এবারের বিশ্বকাপে নজরে রাখার মত সেরা পাঁচ গোলকিপার

1 Thibaut Courtois (Belgium)
I am a big, big fan of this kid: he is young, unflappable and confident, he has had a tremendous couple of seasons with Atletico and proved his dominance in the Champions League this year. You look at him and think: `How are you going to beat him?`

I think a lot of it is influenced by the way teams play. At club level, with Atletico, they win their games 1-0 - it`s been a pretty standard result for them this season. Either you are so much in control of the ball that your goalkeeper is not asked upon too much, or you’re playing so defensively that the game is a lot closer to them.

It means someone like Courtois doesn’t play like Lloris for example. Courtois is solid: he doesn’t try to anticipate things to the point where he puts himself out of position.

2 Manuel Neuer (Germany)
“A young goalkeeper who has shown he is top quality, but much more unorthodox than the others.

He demonstrated this in the Champions League when he gets in those one-on-one positions. Players expect a goalkeeper to do certain things, either to go to ground or come sliding out, but against Manchester United in the quarter-final with that Welbeck chance, he held a strange position and Welbeck wasn’t sure what to do.
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He is unorthodox, confident and, as much as distribution on its own isn`t a key factor with regards to making a goalkeeper that much better than another, he has the ability to boom a ball or clip it 30 yards to players in close proximity.

That confidence oozes out of him at the moment. Having said that, I can think of an example, again going back to the Champions League, when they got beat. He can let goals in.

3 Joe Hart (England)
Joe has had to deal with some indifferent defending in front of him. He has also had to contend with never being dropped until this season.

His experiences this year will have helped. The fact that he was dropped at domestic level and got himself back into the team, won the league and performed heroics on occasions for Manchester City, means that he goes into the World Cup full of confidence. It’s like he has shed his old skin and is reformed as a newer, better version of Joe Hart.

I think as well, with a defender, it is important when you look behind you that you have a presence and Joe Hart has a presence. He is the best English goalkeeper by a country mile.

4 Hugo Lloris (France)
I was impressed with him at the beginning of the season - he is very dynamic, with lightning fast reflexes, but susceptible to over eagerness.

There was just the caveat that he would get found out and I think in the middle part of the season he definitely got found out. He was continuing to do the same things, making judgement errors and getting punished for them.

He has changed his game to accommodate the Premier League in a sense. So it will be interesting to see what he does with France in the World Cup, whether or not he continues that aggressive style.

I have seen a number of Tottenham games and his aggressive first movement, rather than holding the fort, has cost so many goals.

5 Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
He’s a legend, more so than Iker Casillas. Casillas is the guy who has stood in goal for some of the best sides in the world, where as I remember seeing Buffon when he was at Parma. He saved a penalty, as a teenager at the time, but the ball was still in play and he starts cheering with the fans. I thought, hang on a minute, that is quality.

His game has had to change because he isn’t as dynamic as before. I know he has had a number of knee injuries that have caused him problems.

Watching him play for Juventus this season, he is fearless with regards to passing. He doesn’t want to kick long balls, but pass it out, which you can expect a lot of from Italy in the World Cup.