The official Liverpool FC website recently ran a poll asking fans to vote on the club's greatest ever goalkeeper. Given the fact many modern fans are seemingly incapable of considering things objectively, or within the proper historical context, it came as no surprise that Pepe Reina was voted in at no 1, ahead of the likes of Ray Clemence and Bruce Grobbelaar, who won 11 league titles and 4 European Cups between them. Is that a fair result though?
In this new series of comparisons, I will look at objective critera in a bid to definitively establish who is, as a matter of objective fact, Liverpool's greatest ever goalkeeper.
When assessing the impact of a player, it's important to look at Specific, Measurable Impact (SMI), and that means removing the emotion and personal bias from the analysis, and looking only at objective criteria. That is the only way to be fair.
A goalkeeper's primary purpose is to prevent goals from being scored, so the principle stats to look at when measuring SMI are clean sheets and goals conceded, and these are the criteria I have used in the following comparison.
NOTES
* During this series, I'll be comparing current goalkeeper Pepe Reina to the likes of Ray Clemence, David James, Sam Hardy, Tommy Lawrence, Bruce Grobbelaar, Jerzy Dudek and Bruce Grobbelaar.
* Since Reina has only had 6 full seasons at Anfield so far, I'll be limiting the comparison to 6 years for each keeper.
* If the stats for 'shots saved' were available then I would've included them, but these stats don't exist prior to 2000.
PEPE REINA vs. BRUCE GROBBELAAR: First 6 seasons comparison
KEY POINTS
* Grobbelaar achieved more clean sheets, though he did play 14% more games due to the higher number of league games per season during his tenure (42 vs. 38 for Reina)
* As a percentage of total games, Reina kept more clean sheets (48% of games) than Grobbelaar (46% of games)
* On average, Grobbelaar achieved more clean sheets per season than Reina.
* Grobbelaar conceded more goals over all, but he played more games, so that's inevitable.
* Overall, Grobbelaar fewer goals per game in his first 6 seasons than Reina.
* Reina went 11 games without conceding a goal in the 2005-6 season; the longest Grobbelaar went without conceding in his first 6 seasons is 6 games.
* Despite playing less games, Reina conceded 3 or more goals in a game more often than Grobbelaar.
Based on their first 6 seasons, I don't think it's fair to argue that Reina is a better keeper than Grobbelaar. Objectively, the results are fairly even, but Grobbelaar shades it for me because:
* He helped Liverpool win lots of trophies. A team can't win league titles without a top goalkeeper.
* He proved his worth in more high-stakes match environments (European Cups; League championships etc)
* He played 52 more games than Reina but conceded only 21 more goals overall.
Jaimie Kanwar
In this new series of comparisons, I will look at objective critera in a bid to definitively establish who is, as a matter of objective fact, Liverpool's greatest ever goalkeeper.
When assessing the impact of a player, it's important to look at Specific, Measurable Impact (SMI), and that means removing the emotion and personal bias from the analysis, and looking only at objective criteria. That is the only way to be fair.
A goalkeeper's primary purpose is to prevent goals from being scored, so the principle stats to look at when measuring SMI are clean sheets and goals conceded, and these are the criteria I have used in the following comparison.
NOTES
* During this series, I'll be comparing current goalkeeper Pepe Reina to the likes of Ray Clemence, David James, Sam Hardy, Tommy Lawrence, Bruce Grobbelaar, Jerzy Dudek and Bruce Grobbelaar.
* Since Reina has only had 6 full seasons at Anfield so far, I'll be limiting the comparison to 6 years for each keeper.
* If the stats for 'shots saved' were available then I would've included them, but these stats don't exist prior to 2000.
PEPE REINA vs. BRUCE GROBBELAAR: First 6 seasons comparison
KEY POINTS
* Grobbelaar achieved more clean sheets, though he did play 14% more games due to the higher number of league games per season during his tenure (42 vs. 38 for Reina)
* As a percentage of total games, Reina kept more clean sheets (48% of games) than Grobbelaar (46% of games)
* On average, Grobbelaar achieved more clean sheets per season than Reina.
* Grobbelaar conceded more goals over all, but he played more games, so that's inevitable.
* Overall, Grobbelaar fewer goals per game in his first 6 seasons than Reina.
* Reina went 11 games without conceding a goal in the 2005-6 season; the longest Grobbelaar went without conceding in his first 6 seasons is 6 games.
* Despite playing less games, Reina conceded 3 or more goals in a game more often than Grobbelaar.
Based on their first 6 seasons, I don't think it's fair to argue that Reina is a better keeper than Grobbelaar. Objectively, the results are fairly even, but Grobbelaar shades it for me because:
* He helped Liverpool win lots of trophies. A team can't win league titles without a top goalkeeper.
* He proved his worth in more high-stakes match environments (European Cups; League championships etc)
* He played 52 more games than Reina but conceded only 21 more goals overall.
Jaimie Kanwar
In the words of Phil Thompson, put your medals on the table.
ReplyDeleteLies, damn lies and statistics. Yet another pathetic excuse to critisize a Benitez signing. You conveniently forget to mention Grobbelaar played with great players in an era Liverpool dominated. Reina has never had that luxury.
ReplyDeletealright jamie. just letting you know you mention Grobbelaar twice in this section * During this series, I'll be comparing current goalkeeper Pepe Reina to the likes of Ray Clemence, David James, Sam Hardy, Tommy Lawrence, Bruce Grobbelaar, Jerzy Dudek and Bruce Grobbelaar.
ReplyDeletewell said monty reina is a superb keeper without the dominant team of the century in front of him YNWA
ReplyDelete