Welcome back to Keepers Korner weekly goals review from the EPL, and boy have we got some goals to analyse. As always I would like to make a disclaimer here that all views are personal and as ever the readers are encouraged to engage with their own views on the content as this quantifies the the diversity of knowledge on particular goalkeeping subject matters.

In this week’s goals review I will be  analysing briefly goals from these games : – Brentford United vs Manchester United, Arsenal vs Leicester City, Southampton United vs Leeds United and Aston Villa vs Everton. Without further ado, let’s get straight to the the first and obvious goals review..

Brentford United vs Manchester United: – 4 – 0

Well well well, what can I say about the goalkeeper after displaying such a performance? As I mentioned in my last week’s assessment of the goalkeeper, he is yet to demonstrate the responsibilities of an elite professional consistently. It is painfully evident that the psychological and mental requirements to his game has to be addressed urgently because for the past six competitive games (including the last 4 games last season), this has been a major issue and the club simply has failed to recognise. Straight of the bat, the first goal supports this theory

This is what I call lazy footwork in attempt to make a scoop save for the first goal conceded. I really don’t know what’s in his mind but it’s obvious here that all he had to do was a quick footwork shuffle to the left on the balls of his feet and scoop up easily without going to ground. Unfortunately when one is having a bad run of games, the negative situations keep creeping up and you get the same results. This is the textbook explanation of the Law of  Cause and Effect. In addition, this sets up a snowball effect for future events in the game according to the mindset. The second goal explains it all here

The keeper shows huge weakness here with a pass that immediately compromises his defensive line and the opposition are on the pounce for the second goal. The opposition were very well aware of the goalkeepers mental weakness and capitalised on it with 100% success rate. A wrong mindset creates detrimental situations and it’s self evident here. The forth conceded goal

Is yet another failed attempt to make a save using the spread technique. The goalkeeper game is centered around his deployment if this technique and it is very well known to the opposition. He constantly overplays this technique and he has become the victim of his identity. I really do hope he takes a break and reassess his game with his coaches who must be of significant competency to recognise by now that there are issues to be resolved.

Arsenal vs Leicester City: – 4 – 2

Goals galore in  this game but I’ve selected 2 goals to focus on. The first goal to analyse is  the third Arsenal goal conceded by the Leicester City goalkeeper

In this scenario the goalkeeper knows he should have done better with his attitude towards the technical approach in dealing with crosses. Being able to read the game in anticipation actually put one in a better position to react and execute effectively the technique in dealing with crosses. What should have been an easy catch a setup counterplay turned into a messy attempt and as a result, a goal conceded.

This was the second goal conceded by the Arsenal goalkeeper. Another near post goal that is becoming problematic for goalkeepers in recent times. In my post last week I discussed about the increased frequency of near post goals and I wasn’t surprised with this particular one. I will say little about this so here goes.. attempting to deploy the spreader save at the near post give a 50/50 success rate and logically isn’t the optimal play in that situation. The set positioning on the balls of one’s feet until the trigger is pulled, has a much higher success rate ratio because there are more saving techniques that can be deployed in that situation. Again the spread save is considerably being overplayed and its ramifications is becoming more evident.

Southampton United vs Leeds United: – 2 – 2

Another goal fest game, great for the spectators but bad for the guys between the sticks. The second goal conceded by the Southampton United goalkeeper

Had his footwork tangled up as he made an attempt to make the save. The trajectory of the looping “header” from the striker was slow enough for the goalkeeper to execute a high dive from maintaining a ball of the feet set positioning to make the high dive effective. Flat footed motion greatly decreases agility and this was consistent with the execution here, resulting to the ball looping over the goalkeeper. Lesson here ; balls of the feet set positioning increases agility and reflexes.

Here we go again! Near post goals conceded are becoming more prevalent and comical, that the Leeds United goalkeeper has demonstrated in taking situations to a new level. The equaliser came at a very critical time of the game were one would expect the goalkeeper to stand tall but unfortunately he was literally on his knees before the trigger was pulled.

Aston Villa vs Everton: – 2 – 1

Who would have guessed another “spread save attempt gone wrong” scenario happening again? Well it seems its becoming a spectacle to the point its happening in every game. The goal conceded by the Everton goalkeeper

could have been prevent if he made a low dive to his right to cut out the cross. I couldn’t figure out why deploying the spread save at that tight angle far off the goal would bring the desired effect. Instead it presented various exploitable opportunities for the winger, which he duly accepted that resulted to the goal. This has got to be the most overplayed technique in any given situation.

For the goal conceded by the Aston Villa goalkeeper, he is very well aware that his attempt to cut out the cross with the right choice of action wasn’t applied optimally. A speculative reason could be lack of bravery as crosses like these draws the striker and his marker towards the ball on a collision course being a high probability. These are the calculated risks goalkeepers have to make and when deployed at the right time, on average they yield positive and productive outcomes. This goal illustrates a situation where bravery was left out of the equation to make effect that calculated risk.

I’m currently on vacation in Rome Italy and I’ll do my best to keep up to date with my blog but in the meantime… keep working on your game goalkeepers!

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