Originally posted by danperkins
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Think it is the opposite tbh. He is a good keeper and one that learned a hell of a lot training day in and day out with the best keeper in the world, but if Kellher had not played for us and been from Cork, and all we knew of him was this season at Brentford, would be be clamouring for him to replace the guy that has been the best of the best for years?
That is not to say Mamar is a nailed in certainty to be the next bext in the world, but he is younger than Kelleher by a couple years I think and far more experienced in terms of firth team football.
Mamar is exactly what we bought and that is one of the most highly rated young keepers. Now he may be closer in style to Oblak than an Alisson or a Neuer, but he is already damn good at the two most important things, imo of course, for a keeper and that is making good saves and the sort of positioning so that every save does not need to be a hail mary hollywood save.
His ability on the ball, which is average rather than poor (we have just become too used to the levels Alisson brought) can be worked on and also can be negated with how the back line and him learn to work together. Would be negated further imo were we to bring in more mobility in midfield in the form of a mobile player that is also defensively good. Think our flaws this season have made for some turgid playing out from the back and too many stupid pressure inviting balls being played to our keepers by our own players.
Would also argue that Mamar has shown in a number of games this season that he is the difference between going in a goal down and going in three goals down. Again do that improving of the backline and midfield thing and we go back to needing a keeper that needs to be a great shot stopper and great at making chances against us less good through positioning.
Another thing to look at is the current gap between the crop of up and coming keepers and the truly world class ones.
I think we are in a bit of a weird limbo at present as pretty much all of the world class guys are in the twilight of their careers and then there is a big empty space where the world class prime age keeper or keepers would be.
Mamar for me sits with the likes of Diogo Costa, Kelleher, Kobel, Agirrezabala and a couple others that sit in that 24 to 28 age bracket and could be argued that a few of them are already at an age where they might have already become as good as they are going to get. Possibly Kelleher and Kobel fall under that.
If you want to try and get a young (ish) keeper that has great reflexes, is good with the ball at his feet and appears to have most of the other qualities (physical and mental) needed to be a close to perfect all rounder, then the best bet might be Costa though the one knock I would have against him is he is "short" at 6'1 (short as in the really great modern keeprs tended to have everything plus size in their locker).
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