The Best Three Goalkeepers of the 2008-09 Season

Nominees (in no particular order):

Edwin Van der Sar

1,311 minutes without conceding a goal during the start of 2009 made Van der Sar English football’s new record holder for most time without conceding. Van der Sar snatched the 30 year old record from former Reading Goalkeeper Steve Death during Man United’s 1-0 win over Everton in late January. His form did inevitably shake a little after finally conceding, but after breaking such an impressive record this is easily forgiven.

At 38 years old he’s reaching the end of his career and each season Foster and Kusczak look to make it their transitional season, but each season Van der Sar keeps knocking them back with outstanding performances. To be fair he has had the fortunes of a terrific defence this season that’s spared him a number of goal scoring opportunities, but still there are few who can compare to Van der Sar’s goalkeeping confidence, decision-making, and his sure-handedness. He is most defiantly a deserved candidate for goalkeeper of the year.

Brad Friedel

Many goalkeepers this year have had outstanding points and low points, but few have been as consistently excellent as Brad Friedel. In particular he played a very important part in Villa’s impressive spell of breaking into the top four for a good portion of the season. At 38 Friedel, like Van der Sar, is reaching the latter stages of his career, but during his first season at Villa he’s proved that with age comes invaluable experience and composure.

Friedel had a particularly impressive 2008, and though Villa’s form slumped a little in 2009, he still rarely gave a poor performance. He was particularly outstanding against Manchester United in November, in which some of the best attacking players in the world just couldn’t get by him. On top of this Friedal also surpassed the record of straight appearances, after playing 167 times without missing a single game.

Had this of been based purely on 2009 then he probably wouldn’t have got a nomination, as quite a few other goalkeepers have particularly peaked this year, but based on a consistent seasonal rating, Friedel deserves his spot amongst the top three.

Pepe Reina

Reina played as much a part as anyone in Liverpool’s first proper title bid in over a decade. Not only that but the Spaniard became the quickest player in Liverpool’s history to reach 100 clean sheets in the 5-0 win against Aston Villa in March. Reina has been an asset to both defence and attack this season with an impressive 20 clean sheets, and numerous counter attacks set up by his kicks.

Reina’s energetic, dominant and he retains excellent composure for a player who at 26 is still young in goalkeeping terms. Both manager Benitez and club captain Gerard claim him to be one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and had he of been from a country that was less spoilt from goalkeeping talent, he would almost certainly have shown this on the international stage. This season he has not let up on his talents, and has provided Liverpool with the solid base they needed to challenge for the title.