Yeah, you’re definitely right. But at the very least you want your keeper to be assured 99% of the time so that when he does make a blunder it’s easy to forget about it. With a guy like Leno, his errors leading to goals has to be Premier League leading since he arrived.
We knew when we signed him he had a reputation in Germany for making errors and we spunked £20m+ on him.
We’ve got a goalkeeper who flaps at crosses, doesn’t do well distributing the ball and ultimately doesn’t seem to be a commanding presence.
I didn’t realise he had two years left, I’d say let’s get shot of him now but I don’t think there’s a market for him to recoup much of what we spent.
I personally think he’s a decent keeper, a lot of the errors people blame him for have been donkeys like Xhaka and Ceballios lingering on the ball. Last night and his mad red card were on him though but I think that’s to do with the climate right now.
When Liverpool go again next season you know they’re going to stick with Alison because at his core he’s a good keeper and you get more good than bad. I feel the same about Leno and I worry ten times more about our outfield.
The other fear is you twist instead of stick and end up with an Almunia, Karius type catastrophic goalie.
One thing I do want to say in Bernd Leno’s defence is this.
Who the f*** celebrates like Richarlison, doing a stupid little dance in front of an empty stadium when he’s had a minute involvement in the lead up to the goal?
I’ve got no doubt he’s leading the figures for most mistakes leading to goals since his arrival so yes, these things happen… but they seem to happen to Leno at an alarming rate.
Listed at 8th with 5 errors in PL.
Considering he joined in 2018, let’s double that to 10 to make it a fair comparison.
He is behind Lloris, Begovic & Pickford.
Just above De Gea.
Consider the defenders Leno had in front of him, he has done really well for us.
More pros than cons
Even we have 100m transfer budget in summer, keeper’s position is still not a priority to be concerned.
Odegaard, takes about 40-50m
We are not retaining Ceballos, so we need another CM/DM instead of just playing Partey, Xhaka and ELNENY.
Then the striker position. Will we keep Laca? Will Auba get his form back? Seems like Mart and Balo are not trusted by Arteta. So we probably need a forward to back up, or at least rotate.
Tierney and our RB position (Chambers not trusted by Arteta) needs back up as well.
Then maybe Leno’s replacement, but seems like we don’t have money already at that point.
Could he have done better with the 1st goal ? Not blaming him obviously as it would have required a top save, but was it possible an elite keeper may have saved it ?
