Prime Casillas or Neuer

Casillas in his prime was an AMAZING shot stopper. Definitely better than Neuer in that regard. However, Neuer has more to his game. He's better at reading the play and is better with the ball at his feet.

Neuer better at reading the play ? I've seen him countless of times making rash decisions leading up goals.

And how many times has he made the right decision? He's better at commanding his box, and his sweeping is on another level.

i've never been a fan of the "ball at his feet" argument with regards goalies. yes, it helps when a goalie knows how to clear and all, but what i look for most in a goalie isn't how good he is with his feet. it's like lauding the dribbling of a defensive midfielder, when that's not his primary requirement....its a good add on, nothing more....@ least in my opinion (btw i'm more impressed with neuer's shot stopping skills than him rushing out to dribble a striker or make random clearances)

rincon wrote:To clarify I'm not dissing Casillas. Great GK in his prime. One of the best I've seen. I just rate Neuer a bit higher.

Buffon
Kahn
Neuer, Casillas
van der Sar, Cech, etc.

something like that

was buffon actually better than both Nuer and Casillas in your opinion? If you were neutral

Germans picking Neuer.
Madrid fans picking Casillas .
Juventus fans picking Buffon ( who was not even mentioned by OP ).

Shocking stuff here.

Barca fans picking Casillas.

Obviously only unbiased and logical group.

Shouldn't Barca fans pick Manuel Neuer as he fits best the idea of a goalie playing in a team that works with a lot of short passing and possession? With his style he is a top candidate for the Cruyffian idea of total football: "In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender."

Neutropin wrote:

rincon wrote:To clarify I'm not dissing Casillas. Great GK in his prime. One of the best I've seen. I just rate Neuer a bit higher.

Buffon
Kahn
Neuer, Casillas
van der Sar, Cech, etc.

something like that

was buffon actually better than both Nuer and Casillas in your opinion? If you were neutral

I can't really be neutral since he is my favorite player of all time. For me I've seen no equal (I wasn't alive for Yashin and his peeps). The thing that wins it for me is how he has adapted his game over the years and beasted for 20 years. He was amazing at Parma and starting from '96. Made the '98 world cup team. Got nominated for the ballon d'or back then. Was first choice for Italy already at 2000. And now, 20 years later he breaks the record for the longest clean sheet in Serie A.

He was really athletic for a GK with fast reflexes when younger. Always good in the air. He organizes and understands the defense perfectly. His positioning is always good. Even at old age his game is so complete that I'd still call him the best GK in the world this season. That can be argued of course, but who has been better? Neuer has had some howlers.

---

On the topic. Casillas peak I think was somewhere around 06-10 like someone said. His peak was great but he relied too much on reflexes. As a shot-stopper he was amazing but he seemed a little shaky in the air and his positioning wasn't always the best. The moment he got older and couldn't relly on his quickness he declined so much. Neuer is a little too bold for me yet he is still well rounded and great at many things.

farfan wrote:Germans picking Neuer.
Madrid fans picking Casillas .
Juventus fans picking Buffon ( who was not even mentioned by OP ).

Shocking stuff here.

Such objectivity I tell you this forum has. Reminds me of LA Liga refs

Harmonica wrote:Barca fans picking Casillas.

Obviously only unbiased and logical group.

HEAR HEAR

rwo power wrote:Shouldn't Barca fans pick Manuel Neuer as he fits best the idea of a goalie playing in a team that works with a lot of short passing and possession? With his style he is a top candidate for the Cruyffian idea of total football: "In my teams, the goalie is the first attacker, and the striker the first defender."

Gud point RWO, but you see for us Barca fans, due to the fact that we are most modest group on internet, modesty superceded everything and quite frankly Neuer though very gud is a one Cocky bastard. Which obviously is huge deal breaker.

Lucifer wrote:Gud point RWO, but you see for us Barca fans, due to the fact that we are most modest group on internet, modesty superceded everything and quite frankly Neuer though very gud is a one Cocky bastard. Which obviously is huge deal breaker.

Then you obviously should go for Yann Sommer instead, who is not only a modern goalie with great ball playing skills, but also humble, modest and - to top it all - incredibly handsome.

Prime Casillas for me

Wait, if Buffon is an option, I don't choose Neuer. Thought this was vs Casillas.
If Buffon is an option, I choose Kahn!

Why choose anyway? I'd take Gigi Buffon, Manu Neuer, Oli Kahn and for good measure Yann Sommer as well

you dirty, dirty, dirty girl

Rob Green for me tbh.

Neuer.

That said, Casillas was underrated for more than half of his career by both Real fans and enemies. I think the turning point was WC2010.

i don't think iker was ever underrated. after the 02 world cup, he pretty much cemented his place with his country and club, it was never up for debate. i think with his decline, people have now begun to downplay the reflexes he had in his younger days as "just reflexes". i'm sorry you can't downplay a goalie's reflexes; it's the core part of his job, not what he can or can't do with his feet. freekicks were always a problem

Things don't come down to just relexes vs playing with your feet. A goalie should always play it safe in my view, i don't care for whatever Pep has his GKs doing.

Probably the main part of Gks job is positioning and reading the situation. More often than not "superman" saves can be avoided by being in the right place and closing down space. Casillas had the reflexes and quickness of the very best, but the rest was lacking compared to more complete keepers.

whilst you have a point, you can hardly play it safe with the defense that iker had to contend with in his prime. hierro (who could sometimes lose his mind) imo was the most reliable defender he had (manolo sanchis was pretty much done)...no matter how well you think you're organizing, with some of the lads iker has had to cope with, its either superman saves or concede goals....i'd say he handled himself quite well ..just to set the record straight, me preferring prime iker to neuer does NOT automatically mean i think prime iker is the greatest goalie of all time, that would be incredible myopic

titosantill wrote:i've never been a fan of the "ball at his feet" argument with regards goalies. yes, it helps when a goalie knows how to clear and all, but what i look for most in a goalie isn't how good he is with his feet. it's like lauding the dribbling of a defensive midfielder, when that's not his primary requirement....its a good add on, nothing more....@ least in my opinion (btw i'm more impressed with neuer's shot stopping skills than him rushing out to dribble a striker or make random clearances)

Goalies are expected to do more now. Especially with how intense teams press nowadays. Of course, it isn't the most important factor, but it is an advantage.

Either way, let's us take out passing from the equation. Neuer still has another dimension to his game that Casillas never had. I don't know how that is even arguable. Casillas relied a lot on his physical qualities and the moment they started declining he couldn't adjust. I can't see Neuer rapidly declining the way Casillas did. He's smarter and simply has more to his game than Casillas ever did.

titosantill wrote:whilst you have a point, you can hardly play it safe with the defense that iker had to contend with in his prime. hierro (who could sometimes lose his mind) imo was the most reliable defender he had (manolo sanchis was pretty much done)...no matter how well you think you're organizing, with some of the lads iker has had to cope with, its either superman saves or concede goals....i'd say he handled himself quite well ..just to set the record straight, me preferring prime iker to neuer does NOT automatically mean i think prime iker is the greatest goalie of all time, that would be incredible myopic

He handled himself more than well, he was great. I'm just pointing out what I see in other keepers over him. His sharp decline shows it.

Neuer is too bold. His mistakes come from being overconfident when leaving his line for the most part. Otherwise the rest of his game is absolutely top notch.

Let's put it another way: if tomorrow I play a CL final I would rather have prime iker in goal than neuer

Neuer is better with the ball but he's not as good in terms of reflex saves.  Casillas is incredible in terms of his reflexes and isn't good with the ball.

Both are great yet incomplete imo.

The best ever?  Yashin, Kahn and Zoff were my favorites, although i only saw tape of Yashin.  Buffon is on par with Casillas and Neuer in the next category.... along with Sep Maier, Van Der Sar, etc.

Just a lot of great keepers over history.

peter schmeichel more than deserves a mention too. whilst names like pagluica, taffarel, toldo, canizares may not be stellar household names nor in a top 5 list, i thought they were pretty good goalies...just maybe a shorter prime or not fancy enough

Casillas was amazing but he was short to be a perfect keeper. So i take Neuer