I think most Burnley fans will agree that a new goalkeeper is a big priority for the club this summer.
Gabor Kiraly and Brian Jensen have simply made too many mistakes, and have probably cost us a play-off place between them.
It hasn't helped that we have been unable to play a settled back five all season, something Owen Coyle will be working on during the summer break.
With Jensen out of contract, it seems likely that we will look to bring in a new first-choice keeper and retain Kiraly as a back-up.
Of course, all goalkeepers make mistakes, so we shouldn't expect a keeper to come in that never makes any errors. That's just unrealistic.
What we should do is target a goalkeeper that can communicate with his defence, come out and claim crosses successfully, and dominate his area. Obviously, they need to be able to save shots, but if we can get a solid unit sorted back there, we should be able to restrict most teams to shots from range.
An area I would like to see us look is in Premiership reserve and youth sides. Ben Foster is probably out of our range, but there are a lot of young goalkeepers at big sides that we may be able to bring in on loan or on permanent deals.
A player we reportedly were taking an interest in was Fraser Forster of Newcastle United, but this week he signed a new deal tying him to the club until 2010. Newcastle also have Dutch youngster Tim Krul, who has played for them in Europe and looks unlikely to get into their first-team.
Whatever happens this summer though, I am absolutely positive there will be an incoming goalkeeper.
2 comments:
As a Newcastle fan, I can say both Krul and Forster would be good choices, were you to go for either on loan.
Krul is the most experienced of the two and is slightly ahead of Forster in the pecking order at the minute.
It wouldn't surprise me to see Krul go out on loan to a Championship side next season to get matches at a higher level than the Scottish Premier League. Shay Given keeps picking up injuries and with both him and Steve Harper into their 30's, he isn't a million miles away from seriously challenging for a first team place.
On the subject of Newcastle players...Stephen Carr is out of contract in the summer (thankfully). Please take him!
The keeper is always one that comes in for criticism. You look at David James, one of the best keepers in the country, is still known as 'Calamity James' because of an error every now and again.
In the same breath, however, you can build a team from a decent keeper. Again looking at David James, thats what Redknapp has done with him at Pompy.
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