Who would want to be a goalkeeper?

So the new Premier League season is up and running and not without its talking points. Amongst the highlights from the weekend, Blackpool’s victory aside, it was the goalkeeping displays which drew much of the attention. Following on from Robert Green’s high profile blunder in the World Cup this summer, along with some others in the tournament, the men between the posts appear to have retained the spotlight going into the domestic season although not necessarily for all the right reasons.

The lot of the goalkeeper is not always a happy one, as Pepe Reina proved in yesterday’s game at Anfield. Having been dependable throughout the game and after making a number of decent saves, Reina blotted his copybook after unfortunately parrying Marouane Chamakh’s effort off the post and into his goal. All the good work of the previous 89 minutes had been undone, and his team had lost out of two points. So hardly a rewarding return for what had otherwise been a good day at the office.

Roy Hodgson and Jamie Carragher were quick to absolve Reina of blame, as was Everton captain Phil Neville when questioned about a similarly high profile mistake from Tim Howard the previous day. Howard’s spill which allowed Niko Kalinic to score was made all the worse for the fact that it was the only goal in the game and cost Everton a share of the spoils against Blackburn Rovers. Another top class goalkeeper, another game defining error.

Reina and Howard were not the only culprits, with Chris Kirkland and Scott Carson also being shown up for Wigan and West Brom respectively. In many respects, they might feel grateful that their sides were on the wrong end of a heavy defeat so their errors weren’t as costly as they might otherwise have been.  The fact is however, that mistakes in goal are always going to attract more attention than those anywhere else on the pitch. Would a midfielder be so derided for missing a tackle? Or even a centre forward for missing a penalty?

Of course, things can always work the other way. Joe Hart put in an outstanding display for Manchester City in the opening game of the weekend, and Tottenham could conceivably have been out of sight by half time had it not been for a string of fine saves from the man Roberto Mancini appears to have chosen as his first choice goalkeeper. Similarly, the relatively unknown David Stockdale earned a lot of praise for his performance in the Fulham goal in the absence of Mark Schwarzer, with a clean sheet testament to a fine performance against Bolton.

As highlighted by this array of performances in the opening weekend, goalkeeper is a position in which there is apparently no grey area: you are either the hero or the villain. A thick skin would appear to be a prerequisite for the job, whilst those who dwell on their mistakes and allow it to affect their performances are likely to be sidelined very quickly. The list of Premier League goalkeepers who have been cast aside is a long one (Massimo Taibi anybody?) and the early signs would appear to suggest it is only going to get longer.