EPL Talk » Paul Robinson

The England Outsiders#1 The Goalkeepers

Paul Bestall — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:04:31 +0000

The halcyon days of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were apparently a boom time in England’s glorious history of great goalkeepers. From the benchmark that was the great Gordon Banks and his understudy, Peter Springett, to the rotation of Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton in the 70’s and early 1980’s, England always had a top class goalkeeper.

As Chris Woods and then David Seaman continued the tradition, despite every other pundit claiming the English goalkeeper was a dying breed, but until Seaman’s retirement from England duty in 2002, that looked an empty prediction. Since then England’s number one has rotated between David James, Paul Robinson, Scott Carson, with sporadic appearances from Robert Green, Ben Foster, Chris Kirkland and Joe Hart. An unusual situation after decades of stability between the sticks, which clarifies a pressing issue for Capello. Just who can he trust with the number one shirt?

The obvious choice is David James, but the situation at Portsmouth has had far reaching consequences. James found himself in a situation were Portsmouth wouldn’t play him as it would trigger a clause in his contract rewarding him with an extension. Of course, being the goalkeeper of a side marooned at the foot of the Premiership table and with a worrying tendency to implode under pressure, is James really the best English goalkeeper?

Euro 2004 saw James’ performances came under criticism after admitting he hadn’t studied French set pieces, when England were undone by 5 minutes of madness in the opening game of the tournament. A penalty from Henry and a free kick from Zidane saw England collapse and ultimately end up with the harder run of the tournament.

Yet since those rickets, consistency has returned to his game and as one of English footballs more eloquent footballers, James would be one of the three goalkeepers for me and probably keep the No.1 shirt unless his form completely collapses before the end of the season.The other two places are realistically up for grabs.

To all intents and purposes, the stand out English goalkeeper of the Premiership season has been Joe Hart and what a season. He’s certainly been one of the key reasons that Birmingham City have had such a successful season so far. In fact,I was stunned that Hart didn’t make his second appearance for England in Wednesday nights friendly against Egypt. I’ve been very impressed with his form throughout the season and felt for him when Manchester City splashed out big bucks to bring Shay Given to Eastlands in January 2009.

One criticism that seemingly comes Hart’s way from some quarters is his age. It seems a perennial English trait that players are perpetually too young to play for their country. Hart has plenty of international experience, with his time with the Under-21 squad even scoring a penalty for his country. Yes, it may not be the same level of intensity, but competition experience is invaluable, what ever level it is achieved at. The future England custodian of the gloves for me and a shoe in for the second goalkeeping place.

The final place is the one that several people have a real chance of grabbing, but I’ll rule out the three who I wouldn’t consider. Poor Scott Carson, another one who was touted as the future of English goalkeeper until a wet night at Wembley in 2007 that saw the end of the dreadful Steve Mclaren reign. Critics blamed the pitch, oblivious to the wonderful football that Croatia played. Tactically inept and with his powers of spin unable to cover his failings, Mclaren went down taking Carson’s England career with it.

He’s never recovered and several high profile mistakes last season saw his hopes of an England recall all but disappear. Carson simply hasn’t had any luck with certain mistakes perhaps over analysed in the media but I think this World Cup has come too soon for him. Add to that with him not playing Premiership football as well coupled with not being the best English goalkeeper in the Championship and it’s doubtful he’ll get a sniff unless bubonic plague strikes the England goalkeeper set up.

Chris Kirkland is another that time has not been kind to. Touted as the next great England keeper, injuries stalled his career development and it is only in the last couple of seasons that he has managed to get a consistent level of appearances together. The irony of goalkeeping was shown in no clearer light than on November 22nd when Kirkland conceded 9 goals in Wigan’s mauling at the hands of Tottenham.

Remarkably, without Kirkland, Spurs would have probably scored more, he saved a further 7 shots on target. Classed as injury prone, despite playing over 80 league games in his last 3 seasons, Kirkland has fallen behind Hart and would currently be 5th in my opinion. At 28, time is certainly not against him, but it’ll be a major surprise if he gets back to England duty.

Ben Foster currently can’t get on Manchester United’s bench which says it all and he is a real pickle at Old Trafford. Bags of potential but I don’t care how good you are, playing for Manchester United reserves occasionally isn’t anywhere near the level of getting in to the England set up. I’ve a real fear that he could disappear like Richard Wright did after joining Arsenal and then a disjointed spell at Everton. Now back at Ipswich Town, his is a career of real missed chances.

Which brings me to my final two choices. Paul Robinson and Robert Green. Last night Capello seemed to give Green the chance to prove he could be part of the squad by playing the whole 90 minutes of the friendly. This seemingly would draw a curtain on Paul Robinson’s chances of making the squad unless James, Hart or Green falls injured. Green didn’t really have much to do and he has certainly been fairly consistent over the last 3 seasons at West Ham United.

So overall I think Capello will pick James, Green and Hart with Robinson as 4th choice on stand by. The wild card would be Chris Kirkland but overall, I think Fabio will stick with the devil he knows but what do you think??

Time For Capello To Restore Paul Robinson As Englands No.1

Paul Bestall — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:50:32 +0000

For me, there is only one English goalkeeper that can be England’s number one for South Africa next summer and that man is Paul Robinson. After being so badly treated at Tottenham under Juande Ramos and unfairly blamed for giving away a soft goal for England against Croatia, Robinson has finally got back to his best. He was hung out to dry by Steve Mclaren after Gary Neville’s wayward back pass bobbled over his foot.

Everyone conveniently forgot the string of saves Robinson had made to keep England in a game they were a poor second best in that night. Right now, he is playing better than any of his counterparts, with probably the exception of Steve Harper at Newcastle United and Joe Hart at Birmingham City. Forget the Robert Green argument, he’s nowhere near good enough.

Of the goalkeepers available to Capello, Robinson is head and shoulders above all others and has been for the best part of a year. David James is injured and playing for a team in free-fall, both on and off the pitch. Robert Green is bang out of form and consistently makes mistake after mistake. He also has a tendency to try and deliberately foul players whenever possible.For all his bravado and wearing “England’s number 6″ on his gloves, he’s not good enough. He’s always been poor coming off his line and his aerial ability is not the best.

Poor old Ben Foster has suffered from some rather unnecessary criticism but still can’t shift the dreadful Thomas Kuszczak from between the sticks at Old Trafford.There is no doubt that the lad can go a long way in the game, but he’s suffering from a crisis in confidence at the moment, but he’s still a better goalkeeper than Kuszczak.

Scott Carson still suffers from a lack of concentration at West Bromwich Albion and still seems to bear the scars from the defeat to Croatia in November 2007 at Wembley. For all his shot stopping ability, Carson can still make some all mighty howlers from out of nowhere and seems to have fallen away from anywhere near the England team.

Poor old Chris Kirkland simply can’t keep fit, whenever he gets on a great run of form, his long standing back injury seems to flare up and take out of the side. Despite the 9 goal mauling Wigan Athletic suffered at White Hart Lane, it’s no exaggeration to say it could have been twenty if it wasn’t for Kirkland. He showed such promise at Coventry but injuries blighted his time at Anfield and he’s never been able to shake the tag of being injury prone.

Other than Robinson and Hart, the other stand out candidate for the three places in South Africa for me is Steve Harper at Newcastle. He’s now getting the opportunity to show just how good a goalkeeper he actually is week in week out after Shay Given left last January for Manchester City. Whilst most people would have been itching for a move, Harper has shown incredible loyalty to Newcastle over the years.

After 16 years service, with 12 of those as Given’s back up, he’s incredibly only played 151 games for Newcastle, with 86 of those appearances coming in the last four seasons. He has constantly served the club with pride and is now in the form of his life. Whilst others may have viewed Given’s depature as a real blow, having a player of the ability of Harper would certainly soften the blow.

Whilst some people seem to point out that you need a great goalkeeper to win the World Cup, with the exception of Buffon in 2006, you have to go all the way back to 1982 to find a team with a world class goalkeeper that won the World Cup. Every other winner since then has had good, and in some cases distinctly average custodians between the sticks. Paul Robinson is far better than average and Capello would do well to welcome him back into the fold. With Harper and Hart, that would be a dependable and quality set of goalkeepers to choose from.

Aston Villa Defeat Man United On A Spectacular Day in the Premier League

The Gaffer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:26:38 +0000

There have been very few if any boring Premier League weekends so far this season, and this Saturday was another example of why this is one of the most entertaining leagues in the world. Here are my observations from the Saturday games I’ve watched thus far:

Stoke City v Wigan Athletic

When ESPN2 looked at the fixture list and saw Stoke City versus Wigan Athletic on a Saturday morning in December, they probably weren’t too excited just like many of you, the readers. However, the game turned into an extremely entertaining match with goals galore, plenty of controversy (the penalty decision, and the resulting save from Rodallega) and a wonderful climax to the game with Wigan piling on the pressure but unable to get the winner. The game ended 2-2, but what a way to begin the Premier League weekend!

Bolton Wanderers v Manchester City

Playing against Bolton Wanderers was never going to be an easy fixture for Manchester City, but a game against such a physical and direct team such as Wanderers was always going to be a perfect test for City to see if they can win the tough games as well as the glamorous ones.
The Wanderers versus City game reminded me of the Stoke against Wigan game from earlier in the morning. Lots of goals, lots of controversy and highly entertaining. Bolton’s opening goal was contentious when a deflected pass came into the path of Tamir Cohen who knocked the ball into the goal despite being in an offside position. Should the goal have counted or not? Cohen was obviously offside but does the deflected pass put Cohen onside? With a highly contentious decision like this, I rely on the co-commentator to share his expertise and definitively say whether the goal should have been disallowed or not. However, co-commentator Dean Sturridge seemed as unsure as I was over the rule and gave a half-hearted response about Cohen being in an offside position.
Controversy reared its ugly head later in the game when Craig Bellamy was fouled by Paul Robinson but Bellamy received a yellow card from referee Mark Clattenburg for diving. It was Bellamy’s second yellow card in the game, so he was sent off.
Overall, what a classic game this was between Bolton and Manchester City. Both teams battled hard. Carlos “Captain Caveman” Tevez, yet again, was exceptional with two brilliant and timely goals. But fair play to Bolton. If they continue playing like this week-in week-out, then they thoroughly deserve to stay in the Premier League and football supporters should get off Gary Megson’s back. For City, it’s another draw but this was a game that they could have easily lost. City should their tough side today by coming back three times after being behind and thoroughly deserved the one point.

Chelsea v Everton

Before I began watching the second half the Manchester United versus Aston Villa game, I was able to watch the highlights of the Chelsea against Everton match. And incredibly, this was another match that ended in a pulsating draw. American soccer haters who don’t know any better often are dumbfounded by how games that end in draws can be entertaining. Americans are bred to see winners and losers in their sports, but to me a draw is often more entertaining and pleasing than seeing a win.

Manchester United v Aston Villa

The third entertaining match I was fortunate to watch in a row Saturday was Manchester United against Aston Villa. Martin O’Neill’s side have to be commended for going for the jugular against Man United and trying to get all three points. The side consistently floated in tons of dangerous crosses into the middle of the United penalty area to put pressure on the weakened United back four with Wes Brown replacing the position normally held by Rio Ferdinand and/or Jonny Evans, and Fletcher stepping in as right back instead of the usual Gary Neville and/or Rafael Da Silva. And by half-time Villa was deservedly 1-0 ahead after a picture-perfect header from Gabriel Agbonlahor.
In the second half, it was quintessential Aston Villa at their best. They defended heroically and threw themselves at every United attempted shot on goal. Plus, they played their typical counter-attacking football which helped Villa ensure there were always enough players back in defense and midfield to prevent United from having clear-cut chances on goal. Whatever you say about Aston Villa, they’re always a hard-working side and never give up. They’re always pressuring the other team as soon as they get the ball and ended up keeping Man United at bay time after time.
And let’s not forget about Brad Friedel who didn’t have a lot to do on the day, but when it counted the most, he made an incredible save from Dimitar Berbatov’s goalbound shot near the end of the game.
Rather than criticize Manchester United (and yes Wayne Rooney had an off day), the full credit needs to go to the Aston Villa players and manager Martin O’Neill for a textbook performance against a dangerous Manchester United side. When Villa needed to hold up the ball and keep possession, they did. Congratulations on a well-deserved 1-0 win.

What are your thoughts from this incredible day in the Premier League? Were there matches that I missed that also were just as entertaining as the ones mentioned above? Did you think United had a “bad day in the office” or were Villa simply better? Click the comments link below to share your feedback and opinions.

Should Craig Bellamy Have Been Sent Off Against Bolton For Diving?

The Gaffer — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:27:20 +0000

Referees never have an easy job, but they don’t make their life any easier when they make costly mistakes in heated Premier League games. A perfect example of this was in Saturday’s game between Bolton Wanderers and Manchester City when Craig Bellamy was making a run down the left wing.

In the incident, Bolton defender Paul Robinson stuck his leg out and completely missed the ball and knocked Bellamy’s leg. Bellamy then fell to ground. Then the viewers, supporters, commentators and myself were shocked to see that instead of awarding a free kick in Manchester City’s favor, referee Mark Clattenburg blew his whistle and gave Bellamy a yellow card for diving. Not only a yellow card, but it was his second yellow card of the game and Bellamy was sent off.

This was a contentious decision on so many different levels. One, Robinson missed the ball and fouled Bellamy before “Bellars” fell down. Two, Bellamy dived. He could have easily kept on running and could have stayed on his feet to cross the ball into the box but he chose the easy option which was to dive and to get a free kick on the edge of the penalty area for City. Third, and this is the big one for me, the decision by Clattenburg is inconsistent with how referees in other matches call the game. We see these types of dives happening throughout the game where players would rather dive to get what they consider a fair call than to stay on their feet. If all referees throughout the Premier League are going to yellow card players for these type of dives, then that’s fine. But it needs to be consistent across the league.

What do you think? Should Bellamy have been sent off? Did Robinson foul Bellamy, or did Clattenburg make the wrong decision?

Wembley Gets Champions League Final and Other Stories

Johnathan Starling — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:50:32 +0000

It took a little time, but the Champions League Final is heading to Wembley Stadium.

It took a little extra time, and a vote by parliament to exempt tax rules on players who would play in the final, for Wembley to get the final that will be played in 2011. What it also means is that Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium will have to wait awhile to host a European final.

It’s was a busy day for Sam Allardyce. First after telling Manchester City no about Roque Santa Cruz, then made a 2.8 million pound offer for El-Hadji Diouf. With the way Allardyce spoke today, it leads me to believe Santa Cruz is going to go this summer. As for Diouf, don’t you have enough forwards right now or did one slot open up with Matt Derbyshire’s loan move to Greece?

Well Salamon Kalou has alot of explaining to do over his handcuff gesture. One thing that a football pitch shouldn’t be used for is to show support for or against anything political.

If Gary Megson wants to get on the Bolton supporters good sides, calling them pathetic wouldn’t be such a good idea.

How original from Liverpool. Reporting Tottenham for ‘tapping up’ Robbie Keane just seems juvenile.

Paul Robinson has seen his red card rescinded. At least the FA got something right.

Rafa’s Ranting Is Doing Liverpool No Favors

Johnathan Starling — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:19:32 +0000

The sooner Rafa Benitez keeps his mouth shut about how teams are playing against Liverpool, even in off handed ways, and focuses on getting your team back on the winning path; the better off you will be. The comments made after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at the JJB against Wigan in my mind read like a manager who has lost grip with what is important…winning.

The comments, where he calls the game crazy, says his players were okay, and takes a back handed swipe at how his team played with this comment “We’ve been giving away too many points. This has happened in the last three games and it’s something I don’t like. “I know why but I cannot say anything…” tells me that Rafa doesn’t get it.

I notice a pattern here. Ever since Rafa’s swipe at Sir Alex Ferguson, nothing has been Rafa’s fault. Maybe it’s time for Rafa to look at himself in the mirror and realize maybe it’s what he’s doing with the squad that has Liverpool playing in this manner. With Chelsea coming up on Sunday, Rafa doesn’t have long to turn things around. It’s going to be very interesting to see how he deals with Scolari’s men, considering the chances they have created lately.

Other Stories
Gotta love the red tops. I don’t think Roque Santa Cruz is gonna want to leave one team struggling for relegation to head off to another (that would be to Tottenham).

These type of gentleman’s agreements better be dealt with quickly by FIFA. No wonder why Zenit St. Petersburg has been so smug about this whole Andrei Arshavin situation. It looks like if Arsenal want him, it’ll be fifteen million to secure him.

In a subject I talked about yesterday, West Brom are going to appeal Paul Robinson’s red card picked up against Manchester United. I hope the suspension is overturned.

The BBC wins the UK Premier League highlight rights. The only added bonus is MOTD will be available for UK Users on iPlayer on delay.

I don’t think anyone associated with Manchester City will be getting a Christmas card from Steve Bruce. Saying that Palacios was used as a pawn in the Craig Bellamy deal is a strong accusation.

Could Marco Storari be the next backup to Petr Cech at Chelsea?

As mentioned earlier on the site today, Michael Owen looks to be out for six weeks while Joey Barton looks to be out six weeks thanks to ankle injuries sustained against Manchester City. This on the say night where Joe Kinnear confirmed that Shay Given will more than likely leave the club in January.

Friday will be the day when FIFA will decide Nemanja Vidic’s fate from the red card he picked up at the World Club Cup.

Tony Adams wants three more players before the transfer window closes. It’ll be interesting to see if he can secure them. Meanwhile Sol Campbell is coming out and lamenting that talks haven’t started on a new contract for him.

Manchester City is pledging their full support behind Robinho.

Emile Heskey feels Aston Villa are top four worthy. We’ll find out soon enough.

Here is an interview I did for Football Corner.

And finally Vinnie Jones will be our next guest for the EPL Talk Podcast. Now I shouldn’t have to be doing this but I will. Please keep your questions reasonable or else don’t expect them to be asked on air.

Was Paul Robinson Deserving of Red Card?

Johnathan Starling — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:12:37 +0000

When you see West Brom v Manchester United, it’s almost written in stone what the outcome is going to be. However in being the first live match I have seen in over two weeks, I was happy to see any and all live football. When it’s all said and done, most will remember this match for the result that keeps the pressure on Liverpool and Chelsea in the league and for the record Manchester United broke (most minutes without allowing a Premier League goal), I will remember this match for the red card Paul Robinson received and the questioning in my mind if it was a worthy decision.

The decision five minutes from halftime was the death knell for any opportunity West Brom had to get back in the match and from my vantage point was a very harsh red to give out. Both Robinson and Ji-Sung Park were sliding after the same ball, just Paul Robinson was second to the slide. Yes Park was injured on the slide, but in the course of 50/50 challenges there is always a possibility of an injury.

The other thing that caught my eye was the angle from which Rob Styles was at when he saw the challenge. Did Rob Styles have a proper angle to correctly judge the tackle and to me the answer was no. While there are no players blocking his line of sight, Park’s body was shielding the true actions of Paul Robinson. When we see the opposite angle, there are no studs that enter the fray.

The only reason I could see Styles giving that as violent conduct was the fact that Park required treatment. However Park’s condition wasn’t all that well known when the red card came out. When you see Ryan Giggs putting an arm around Robinson’s shoulder, it tells me that even most of the Manchester United players felt it was a harsh decision.

I do have to wonder though what would have happened had Robinson not been involved in a few decision earlier in the half. Would he have been sent off?

The red card only changed the scoreline Manchester United were going to win by and credit has to go to Manchester United for not letting their foot off the gas pedal when they had every opportunity to do so. Instead the Red Devils took the opportunity to increase their goal difference of plus 29, equaling that of Chelsea.

So was Paul Robinson deserving of the red card? Let us know by leaving a comment below. Also what were your thoughts on the other action of the afternoon? Has Emile Heskey already started to pay off the transfer fee paid to Wigan? Will Stoke City rue yet another slow start to a match and what does the result do for Tottenham? How much time does Sunderland get to breathe a sigh of relief after Kenwyne Jones second half goal sees them past Fulham? Will we ever see any separation at the bottom? Again let us know below.

Blackburn Signs Paul Robinson For £3.5 Million

The Gaffer — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:00:44 +0000

Three of my most vivid memories of Paul Robinson are (1) the back pass from Gary Neville that bounced past Robinson into the net against Croatia, (2) the long range free kick when Robinson scored for Spurs against Watford, and (3) the time when I saw Robinson play in goal for Spurs against Blackburn in November, 2006.

Robinson’s fortunes has changed considerably since that cold night in Lancashire. But the reason that Robinson stood out for me that night was at the beginning of the second half at Ewood Park. When Robinson was heading over to the goal to place his goalkeeper’s bag in the rear of the net, the Rovers fans started spontaneously singing at Robinson. “England’s number one; England’s, England’s number one.”

Robinson, clearly appreciating the singing, turned around and applauded the thousands of Rovers fans standing beside me in the Blackburn End.

It’s rare in modern day football to hear fans applaud a member of the other team. This one shining example shows how classy Blackburn fans are and how well Paul Robinson should fit in with his new club who signed him for a fee of £3.5 million.

Robinson is no Brad Friedel, who appears likely to move to either Aston Villa or Manchester City. But for Robinson, his move to Blackburn is a perfect opportunity to start all over again, regain his confidence and try to fight for the opportunity to be the number one goalkeeper for England once again.

Spurs To Sign PSV’s Gomes — Will Robinson Move To Villa?

Lonnie — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:17:19 +0000

Several news sources are reporting that Tottenham have agreed a deal with PSV Eindhoven to sign goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, subject to personal terms, a medical and a work permit. Gomes is 27 and has played internationally for Brazil. He helped PSV to the Dutch title last season, his fourth title since joining from Brazilian club Cruzeiro in 2004, by conceding only 24 league goals.

Should Gomes’ work permit go through, it will almost certainly signal the end of Paul Robinson’s time at White Hart Lane. Robinson was dropped from the Spurs side last season by boss Juande Ramos. Robinson had a season to forget last year as not only did he lose his place in the Spurs first XI but he was also being dropped from the England squad by new manager Fabio Capello. Robinson is said to be moving to Aston Villa, if only for the fact that he will come at a more reasonable price than Liverpool’s Scott Carson, who spent last season on loan at Villa Park. Villa manager Martin O’Neill is said to be keen to have the goalkeeping situation cleared up as soon as possible, largely because the Villans embark on their Intertoto Cup campaign in a couple weeks’ time. You can find coverage of the Intertoto Cup on the Champions League Talk website.

Spurs fans will remember Gomes as the man who saved a Jermain Jenas penalty in the shootout that PSV won 6-5 to eliminate Tottenham from the last 16 of last season’s UEFA Cup competition.

PSV are rumoured to be eyeing Manchester City and Sweden international goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson as a replacement for the departing Gomes.