Goalkeeper Ratings

Since it’s been rather slow in winterbreak, here’s something to chew on. Twice a year, “kicker” comes out with it’s Rangliste des deutschen Fussballs (Rating list of German soccer). This not only takes into consideration how players perform in the Bundesliga, but also in the Cup, Euro matches and internationals. Historically, they’ve been fairly conseravtive, so usually it’s not like having all Manchester United players as “World Class” like you might find from EPL fan boys, hehehe.

I decided to give the kicker ratings rather than my own, because I don’t get to see the players enough to make real judgements, so you’ll have to be content with my rambling rather than my own list…

“World Class” really means you’re one of the top 2-3 on the planet, and is not given out lightly. “International” means you’re worthy of international acolades, but not quite the elite.

This is a good indication of how hard kicker is grading. I’m not sure who you might consider “World Class”, as the usual suspects, like Spain’s Iker Casillas, have had less than overwhelming seasons. Manuel Neuer has only given up 7 goals so far, but rightly he gets dinged because he creates various “neuerisms” in every match, like running out of his goal and getting caught like a wanker in no-man’s land. So Neuer drops from the top spot down. The “wider circle” (my crap translation of “Im Weiterm Kreis”) means you’re good. kicker also includes another category, which is essentially a “worth watching” category, which I’ve skipped over.

Rene Adler is a strong candidate for Comeback of the Year. He came on a free from Leverkusen and has really been outstanding for Hamburg. There’s a good chance he’s back in the national squad. Kevin Trapp and Fabian Giefer have come from no-where, but young keepers usually get a chance in Germany, and they’re very good. I’m not so sure I’d rate Bengalio quite that high, but he’s been solid for the VWs…their problems lie elsewhere..

You’ll notice that Hannover’s Ron-Robert Zieler and Gladbach’s Marc ter Stegen have dropped off the top-10, but at least they made the invisible category. One critical flop has been Schalke, where the Timo Hildebrand/Lars Unnerstall combo didn’t even warrant a mention.

Hoffenheim’s Tim Wiese was picked as the Worst GK of the league, which means he should probably transfer to the EPL.


Goalkeeper

World Class:

    (none)

International class:

    1. Rene Adler           (HSV)
    2. Kevin Trapp          (Eintracht Frankfurt)
    3. Roman Weidenfeller   (Bor. Dortmund)
    4. Manuel Neuer         (Bayern)
    5. Bernd Leno           (Bayer Leverkusen)
    6. Diego Benaglio       (Wolfsburg)
    7. Fabian Giefer        (Düsseldorf)

In the wider circle:

    8. Oliver Baumann       (SC Freiburg)
    9. Sven Ulreich         (Stuttgart)
   10. Raphael Schafer      (Nürnberg)

4 thoughts on “Goalkeeper Ratings

  1. Roman Weidenfeller has had a great season. Even though the teams not doing that great, he’s played really well. The best game for me was the 1-1 draw against Man City where Weidenfeller and Joe Hart must have had 15-20 saves between them and really good ones at that.

  2. I remember a few years back when peopel in Germany were worried about where their next goalkeeper would come from after Kahn and Lehmann retired, now they have good goalkeepers all over the place.

    England however have Joe Hart and thats about it….

  3. What about David De Gea, oh that’s right he’s Spanish, or Pepe Reine, nope Spanish again, or Brad Friedel, nope American, or Shay Given, uh uh Irish, or Mark Schwarzer or Adam Federici, oh no they’re Australian. Peter Cech? He’s Czech. Hehe

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