Neville Southall and other goalkeepers

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Firstly to set my stall out, I went to my first game when we were title holders and have been lucky enough to see Neville Southall at his world class best. The best goalkeeper in the world and in my opinion, the best goalkeeper there has ever been.

Now as a result, do you think we judge subsequent goalies unfairly as we hold them up to a standard they can never reach, or should we expect them to reach those standards?

Since the great man we’ve only had a couple, literally, who could even lace his boots in Nigel Martyn and Tim Howard. I have left out the current custodian of the #1 shirt purposefully.

I am actually behind Jordan Pickford, he’s a decent young goalie.

My question is, do we hold goalkeepers up to an impossible standard or should we expect them to reach that level?
George wood was good in thought - but not as good as Southall p
 
Southall is arguably the only player we've had in the last 50 years that would make a world XI in their time. That kinda suggests we should be very glad we got to enjoy him rather than expect other keepers to match up to him.
I think Rooney would have done as well ,and then Eto'o ,Gascoigne and Ginola would be good shouts,yes I know i'll get my coat.
 
Firstly to set my stall out, I went to my first game when we were title holders and have been lucky enough to see Neville Southall at his world class best. The best goalkeeper in the world and in my opinion, the best goalkeeper there has ever been.

Now as a result, do you think we judge subsequent goalies unfairly as we hold them up to a standard they can never reach, or should we expect them to reach those standards?

Since the great man we’ve only had a couple, literally, who could even lace his boots in Nigel Martyn and Tim Howard. I have left out the current custodian of the #1 shirt purposefully.

I am actually behind Jordan Pickford, he’s a decent young goalie.

My question is, do we hold goalkeepers up to an impossible standard or should we expect them to reach that level?
If we do, then we have to judge every goal scorer against Dixie, every midfielder against Bally and would simply mean every player we have had before or since was garbage and therefore we would then have to question our intelligence / sanity in following such a rubbish collection of players!
what I do think is fair and reasonable is to hold up the likes of Nev, Bally Dixie, against other clubs best players in those positions (they invariably Fall short, so we get a welcome buzz!)
 

....I don’t think Southall sets the benchmark for Everton keepers because he was simply unbelievable. We’ve had some very decent keepers since, like Martin and Howard (who was terrific for us even if his form dipped in his last seasons).

Pickford isn’t compared to Southall, he’s judged on his own performance. I think he’s ordinary.
 
Pickford isn’t compared to Southall, he’s judged on his own performance. I think he’s ordinary.
This. I compare Pickford in his prime to the likes of an ageing Martyn, Howard in his prime and Joel and sadly he doesn't really stand out from the crowd.

The reasons why I've mentioned numerous times in his own thread, so I won't go over those again.
 
Joel never fully convinced me, at times I thought he’d dive too late and he had a good settled back 4 in front of him unlike Pickford, he’d be alright as back up right now though. I like Pickford he just needs to sort out his basics

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. Joel was okay, nothing more, nothing less. But useful to have around for the money. You're right on Pickford, but that's what concerns me. The basics. Its that sense the ingredients are there, but the just need to consistently click.
 
This. I compare Pickford in his prime to the likes of an ageing Martyn, Howard in his prime and Joel and sadly he doesn't really stand out from the crowd.

The reasons why I've mentioned numerous times in his own thread, so I won't go over those again.

I'd say currently Pickford is miles below Martyn and not as consistent as Howard (who was a great buy for what we paid)

I'd have hoped Pickford would have kicked on from the keeper at Sunderland who had loads of potential. Unfortunately there isn't one area of his game that I think he's improved in 3 seasons.
 

I think it’s telling that you call Pickford a ‘young goalkeeper’. He isn’t really. He’s very much average age in terms of the keepers across the league, and has got loads of experience now. I think we have a habit sometimes of forgetting that players age. If someone’s young when they come into the side we act like they’re a kid for the next 5 years.

If you compare most keepers to southall they’ll fall short. Unfortunately I think Pickford falls short when compared to a lot of other keepers too.
 
I think it’s telling that you call Pickford a ‘young goalkeeper’. He isn’t really. He’s very much average age in terms of the keepers across the league, and has got loads of experience now. I think we have a habit sometimes of forgetting that players age. If someone’s young when they come into the side we act like they’re a kid for the next 5 years.

If you compare most keepers to southall they’ll fall short. Unfortunately I think Pickford falls short when compared to a lot of other keepers too.

Unfortunately I think your last paragraph is spot on.
 
I don't think he has the understanding that he isn't as good as he believes himself to be and needs to improve. Instead, he's shown to be antagonistic to criticism.

Blinkered would be the best way to describe it.
you'd think the coach would be pulling him aside though wouldn't you. Can't remember who the coach is but sure it's the same coach he had at Preston when he was on loan there (Alan Kelly or something)

For his age, he's basically wasted 2 of the last 3 years of his development because he hasn't improved one part of his game. Or maybe this is just as good as it gets for him.
 

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