Would I like a top class keeper? Yes, it would have been great to have Shay Given back at the club but not necessary and probably a waste of money on transfer fees and wages that could be applied elsewhere.
Let me ask you a question, who is a better goalkeeper, Fraser Forster, Rab Douglas or Artur Boruc?
I don’t think I would get many people disagreeing with me if I threw my lot in with the Holy Goalie, who is the only one of the three that could have been considered world class at a time.
So let us look at their best seasons with Celtic. Boruc’s best season came in 2007-08 were he was only beaten 26 times in the league and amassed 17 clean sheets. Forster, in his one and only season in the Hoops was beaten 22 times and had 21 clean sheets.
Douglas’ 2001-02 season bettered both these by only conceding a meager 18 goals and had an astounding 28 clean sheets. If we go by the statistics, Boruc is the worse of the three. So why is it that Douglas and Forster posted better numbers?
The answer is simple, both keepers had dominant centre midfielders playing in front of them. With the likes of Neil Lennon, Paul Lambert, Stan Petrov, Ki Sung-Yeung, Biram Kayal and Joe Ledley playing, their respective keepers were being protected before the ball even got in our half.
Last season we controlled over 60% possession each league game, with hard work from the midfield breaking up play and retaining the ball through neat passing.
This starved the opposition, giving them less chances to create and our keeper less work to do. The midfield is stronger this year and with signing Kelvin Wilson, we have also strengthened our defence.
Therefore I do not see the need for an outstanding goalkeeper. As long as the keeper is a competent shot stopper, we will not concede more than 30 goals this season. The difference between Given and Zaluska is about 5 goals and 3 points.
Zaluska made a couple of outstanding saves yesterday, but he still spilled the ball once and got away with a flap at a cross that we were fortunate no one was at the back post. I see a couple of goals coming from keeper mistakes, but I don’t think it will hurt us too bad.
Are there better keepers than Zaluska? Yes. Would I like a better keeper between the sticks? Yes. Do I think us not signing an experienced keeper will cost us the league? Absolutely not.
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yeah but could we rely on zaluska for the whole season
With the Strong Offensive Midfield we Saw yesterday and the Highly Elaborated Passing…i think that even with an Average Defence, we Could Rely on Zaluska because even if he concedes 1 or 2 goals, we’d still be leading by 2 or 3 goals..and Zaluska has Shown Great Aptitude and he’ll only get better, so yes, we Can Rely on Zaluska…for the SPL and Domestic Leagues at least
Rangers won the league last season because they had a class goalie something they always are able to produce.
The penalty save plus the big save from our centre half was outstanding. Goram won the league for them. Goalies a huge difference.
They give the defence confidence if they are good and confident
Rangers’ ‘classy’ keeper was badly at fault in the new year defeat from Celtic and hardly covered himself in glory in the 3-0 defeat from Celtic in February- never looked too cleaver in midweek for Scotland either.
A Boruc type in goal would be great but the article highlights that a good defence and strong midfield means that domestically at least a great keeper doesn’t make that much difference.
Europe and the Champions League is clearly different, Boruc v Douglas doesn’t really need much explaining although big Rab had a few moments in Europe such as Valencia and Liverpool away.
larrys right. rather have a good goalie than a Zaluska. Zaluska is on a par with Mark Brown. Average
It is well known that 80% of statistics are a waste of time!
We need to keep striving to improve every position across the park. Zaluska is able shot stopper but not the dominant keeper we need
hmmm yeah but we gotta look beyond domestic trophy’s or else how we gonna be great again
HAIL HAIL LETS BRING THE THUNDER BACK !!!!!!!!!!!!1111111
This is nonsense. There’s nothing worse for a team than not being 100% confident in their keeper.
We had a brilliant performance yeaterday. But it was on a nice, sunny saturday afternoon in August suited to our passing game. And the opposition was average SPL standard. Remember Aberdeen, but we still didn’t win the league.
Plus, we should always be trying to improve every position in the team, at every transfer window, not just when the boards penny-piching has caused a disaster and they need to panic buy to save their own arses.
couldn’t agree more, the great sign of a really good team is having the equivalent of your first team ready to step into every position know might sound pie in the sky but this is what we have to aspire to am fed up with ppl saying but we have to work within budgets and we can’t compete with big teams well we never will if we keep being narrow minded
HAIL HAIL THE THUNDER WILL ROAR AGAIN FOREVER MORE!!!!!!!!1111111111
Zaluska is as good as any keeper in the league. This isn’t about him. We all know what is going to count this season is whether or not the SPL, etc stand up to be counted. We were cheated last season, make no mistake about that. Bias was overflowing against us, even if we did throw away the chance at the end. Let’s not kid ourselves either. Had we scored our penalty against the huns with a few minutes left, there was still time for the ref to give them one too. Had we beaten Inverness, there was still time to down us. Don’t be disillusioned. The SPL made it clear last season that Lennon was not going to be celebrating. Now we wait to see if the lip service we have been getting is real or just lip service.
it’s not just about the league, it’s also about europe. Boruc was part of our terrible european away games record but last year Utrecht says it all about keepers. theres no shame in losing to teams in the champs league but Utrecht was embarrasing. 3 points could be the difference between winning & losing the title so why take a chance. the board don’t want to spend any money that’s the problem
I know it sounds crazy but why don’t we try Packie Bonner he played well other night , maybe just till next transfer window and we could see how Craig Gordon’s situation is
3 Pts would have won the league last season. The key difference is how much is that title worth and in terms of cl money it’s 10 million. We sold Artur for 2 million. Add that one up.
Zaluska isn’t the worst goalie about but it would be good to have another there as Lenny obviously doesnt think Zaluska or Cervi are up to the task or else he wouldn’t publicly be speaking about the need for another goalie