had a rather unfortunate result, but even there he was great, or it would have been a result in the double digits, though).

(BTW, just like Marc-André ter Stegen, he had a little dip in form during early autumn, but like him he is back to his best again.)

Our resident goalkeeper expert.Considering our requirements,what are your suggestions for us in order of preference(forgetting availability and likeliness)?
A top 5 list for our requirements.

Many of you ignoring the issue that a mid season announcement would have an impact on how team performs rest of the season. In a logical sense it might come out in any way. However right now media has all the pens to write colorful stories of why he is leaving.....and that already have started. Not to mention many ridiculous story will come up. This will continue till the end of the season and no way that is better for us. Even though tito says he should help us till he is here but well after the announcement i don think he can. I just read in totalbarca.com article that during casillas- mou saga some barcelona based paper even wrote that casillas would better be here. And now they have every reason to cook up more.
Think, from now on every mistakes he make will be ingredient for anger to many fans even though may be it has nothing to do with his announcement. For any mistakes he makes will bring people to conclude that he is not giving his 100%. And this certainly will put pressure on him. At the same time while in other cases he might try to increase confidence , this time he might well not be bothered about this. In anyway its huge instability for a team which is running like winning horse at the moment. SO i would also prefer a quick buy-sale happening....
About the keepers, all the discussions seems very interesting and number of options seems feasible. But one thing i don understand is why many of you think Da Gea is a possibility. Do you think Ferg. will allow him to leave?? cheap??? and also how much we will be paying for any keeper??

I think De Gea is a possibility but you're right he would cost a lot of money....

One of the reasons i feel Guaita is a more likely choice compared to De Gea is because he's a lot more affordable and while he's different to De Gea i don't think De Gea is the better GK.

Guaita, De Gea and Ter Stegen tick a lot of boxes but i think Guaita ticks the most boxes.

Lloris could be a good option... Spurs would likely sell at a certain price.

alexjanosik wrote:Our resident goalkeeper expert.Considering our requirements,what are your suggestions for us in order of preference(forgetting availability and likeliness)?
A top 5 list for our requirements.

Well, of the requirements I will leave out "must speak Spanish", as that is something which can be overcome - if Pep is willing to study German to coach Bayern, you should expect a GK being able to learn Spanish within a reasonable time frame, too.

So what does a possible Barca GK need?

- passing accuracy: Neuer, Stekelenburg, Sommer, Reina, Mielitz, Benaglio, Lloris, (Guaita), (Szczesny)

- saving accuracy: Neuer, de Gea, Marchetti, Begovic, Szczesny, Adler, Baumann

- WC/Euro proven: Neuer, Lloris, Stekelenburg, Cech, Benaglio / deGea (U21 winner), Sommer (U21 final)

- presence (okay, that's a bit vague, but my impression how the GK manages to transmit calm etc to his defense line): Neuer, Benaglio, Sommer, ter Stegen, Cech - these are the onces I watched often/closely enough to be sure about, the non BL keepers I can't really rate there as I didn't watch them so closely, so this is nothing I can hold against them (albeit the times I watched de Gea, he didn't appear to radiate enough confidence for my taste))

- command of the penalty area (similar as the above - but this is my impression how much I'd worry about crosses and high balls coming into the box - again I can mainly judge the BL GKs and Sommer as I watched almost all Basel matches recently): Neuer, Benaglio, Sommer

- age: Neuer (26), Lloris (26), Guaita (26), Begovic (25), Sommer (24), de Gea (22), Mielitz (22), Baumann (22), Szczesny (22), Giefer (22), ter Stegen (20) // a bit older: Adler (28), Benaglio (29), Marchetti (29), Stek (30), Reina (30), Cech (30)

Normally Manuel Neuer would probably be the Nr.1 fitting keeper for Barca, but Bayern will never let go of him and he has little reason to consider a move from FCB to FCB.

Begovic is disqualified as he is not so good playing the ball, even though he did a remarkable job so far at Stoke. As a matter of fact, it might be interesting whether his lack in passing is really his problem or rather that of his colleagues who don't really play an intelligent positioning most of the time.

I don't think that Barca will go for a GK who is 29 years of age or older, other than that, Reina and Benaglio would be very useful targets. René Adler could be tempting, too, but he has been injury prone, so this will prolly be too much of a risk. And if they prefer to go for a more known name, then de Gea, Guaita and ter Stegen really show up as most likely targets. That's a real pity IMO, because other than not having a scintillating name, Yann Sommer would fit all requirements perfectly (and he even speaks Spanish already).

apparnetly we are considering Perin. I'd like it to be honest

Mattia Perin? Great choice! The only thing against him is also that he is rather unknown and just 20 years, too. But other than that the kid was pretty amazing when I watched matches with him. (Should have added him to the list above, but I though he is a bit too unknown, too)

I've also only see a few matches of his but he has looked really good! Read a few websites today stating the club is strongly considering him

Don't blame Valdes for any of the goals tbh today. Had his defenders to blame.

I blame him a lot for the second. What was that?

Hard to blame a keeper when a deflection happens but he probably could have done better with it, really.

If Mascherano doesn't deflect the ball, its an easy save for Valdés tbh. He was on the leap and the ball triggers off Mascherano causing the movement to go in the opposite direction leaving Valdes in the wrong.

Former Barcelona goalkeeping coach Frans Hoek has added his voice to those backing Pepe Reina to succeed Victor Valdes between the sticks at the Camp Nou.

Valdes recently dropped a bombshell by refusing to extend his contract at Barcelona, a move which has suddenly put the Spanish giants on the hunt for a new number 1.

While Valdes’ current contract does not expire until 2014, it is thought he could be on the move as early as this summer; Barcelona will also want to secure his replacement in good time.

Many names have been floated, with Reina now receiving serious backing due to his Barcelona roots.

The current Liverpool goalkeeper was developed at Barcelona, rising through the club’s C and B teams to the senior ranks, before leaving for Villarreal in 2002.

Reina’s father believes his son would relish a return to the Camp Nou and Hoek, who worked as the club’s goalkeeping coach under Louis van Gaal, thinks the 30-year-old would be a perfect fit.

"Reina is a player from La Masia and when looking for a goalkeeper in the "club" style, Pepe is the most ideal", the Dutchman told La Xarxa.

"In my opinion, he is the number one choice to take Valdes’ place."

Hoek also stated his belief that being a Barcelona goalkeeper is a difficult task, even with the side’s possession-based style of play often restricting the amount of work a custodian has to do.

Living in dreamland. I hope nobody listens.

old but for the lols mainly for the spanish speakers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtCLC2BN13k

4th ever player to play 500 games for barca

Gran Victor!!