and those glaring misses…
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Seems ok to me!
PSG at home.
his distribution needs work, every clearance is balooned…like a junior footballer
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He is a better shot stopper than Kelleher, but worse at everything else. It’s baffling what Hughes saw in him in the first place, unless Mamardashvili at Valencia was a far better player than what he has shown at Liverpool so far.
In any case, he is no Alisson replacement. The gulf between the two is huge.
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He was exceptional at Valencia and with time will be here as well. Don’t think he’s ever going to be brilliant with his feet but it would be a big help if our players tried kicking it to him on his stronger foot every now and then.
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I wish my juniors would balloon their clearances. Our are more like the one he did deep in the second half. Along the deck, through the middle and straight to an opposition player.
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That’s impossible to avoid a lot of the time, so it’s up to goalkeepers of all styles these days to be at least competent with their weaker foot or have good enough ball manipulation to get it settled as they want.
So far, it’s still early days, I’m somewhere in the middle as things stand. I can’t say I’m sure he will be exceptional here nor that I’m already sure he cannot replace Ali one day.
We’ll see.
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I’ve been impressed with his saving technique but his distribution really leaves a lot to be desired. That said, our build-up play has been our biggest flaw this season, I stand by that, so if you can’t build an attack by playing out from the back, there’s not much left for goalie to do but to hoof it. Safonov doesn’t look like a prime Neuer as well, yet we didn’t see him exposed in that regard.
There are some players whose performance have genuinely baffled me this season but there is a big part of me that wants to reserve the judgement on them for when we have a coach who will actually know how to get the most out of this group.
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Kelleher was better. Simple as that.
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I think Kellehers distribution was better and he was quicker off his line (which I always like in a keeper), but I think Mamar is a better stopper.
Kelleher played behind a world class defensive unit, Mama is playing behind a team that more often than not looks like it wouldn’t be out of place in an U8s tournament.
Also Kelleher wanted to leave, so I’m not sure why it’s being framed as an either or situation.
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I think he will come good with time. He’s still young for a keeper.
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yes.
he has time.
but not too much.
he needs to get cracking on his clearances and distribution.
theres no use in hiding behind excuses. id love him to improve that and be here for the long haul.
I like the fella, yes his kicking needs some work but are we really gonna go all in on this when we have 10 outfield players, none of whom can make a forward pass and would rather play the safe option back to the CBs/keeper than show a bit of courage?
Maybe if we had a manager that could get these players in sync with eachother, working a bit harder to find space, we wouldn’t be so inclined to play triangles passes between Grav Ibou and Ali/Mama for 80% of the game.
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His kicking is poor but I think he is better than Kelleher in the air and shot saving.
Though it’s so erratic that it created a break last night and against Fulham 
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the short answer is yes.
the coaching staff can can work on more than one issue at a time, and watching that PSG match, it was a rather large issue, ball retention is EVERYTHING, in some of those positions Mama could have kept retention, and even when he had to ‘clear the lines’ it was an awkward, baloon type punt, the easiest to defend against, especially given our aerial prowess upfront.
so yeah, id put this in the ‘requires urgent attention’ column.
hes only young for a keeper, needs to go away, work really hard on it and see where it takes him.
we’ve been spoilt with Alisson, so im trying not to compare, but one thing we desperately need to do is to be better at keeping the ball.
maybe its a knock on affect of teams letting us keep the ball because they know we are a bit toothless in possesion, so it doesnt really stand out, until it does, and then its not great.
I don’t think it requires urgent attention at all. Been waiting for the best part of a year for our coaching staff to work on A issue, nevermind more than one, perhaps they’re not up to task…We don’t even having a playing style or an identity so how can you command what needs what…you want a keeper that’s good with his feet…for what? In this current set up the ball will only end up back with him because we have no one that can progress or take responsability with the ball.
We had 26% possession in Paris, a prime Neuer wouldn’t have made a shred of difference if the 10 players in front of him treat the ball like a ticking timb bomb.
If Safonov great with the ball? Is Lunin? Is that Garcia lad at Barca? Does it prevent them from playing some of the best football in Europe? The outfield players do the work whilst the keeper does his job in keeping the ball out the net, as it should be.
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- just because our coaching staff arent up to task (opinion) doesnt mean it doesnt have to happen
- simple kicking techniques and ball control doesnt need to be in the domain of elite coaching.
- we are talking technical ability, not tactical implementation
- our possesion in paris is evdience of work needing to be done, not evidence it can be ignored
- dont watch enough football to effectively compare keepers, but on what i HAVE seen, those keepers are more advanced with the ball at their feet
- even if they werent better, thats still not a valid reason for Mama not to improve
i understand your point, but it seems a bit defeatist, point 1 should have been, ‘where we can improve our players, we should’… i mean, thats just the very basic ideaology of any sport training isnt it?
Mama working on his feet benefits the club and the player, and is really some low hanging fruit.
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It’s obvious that one of the aspects he will have to improve is with the ball at his feet, but in my opinion, it isn’t at such an alarmingly low level. We probably wouldn’t have bought him in the first place if it was that bad. Yes, you can work on these things to a level, but it also depends what’s already there.
In terms of age, it is what it is. He’s not young, he’s not old. We cannot say he’s a young player, not even for a goalkeeper, because no, not every goalkeeper ages equally well. What happened with Casillas or Reina then, when did they peak? Same as vdSar or Neuer? Of course not.
He certainly wasn’t bought solely as a talent for the future, like we are doing with some. I liked the transfer initially from a number of angles, but he was brought in as a relatively serious profile already.
I wondered though what will be the ideal process in terms of hoping he replaces Alisson (my main hope is that he still maintains a highest possible level for as long as possible). Will being a backup at Liverpool, giving him some cup games and also playing when Alisson is missing a part of games every season, coming from being first choice at Valencia (a serious league, but a lower level team in last years) and internationally, be enough to then suddenly become first choice at Liverpool?
That’s something we still have to assess and I hope Alisson is still here as first choice next season. He might not age brilliantly like some other goalkeepers, but in the very short term, he’s still a very important player in his position and for us. But how long is it even good for Mamardashvil to be backup here? That will also have to be taken into consideration and see what is best to do.
Achterberg gave an interview when he was in Saudi and when speaking about Mamardashvili, I felt he had certain reservations over him being a good fit for us (he looked at his size and ability with the ball). He was talking about more “defensive” minded goalkeepers. Also mentioned how we rejected the idea of trying to get Oblak.
I don’t mind goalkeepers that are let’s say a 5/5 goalkeeping wise and “only” a 4/5 on the ball at all (by the way, I wouldn’t say Achteberg would disagree with me). Because on the ball it’s not only kicking, there are different ways you can build up from deep that is not totally dependant on your goalkeeper’s ability with the ball. However, we have to see whether Mamardashvili will have what it takes to become a top goalkeeper in that style.
Regarding Marmadashvili’s kicking, a good place to start would be telling the players he is left footed. No-one appears to have mentioned it yet.
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