Shay Given

kinaldo

I always thought he was easily top 5 in the world but that perhaps his poor distribution put Wenger, Fergie and Rafa off signing him.

I'm listening

Given is an outstanding Goalkeeper but he's not the best for keeping clean sheets.

M5

Def top 5. Has looked like a good keeper despite being behind a sh!te defense for 10 years. While you may say that that gives him more opportunity to shine it also gives him more chance to f up. I can honestly only remember a few cases in the last 5 years where an error by him cost a goal. Absolute consistency for 5/6 years. Not many can say that! Strange to see some ppl saying that its cause he's Irish that he is rated so highly, but hes regarded as one of the best by the brits, many Italians and Spanish too. The amount of times when he was a Newcastle we had someone trying to flog him from under our noses (like Trap) was unreal! He has also been in several PL team of the seasons.

eagle eye

magma69 wrote: »

How many times have you seen Ochoa play? You probably would never have heard of the guy were it not for Football Manager. Seriously like. He plays in the Mexican league ffs!

Thats very presumptious of you and you couldn't be more wrong. I have never played any football manager games for a start bar xperteleven which is not based on real players.
I watch soccer from all around the globe including the Conconcaf Champion's League and World Cup qualifiers and the Copa America when its on. I've seen a lot of Ochoa and my opinion is based on his performances. I've no doubt that he is one of the top 5 in the world.

I'd like an apology for your ridiculous accusations.

PHB

It's pretty typical for people to go on about Given's performance last night, but by in large he made saves that I'd expect him, VDS, Cech and Reina all to make it. He did well at shot stopping, but it wasn't a particular amazing performance, and looked better because City's defense allowed so many chances and United's attack was poor at finishing.

magma69

eagle eye wrote: »

Thats very presumptious of you and you couldn't be more wrong. I have never played any football manager games for a start bar xperteleven which is not based on real players.
I watch soccer from all around the globe including the Conconcaf Champion's League and World Cup qualifiers and the Copa America when its on. I've seen a lot of Ochoa and my opinion is based on his performances. I've no doubt that he is one of the top 5 in the world.

I'd like an apology for your ridiculous accusations.

If I am wrong I apologise. You can call me a cynical prick but I don't think you have seen enough of Ochoa to genuinely claim him to be top 5. I think you are picking him on reputation or something rather than seeing him play lots of times and judging for yourself.

Vurnon San Benito

There's not man better than Shay Given and I'm a Newcastle United fan.
He's an exceptional player and has the trates of an exceptional human being.
Loyal, grateful and more importantly, a class act.

Reina's not better IMO, Van der Sar's not better, Cech isn't better, Buffon is debatable, Casillas is also debatable although I'm sure some will disagree.

He's definitely one of the best in the world for me in not the, kept a dire Newcastle team in a game singlehandedly and doing well for City too.

Fratton Fred

Cool Running wrote: »

Im not looking forward to the day Shay hangs up his gloves for Ireland, We have had one of the best keepers in the world for over a decade, not a lot of countries are that lucky

Keiren Westwood's not too shabby either tbh.

Instant Karma

Given is definitely the best keeper in the Premiership, without doubt. It speaks volumes he is rated so high also by many within the sport.

fkt

The saves he makes, Reina makes them look routine. Acrobatics that look good don't make you a better goalkeeper. His organisation, awareness, kicking - They're all substandard.

As I've said before, please don't respond to this post like a spoilt child. If you disagree, just be reasonable about it.

fkt

Doocey wrote: »

He's definitely one of the best in the world for me in not the, kept a dire Newcastle team in a game singlehandedly and doing well for City too.

Scott Carson managed this too at Charlton for a season.

eagle eye

fkt wrote: »

The saves he makes, Reina makes them look routine. Acrobatics that look good don't make you a better goalkeeper. His organisation, awareness, kicking - They're all substandard.

As I've said before, please don't respond to this post like a spoilt child. If you disagree, just be reasonable about it.

I disagree. Reina is an excellent keeper but I'd compare Given to Casillas, maybe not just as good but they are both incredible shot stoppers. Reina is not as good a shot stopper as Given but he does beat him in other areas. There is not that much between them but I'd prefer Given to him, Van der Sar is another excellent keeper and probably better than Reina overall and Given but he is at the end of his career now. I don't know whats happend to Cech but he was better than the whole lot of them but seems to have take a big step backwards of late.
For me Tim Howard is the best keeper in the Premier League.

Bigdeadlydave

I always thought Friedal was a good hand.

Instant Karma

fkt wrote: »

The saves he makes, Reina makes them look routine. Acrobatics that look good don't make you a better goalkeeper. His organisation, awareness, kicking - They're all substandard.

As I've said before, please don't respond to this post like a spoilt child. If you disagree, just be reasonable about it.

I never saw given as a showman to be fair, he just gets the job done. As for his lack of organisation, I think that's one of the biggest myths about the man. I have heard from guys who sit behind the goals at COMS and they tell me he is constantly shouting instructions. You can even hear him on the televised matches directing players to the posts etc on corners and frees.

Mancini has also made him captain now that Toure is off the the African nations, does that really smack of a keeper who has no organisational skills? I doubt it in fairness.

Maybe some of the Newcastle fans can confirm what his organisation was like at St. James.

Zatman

Given is one of the top goalkeepers in England along with Friedal and Schwarzer. They dont have fancy names so dont get as much attention.

As for best in world it would be Casillas, Julio Cesar and Buffon still for me but Lloris looks god to overtake them in 2 or 3 years.

Most overrated are Cech, and Boruc

fkt

eagle eye wrote: »

I disagree. Reina is an excellent keeper but I'd compare Given to Casillas, maybe not just as good but they are both incredible shot stoppers. Reina is not as good a shot stopper as Given but he does beat him in other areas. There is not that much between them but I'd prefer Given to him, Van der Sar is another excellent keeper and probably better than Reina overall and Given but he is at the end of his career now. I don't know whats happend to Cech but he was better than the whole lot of them but seems to have take a big step backwards of late.
For me Tim Howard is the best keeper in the Premier League.

He looks like a better shotstopper because he pulls off what look like Hollywood saves but that are really everyday basics. Don't get me wrong, he's an excelent shotstopper but often his saves look better than they are.

By saying you'd rather him to Reina but Reina's other qualities are superior - if Given commanded his defence properly and distributed the ball efficently then he wouldn't see so much of the ball. Reina is so fast off his line that alot of the time there isn't a save to make. This goes unnoticed by many.

As for Cech, he's been absolutely awful since the head injury.

Instant Karma

fkt wrote: »

He looks like a better shotstopper because he pulls off what look like Hollywood saves but that are really everyday basics. Don't get me wrong, he's an excelent shotstopper but often his saves look better than they are.

Sure a save is a save.

fkt

Instant Karma wrote: »

I never saw given as a showman to be fair, he just gets the job done. As for his lack of organisation, I think that's one of the biggest myths about the man. I have heard from guys who sit behind the goals at COMS and they tell me he is constantly shouting instructions. You can even hear him on the televised matches directing players to the posts etc on corners and frees.

Mancini has also made him captain now that Toure is off the the African nations, does that really smack of a keeper who has no organisational skills? I doubt it in fairness.

Maybe some of the Newcastle fans can confirm what his organisation was like at St. James.

Every keeper shouts instructions - How effective is it though? Is he telling his full backs they're too deep when a centre back is unavailable to do so? Is he continually giving his back four confidence inspiring re-assurance? His communication doesn't seem all that effective to me and I can take that back to his Toon games and his last game for instance against Liverpool - one defender was up against Gerrard for the fourth goal. It's up to the keeper to get them in a straight line if the centre back is occupied with on the ball action. He has very few clean sheets this season too.

Seriously, I have no problem with the lad and nobody hopes he can keep a clean sheet next week against Man Utd more than me.

I just don't see him in the top bracket of GK's.

fkt

Instant Karma wrote: »

Sure a save is a save.

Absolutely but my point is Given will get credit for puliing off a routine save for making a backflip in the process, when a basic dive is more than enough.

Johner

fkt wrote: »

Absolutely but my point is Given will get credit for puliing off a routine save for making a backflip in the process, when a basic dive is more than enough.

Given isn't that type though.

grenache

Believe it or not, but Lee Camp is currently the best keeper in England. Some of the performances he has made for Forest this season have been out of this world. His save against Reading at the weekend (a replica of Gordon Banks stop from Pele in 1970) was outrageous. If he was making these saves in the Premiership, Gray and Hansen would be creaming their pants over him.

Muff_Daddy

fkt wrote: »

Absolutely but my point is Given will get credit for puliing off a routine save for making a backflip in the process, when a basic dive is more than enough.

God you'd swear he was feckin Rene Higuita



A lot of the goals Given has conceded this season have been down to mistakes or bad decisions made by the defenders in front of him, a perfect example was the Pedersen goal last Monday. All the organisational skills in the world aren't going to prevent defenders making basic errors. I really think the problems in defence which Given teams have had is that the defenders themselves just aren't good enough. He's always had a well organised defence when in goal for Ireland IMO - so this 'Given can't organise his defence' is a total myth.

Bodhisopha

fkt wrote: »

He looks like a better shotstopper because he pulls off what look like Hollywood saves but that are really everyday basics. Don't get me wrong, he's an excelent shotstopper but often his saves look better than they are.

By saying you'd rather him to Reina but Reina's other qualities are superior - if Given commanded his defence properly and distributed the ball efficently then he wouldn't see so much of the ball. Reina is so fast off his line that alot of the time there isn't a save to make. This goes unnoticed by many.

As for Cech, he's been absolutely awful since the head injury.

How the hell do you know whether or not he commands his defence properly?

aidan24326

It's a bit sad that we have right now (from an Ireland perspective) probably the best keeper we've ever had, and what do we do? Slag him off and find every fault going.

miralize

Xavi6 wrote: »

Can't kick, doesn't organise his defence and crap on crosses. Overrated completely purely because he's Irish. :pac:

Do you ever have a nice thing to say about the club you support? :pac::pac::pac:

larchielads

people go on about his lack of organisational skills....i mean come on lads he's had one decent centre half in front of him for his whole career that bein big dick dunne at international level. no defence at newcasle and a shambles of a defence at city....is there any wonder he cant organise his defence when there's bugger all in front of him!!!!!

as for mistakes, when was the last mistake you've ever seen given make??? when was the last time we saw the headline GIVEN SHOCKER...? VDS Reina Cech have all had many more bad performances than given has had

i for one cant remember any howler or mistake that cost any of givens team the match, if there was it was prob so long ago and it was prob just one or two mistakes he's ever made.

then again maybe i'm wrong someone will surely inform me if i am

Frisbee

leninbenjamin wrote: »

lol at Wiese, Neuer, Lloris and Ochoa being mentioned as names to 'broaden horizons,' these guys are all FM legends, I think those that don't know them are as likely to have 'broad horizons' as those that do..

I was thinking exactly this too.

Cardozo is the best striker in the world too.

Fuhrer

Zatman wrote: »

Given is one of the top goalkeepers in England along with Friedal and Schwarzer. They dont have fancy names so dont get as much attention.

As for best in world it would be Casillas, Julio Cesar and Buffon still for me but Lloris looks god to overtake them in 2 or 3 years.

Most overrated are Cech, and Boruc

People rate Boruc?


And also, Julio Cesar doesnt get enough credit.

Spiritoftheseventies

Given was at United where he was on trial says fergie last night.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=64118885&postcount=11912

gustavo

noodler wrote: »

Ryan Giggs hasn't played in a world cup with Wales.

Yea but I amn't talking about Giggs, I am talking about the relative experience of Valdes and Given and saying that Valdes' experenince of the CL and being in Liga winning teams helps him make up for a lack of years experience on Given