Criticism of Fabianski is not just unfair, but ridiculous!
100 appearances, 290 saves and 26 clean sheets. These are three stats that over the past couple of weeks, people have been quick to let pass them by.
Lukasz Fabianski is, in my opinion, our club’s best ever goalkeeper, and that’s a big compliment to give considering some of the talented number ones we’ve had on SA1. Granted, I’m not old enough to recall the days of Roger Freestone, but the other shot-stoppers that Lukasz has come in to succeed have been by no means poor.
Dorus de Vries was excellent with is feet and kept a club-record twenty-three clean sheets in the season before our promotion into the Premier League. Michel Vorm was an excellent all-rounder, with athleticism and intelligence as good as any goalkeeper I’ve seen in the Premier League. Lukasz Fabianski trumps the lot, and the criticism he’s been getting of late has been almost embarrassing.
Without wanting to contradict myself, I would like to note that the Polish ‘keeper has conceded 9 more goals than any other Premier League goalkeeper this season. He’s also made made five defensive errors this season, which is already 1 more than he’s made in his previous two campaigns at the Liberty. Is this surprising? If you think so, I think you probably need reminding that we spent eleven games of this season being managed by Bob Bradley.
Twitter: @ReadSwansea lost form??? He made a mistake, people need to get over it. Blown out of proportion massively. Best we’ve had. (@MiikeThomas)
The defensive errors, I am happy to admit are little to do with either his manager of back four. The games in which he has made such errors – with last weekend’s game at Stamford Bridge being the most recent – he has openly apologised for. Even after a first half in which Fabianski not only kept us afloat in the game but kept us competitive, some Swans’ fans were quick to forget just how good he has been for us for the past three seasons.
With a finally consistent back line, it would seem not only daft but ludicrous to even give thought to the prospect of Kristoffer Nordfeldt – as patient as he’s been – a shot at the big time. We have an experienced goalkeeper in Fabianski, who is not only obviously popular in the dressing room but has a solid relationship with goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts, who was also his mentor at Arsenal.
It only takes a brief look at the squads of other clubs in our position to fully appreciate what we have with Fabianski. I would say that Leicester’s Kasper Schmeichel and Sunderland’s hot-prospect Jordan Pickford perhaps the only two goalkeepers who come anywhere close to Fabianski’s ability in the bottom third of the table.
It’s almost cliché in football to say that a goalkeeper’s mistakes are always exaggerated, but it’s certainly not far from the truth. As far as I’m concerned, we have not only an adequate goalkeeper in Fabianski but a top-class one. It takes more than just a good pair of hands to become that, and the big Pole in our goal has proved – and will continue to prove – that he has the mental capacity to prove his critics wrong.
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