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Howard - one of the top 5 keepers in the world?
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Interesting article about the most influential US players of the last decade, which our Tim Howard tops.
Probably not too much competition to win that one, but a more interesting claim the article makes is that Howard is the only US player who would make the top 5 in the world in his position? Any thoughts?
Ben Patchesa, Posted 21/12/2009 at 19:42:41
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I rate Howard but am amazed at how many times he is beaten by direct free kicks.
Top 5 no, more like Top 25.
However, you only have to see last month's BBC Sport headline ’Capello sweats on James fitness for WC’ to see how poor the goalies out there really are at the moment.
But in my mind, Nigel Martin was the better GK. Second only to Cech (sp?), when Cech had no need for that foam padding on his noodle.
Now, who would be in goal if Moyes could have found the £700k to land Hart?
I am a believer of a ’keeper not really finding his feet until at least 25 years old, but we do like to buy young ’keepers in the hope we strike gold.
Simonsen, Ruddy, Stubhaug, Turner to name a few... In the case of the above clearly not gold, more like copper.
Cassilas, Buffon, Reina, Given, Julio Cesar maybe Van der Sar are certainly ahead. Cech isn’t the same since his horrible injury, Almunia is nothing special.
I think he is up there though, we have high expectations from our keepers with Big Nev and Big Nige two of the best I've ever seen.
As for Stubhaug I’ve never seen any kind of opinion of him but am I right in thinking he’s still only 18 or 19? We’re also trialling another teenage Scandinavian keeper at the moment apparently.
As for the discussion about Howard, I like him and he’s a good keeper, but he’s not the best American keeper in the Premier League, and a long, long way off top 5 in the world in his position.
He’s no Nigel Martyn.
Sure he was, Dermot... A 20-yarder wide open with no challenge being made into the lower corner. Martyn would have had it... sure.
The kid is fine. SAF would love to have him back, I bet. How was his reaction save to keep Chelsea at 3-3? How was his penalty save a couple of weeks back in added time against DeFoe?
I do agree with all though, Martyn was by far the best we had since big Nev although Mhyre before his injury was pretty decent.
As for Howard being top 5 in the world... don't think so; top 5 in the Prem? Possibly. The keepers in the division are pretty good but all are prone to mistakes with the exception of maybe Given and Reina who make very few.
I wonder if Fergie regrets selling him to us when his back -up keepers at Utd are pretty shit and they’re leaking goals with Van der Sar out... hmmmmmm!
Agreed that where Howard falls off sometimes is on positioning, and his distribution can be less than stellar, but both are improving. What’s most important is that he makes very few blunders... and never the same one twice.
And remember that he’s a relatively inexperienced keeper for 30 — still less than 250 appearances in top-level football (MLS doesn’t count), which is less than half of Given’s experience. Give Howard one more World Cup and another season in the Prem, and he will definitely deserve that top five world ranking.
But that wasn’t my question... I asked who in the Prem you would trade Howard for right now. All the guys you mentioned are way older than Howard. Given’s at his peak, Friedel and Schwarzer are coming to the end. Howard’s still improving. Would you trade him for any of them today?
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