A few weeks ago, Liverpool legend Bruce Grobbelaar delivered a withering verdict on Simon Mignolet's debut season at Anfield, and although his criticism seemed harsh, the former Reds number one arguably got it spot on with his assessment. Mignolet had a decent first year at Anfield, but overall, he's not (yet) an improvement on Pepe Reina, and the Belgian stopper admits that he needs to improve.
Speaking to TalkSport, Grobbelaar offered the following four reasons why £9m Mignolet is 'not the best all-round keeper':
* He doesn't 'play out from the back' effectively
* He's 'not commanding enough' in the penalty box.
* Positioning at free kicks is 'not right'.
* He concedes too many goals.
Granted, Liverpool's defensive frailty is partly to blame here (though Johnson, Agger, and Skrtel featured heavily during Pepe Reina's last season, too), but the Reds have conceded more goals than any other team in the top four, and Mignolet has to take his share of responsibility for that.
When asked today about his performances for Liverpool this season, Mignolet told FIFA.com:
"I’m satisfied with my first season, but I’m well aware that I can still improve a lot. I’m only 26 and that’s still young for a goalkeeper. It was the first time in my career that I’ve played for such a big club”
In April, Brendan Rodgers admitted that Mignolet needs to improve, but he also hailed the Belgian as an 'outstanding' goalkeeper, and argued that he 'hasn't ever cost LFC a game'. He added:
“I’ve been delighted with Simon. His form has been very good; he has consistently made really crucial saves, [and] he has certainly gained us points"
I disagree with Rodgers' disingenuous contention that Mignolet 'hasn't ever cost LFC a game':
Dec 26: Man City 2-1 LFC: Mistake after Negredo's shot led to City's winning goal. Mignolet should've saved the shot, but basically palmed the ball into his own net.
Jan 18: LFC vs. Aston Villa: Totally missed Agbonlahor's cross, which allowed Benteke to double Villa's lead.
Dec 29: Chelsea 2-1 LFC: Failed to keep out Eto'o's weak, bobbling shot, and once again appeared to palm the ball into his own net.
That's three games right there that Mignolet has 'cost' Liverpool, and if Liverpool had managed to get draws against City and Chelsea over the Christmas period, the the Premier League title would be in the Anfield trophy cabinet right now.
On a related note, like Pepe Reina, Mignolet seems set to be the perennial second choice for his national team. Iker Casillas has kept Reina on the international sidelines for years, and with Thibaut Courtois seemingly Belgium's first choice, Mignolet may suffer the same fate.
When will LFC sign a goalkeeper who is indisputably the best?
Author: Jaimie K
Speaking to TalkSport, Grobbelaar offered the following four reasons why £9m Mignolet is 'not the best all-round keeper':
* He doesn't 'play out from the back' effectively
* He's 'not commanding enough' in the penalty box.
* Positioning at free kicks is 'not right'.
* He concedes too many goals.
Granted, Liverpool's defensive frailty is partly to blame here (though Johnson, Agger, and Skrtel featured heavily during Pepe Reina's last season, too), but the Reds have conceded more goals than any other team in the top four, and Mignolet has to take his share of responsibility for that.
When asked today about his performances for Liverpool this season, Mignolet told FIFA.com:
"I’m satisfied with my first season, but I’m well aware that I can still improve a lot. I’m only 26 and that’s still young for a goalkeeper. It was the first time in my career that I’ve played for such a big club”
In April, Brendan Rodgers admitted that Mignolet needs to improve, but he also hailed the Belgian as an 'outstanding' goalkeeper, and argued that he 'hasn't ever cost LFC a game'. He added:
“I’ve been delighted with Simon. His form has been very good; he has consistently made really crucial saves, [and] he has certainly gained us points"
I disagree with Rodgers' disingenuous contention that Mignolet 'hasn't ever cost LFC a game':
Dec 26: Man City 2-1 LFC: Mistake after Negredo's shot led to City's winning goal. Mignolet should've saved the shot, but basically palmed the ball into his own net.
Jan 18: LFC vs. Aston Villa: Totally missed Agbonlahor's cross, which allowed Benteke to double Villa's lead.
Dec 29: Chelsea 2-1 LFC: Failed to keep out Eto'o's weak, bobbling shot, and once again appeared to palm the ball into his own net.
That's three games right there that Mignolet has 'cost' Liverpool, and if Liverpool had managed to get draws against City and Chelsea over the Christmas period, the the Premier League title would be in the Anfield trophy cabinet right now.
On a related note, like Pepe Reina, Mignolet seems set to be the perennial second choice for his national team. Iker Casillas has kept Reina on the international sidelines for years, and with Thibaut Courtois seemingly Belgium's first choice, Mignolet may suffer the same fate.
When will LFC sign a goalkeeper who is indisputably the best?
Author: Jaimie K
Like ALL keepers at this level, he's an excellent shot stopper, BUT .. He's SUPERGLUED to his line, he cannot kick the ball and worst of all, he's actually ADDED to our achilles heel, he's absolutely HOPELESS on crosses .. GET RID, buy a keeper who COMMANDS his area Lloris is a good example ..
ReplyDeleteReina is the best keeper I can remember see play for Liverpool. Definitely live. Only 31 like. But I can't say that I believe (having seen his form previous to his move) that would would not have cost us as many or more points as Mignolet but not saved us as many. It's all speculation like.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch Italian football as it tends to be boring but I have heard he did ok for Napoli. What does the future hold? We will have to see. I personally would like those two competing for a place.
You can play the what if scenarios till you go crazy.
ReplyDeleteHow about this. What if Mignolet had not saved the Stoke penalty at Anfield in the season opener?
Would the team have gone on to win the next two?
Would the team confidence have been as high in that early part of the season? Would it then have snowballed as it then did?
S Mignolet(25) is a great shot stopper, but apart from that he is quite poor at his ball kicking, his distribution, when corners come in, when set pieces are taken.
ReplyDeleteI think A Mccarthy(24) Of Reading or M Vorm(30) Of Swansea should be brought to the club this summer for £3-£5M
A Mccarthy(24) will be competing with J Hart(27) for the number 1 National Jersey in year or two. So B Rodgers should bring in A Mccarthy(24) and give him a chance to shine. If he is good enough age shouldn't be a problem and he is good enough
If he jumps and his hands reach to Walters knees, does he really jump? He didn't really impress me, to me Reina is still the best ahead Mignolet.
ReplyDeleteI think we've been extremely spoilt with Pepe. The view is always then why can Mig not distribute the way Pepe could. Fact is that I don't think there is a keeper in the world as good as Pepe at that.
ReplyDeleteMig needs to be more dominant in the area, he needs to improve his decision making, but for a young keeper, he's got every chance.
Fact is even Casillas, perhaps the finest keeper of his generation is going make errors, see the CL final last week.
He's under far more scrutiny at Anfield than at Sunderland and the same would go for any other keeper in his position.
Seems to me he has to make at least one full stretch diving stop in every game we play and tends to keep it out. That part he is very good at, other areas he needs to toughen up had.
He's hardly a liability though.
YNWA
Where does he say he's never cost us a game?! - he's certainly won us more points than he's lost in any case. the stats are there to prove it. In fact he's saved us more points in the last season than Reina did in his last two seasons combined.
ReplyDelete"“Simon hasn’t ever cost us a game but he has certainly gained us points.”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-brendan-rodgers-believes-7050741
Yes to all those questions.
ReplyDeleteHe is a great shot stopper, but apart from that he is not great at the other things.
ReplyDeleteM Vorm(30) is a good distributor of ball and descent kicker, so i think its nailed on B Rodgers brings him to club this summer
i'd say no...
ReplyDeleteLiverpool had setbacks throughout the season, and every single time, the team bounced back immediately. Is the team so weak-minded that if Mignolet conceded the goal, the players (and Rodgers) would've packed it all in and given up for the rest of the season? I personally don't think so.
ReplyDelete"An absolute bargain - plays deep making it difficult for defenders to
ReplyDeleteman-mark, great ball control, the best passer of the ball in the entire
Saints squad, links well with overlapping players, not forgetting his
free kicks and penalties! I'm sad to see him go but this was the only
scenario in which he would've left the Saints. Thanks Rickie for 5 great
years"
From a Soto fan on another site. He may not be a dream transfer but I am confident that he could do a good job for us.
Oops wrong story.
ReplyDeletePlease get Reina back. I beg you
ReplyDeleteThis is outrageous but if Hugo lloris goes to Psg, would Sirigu want to sit on the bench. He is a world Class keeper with Champions league experience . An upgrade to Mignolet?
ReplyDeleteBR is just trying to defend his player as well as give him some confidence. I'm sure BR is aware of the following mistakes:
ReplyDeleteGiaccherini - spill
Benteke - flap
Eto'o - good hand to it, should saved it
Negredo - howler
G Johnson og vs. City - should've reacted quicker IMO
Walters - tamely went under him
Quite a few of those put us in trouble too. Clearly, BR isn't the type to criticise his players in public (a la Hodgson vs G. Johnson!), but I'm sure he knows that he has maybe cost us more that saved us..
without his save in the opening match of the season i can guarantee that it would have been an other season of mediocrity, it give a HUGE lift to the team and we built our season from that.
ReplyDeleteReina "no save" (not my nickname but it was a common nickname used that seem to have been forgotten) was clearly top class between 2009 to 2013.
ReplyDeleteI(37) am curious about something: do you, Twistadee(??), happen to know the age of every player in existence, or do you utilize the services of Google(15), Bing(5), or Ask(17) multiple times whilst constructing a post? ;)
ReplyDeleteOne penalty save does not cover up the fact he has holes in his game. I cheered like everyone else when he stopped it, but unless he improves a lot, I wouldnt object to him being replaced. Grobs definitely has a point.
ReplyDeleteHow exactly can you guarantee that?
ReplyDeletelast season...
ReplyDeletewe had a poor start and the season was poor, we even had some good january window while we were still in to get top 4 so we had the same team that we've had this season.
Unless Reina is moved on then I do not see us adding another goalkeeper to the wage bill and he will also not be allowed to sit on our bench at 100k+ a week. Reina's agent must be working overtime.
ReplyDeleteMignolet has this coming season to prove that he either is or isn't our future no 1. Hopefully we will have an adept leader in our back four otherwise our defence will continue to leak goals no matter who we put in goal.
Seeing as he still has about 12 years playing time at the top level left in him, I would think that he would be considered young
ReplyDeleteI won't comment on the bulk of your comment (I'm having some conflicted feelings about him right now) but 26 is still quite young for a GK. GKs usually reach prime at 30-32
ReplyDeleteyep Definenitly not the type to get out a miss the ball, or the type who can't distribute with his feet....
ReplyDeleteLloris is worse than mignolet in the area you say he need to improve, just look at spurs games...
Didn't know that the opening day of the season defines a club's entire season. Good to know though!
ReplyDeleteto JK via Twistadee (at whom my deleted post was directed):
ReplyDeleteSeriously? I assumed the winky face made it obvious I was participating in a bit of lighthearted razzing.
A morale boost yes, but don't forget that this is a side that, after the introduction of Coutinho and Sturridge in Jan, showed top 4 form for the rest of the season...
ReplyDeleteYeah we had a few setbacks, but every time we had one we were still in a good position! I personally think mignolets penalty safe was the starting signal for us, it gave us a lot of confidence, a good feeling! We had the best start in the PL for a very long time, and this was certainly the start of the momentum we had through the entire season... Your team needs to get a lot of confidence in the first games of the season so IMO it's been essential.
ReplyDeleteEvethough I agree with you mignolet made a couple of misstakes I think he has been suberb during the first half of the season, shame most fans only care for the last few games and judge every player on these (same as Allen last year, who played amazing before injuries hit him)
I think migs has great potential and he made some top saves but he's far from the finished article. I like the idea of vorm providing some stiff competition. I think a constant lack of competition ultimately played a big part in pepe's drop in form
ReplyDeleteWe should have got Begovic and imo Mignolet is definitely no better then Reina at anything
ReplyDeleteLate, match winning saves against Stoke n Villa, man of the match away to Everton, with a litany of top saves in that game.
ReplyDeleteThe back to back 3-0 wins away to Southampton n United were very similar games, tight first halves where we edged it, got the lead, then dominated the second halves. What they also have in common is Mignolet making massive saves before half time (lest we forget it's not just saves at the end of games that count) to preserve our lead, laying the foundation for the second half assault. In fact the game against Palace followed that same pattern until our defence went AWOL.
Even the win away to Norwich. He made a mistake earlier in the game, but with the game poised at 3-2, and Norwich coming at us, he made another massive match winning save.
Fact is he's won us far more points then he's cost us
At the start of the season after 3 1-0 wins I was expecting to see a defensively solid team who could nick a goal. How wrong was I
ReplyDeleteYou expect a goalkeeper to make some saves It's what they are there for. Unfortunately they also have to distribute the ball and command their area and he does neither well enough for me
ReplyDeleteCan't see Migno ever being better than Courtois - wish we had him !
ReplyDeleteIn CL we have to hit the ground running and need a keeper who is the finished article . I agree Migno is a good shot stopper and most keepers get lucky and save pens now and again BUT imho he has had a whole season to develop the other skills that Grobber has mentioned . Thought it might be a confidence thing but jury's still out . Will see when he get's a better defence in front of him ......
Disagree on the City match. The refs cost us that match. Palming a ball that no other keeper could even have touched doesn't mean he screwed up. Just means it was a well placed shot.
ReplyDeleteTaking a larger view. If anyone thinks we end a season with 84 points with Reina guarding the net, I would dike to know what you are smoking. He left Anfield fat, slow and arrogant. No way we finish second with him here. Count your blessings and move on.
ReplyDeleteExcept he cost AM the CL.
ReplyDeleteA-Ha! I knew it! The BBC has a link to the Independent article that CR's clown act PK celebration WAS actually a staged event for an upcoming CR: The Movie. What CRAP! If true, I just lost a whole bundle of respect for him.
ReplyDeleteNo way.
ReplyDeleteI like Mignolet. Yes his kicks suck and yes needs to be more commanding in traffic. He is young And seems to NOT be a cancer in the clubhouse like. I feel Reina became....
ReplyDeleteWe should get American Samoa's goal keeper then.
ReplyDeleteBeing in a good position while you have a setback can also mean more pressure, and more risk of crumbling.
ReplyDeleteHow many clean sheets did Reina have each season?
ReplyDeleteHe won 3 Golden Gloves!! A joint record!! Came 2nd when he didn't win Golden Glove..
Remember him saving at least 5 pens!
Got assists!!
Brilliant distribution.
Controlled his area.
Negatives, lost his Mojo when Alonso, Mascherano n ultimately Torres left... As well as Kuyt, Luis Garcia, watching Gerrard age.. No one decent coming in... Christ.. Konchelsky, Poulsen, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll, Jose Enrique, .... I don't blame Reina.. It must have been demoralising!!
INSTEAD OF PURCHASING VORM BRING BACK REINA WITH ONLY THE SALARY TO PAY.KEEP HIM FOR ONE YEAR AND SEE .
ReplyDeleteLiverpool's bid for Lallana has been increased to £25m. They now want the deal done quickly or will move on to other targets. Tony Barrett
ReplyDeleteBest to move on right now as the headline would have read "Southampton accept £25m bid from LFC". For this money we can look elsewhere.
At least the story of Southampton and LFC teaming up to screw over Bournemouth has been thrown in the bin.
Ptr Czec is for sale. You want a solid proven keeper? Well here's one.
ReplyDeleteMoreno to LFC and Alberto to Sevilla on loan as a makeweight
ReplyDeleteSaved a penalty in the first game and saved from Benteke from point blank range in game two. Definitely needs better command of the box but I think he's a very strong shot stopper. Maybe some competition would help but I like Mignolet going forward.
ReplyDeleteBut, you can't deny the fact that this term it was the whole team that made a charge for the title and not just two of them.
ReplyDeleteWas that supposed to be funny?
ReplyDeleteNot perfect.....yet. Most of our players are bought young with the idea of improving them and I think he'll get so much better. Reina peeked during the season we finished second and has been poor ever since. Yeah he had a great season in Rafa's penultimate season but he's been terrible since, in that he hardly makes any saves as the stats show. Reina was strong in all areas apart from shot stopping! Mignolet turns that on its head by being a fantastic (and I dont use that word lightly) shot stopper. He'll just need a couple of years to get the other aspects of his game right as will players like Coutinho, Sterling, Henderson, Flanno and co.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.squawka.com/news/reina-vs-mignolet-why-the-stats-prove-liverpools-gamble-has-paid-off/35938
well said boss
ReplyDeleteIn Rodgers first season Skrtel did not know North from South but was much better last season. He had to adapt to the style of play. Still does not make me a fan of his though.
ReplyDeleteMignolet had to adjust to a different style under Rodgers too from Sunderland. I see no reason why he will not improve the other aspects of his game.
Just an indication of how much Mignolet already had to shake up his passing. In the 2012/2013 season at Sunderland before his move to Anfield his pass completion rate was only 42.2%. That changed to 67% this past season which is a massive improvement. Based on this alone there should be no reason why he will not improve on even further in his second season..
Where's Rodgers age? I demand to see Rodgers age in brackets next to his name!
ReplyDeleteEvery aspect of Reina's game was weak in his first season, including his now famed distribution. Mignolet has been better in his first season then Reina was in his in just about every way. That alone is reason enough for me to stick with him n believe he'll improve
ReplyDeleteI cant really think of a keeper who we could get, who would be better, for me it would be nice to see us keep reina and have genuine competition, perhaps they could help make each other better because of that.
ReplyDeletemakes you think though, why haven't they tried to sign him? I too don't watch Italian football, so don't have any clue how well he's done.
ReplyDeleteRemember Benitez's last season we got stuffed first game against Spurs and then i think we lost the third game and we just never recovered at all in the season, I do believe that penalty save really gave us confidence early on and helped us get off to a flying start, which obviously gives the players confidence and we grew and grew, just imagine how deflated the club would have been if we drew opening game of season against stoke due to a last min pen.
ReplyDeletelaughable team selections. LOL ... good sense of humour though.
ReplyDeletekop mayur you're very funny. LOL
ReplyDeleteJust for you B Rodgers(41)
ReplyDeleteCheers mate. I feel as though I can go on with my day now :) Agree with the Vorm shout btw.
ReplyDeletewe should just get Reina back for next season and have to keepers like madrid.
ReplyDeleteOf course it was. Letting in 31 goals against the mighty Australia in one match is very respectable ;)
ReplyDeleteMingnolet worries me, specially with the ball at his feet. Bruce is right, timid when he should be dominant, positioning a bit dodgy. The guy is a pro goalie, so he should be better, he does have his moments though, good one minute, equally as bad the next, top club needs a more consistant keeper. I would keep him, but still get in a top keeper to compete to be number 1.
ReplyDeleteGood shout, he'd be perfect for the next few years.
ReplyDelete:D :P
ReplyDeletePtr Cech is for sale
ReplyDeleteIt does. He has big wages though and perhaps they feel that that is a problem. I feel for him in some ways as I believe part of it is the goal keeping coach but it is hard to have much sympathy as he was courting Barca so much.
ReplyDeleteYou want a first choice, world class goalkeeper for club and country who can handle crosses as well as being a penalty killer? Fernando Muslera of Galatasaray and Uruguay is the answer. If we want to take that step up from Mignolet, he's the only one I can think of that we have a chance of signing. Also, it may help Suarez to have another Uruguayan at the club.
ReplyDeleteSign him up :)
ReplyDeleteNeeds replacing .. a big transfer window blunder
ReplyDelete