A clean sheet is what every good goalkeeper hopes for on a match day and luckily we have both good goalkeepers and clean sheets.
I want to summarise what our current situation between the sticks is and how it will, or should, develop in the near future. So let’s go through our keepers, one by one!
Brad Guzan
Our current number one is of course Brad Guzan and after his more than solid performances during the last two seasons I hope no-one will try to question this. Bringing him back to the club was one of Lambert’s master strokes during his first season at the club. Guzan then developed into one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League and some of his world-class saves and his outstanding stats (most of the time he features in the top-five of rankings regarding Premier League keepers) underline this. The American quickly became one of the leaders on and off the pitch and has been chosen by Lambert to be the third choice captain behind Ron Vlaar and Gabriel Agbonlahor. He even managed to challenge for his national team’s spot in goal and put Howard’s long reign into question. With Guzan in goal, team mates and fans alike can, most of the time, feel safe when the opposition breaks through our back line and that makes him such an important part of our team. However, one question remains for me: would he stay at Villa should we be relegated? We aren’t the only ones who have noticed his abilities and class and I imagine clubs would come knocking if we don’t manage to avoid the drop.
Jed Steer
One who won’t be leaving us, at least not permanently, is Jed Steer, our rather inexperienced back-up for Guzan. Some people have suggested that he should go on loan to get some match experience but so far he has done just fine. He was rarely needed but during pre-season and the cup games he has shown that he is not lost at this level and training with someone like Brad Guzan can only be beneficial for him. Norwich fans weren’t too happy when he left Carrow Road so he has to have some talent, which Lambert surely knows from his spell with the Canaries. For me, Steer as cover is more than enough and he may have the potential to eventually challenge for the number one spot.
Shay Given
We also have Shay Given, the one goalkeeper many fans and the manager, too, want to see leaving Villa Park. Frozen out because of astronomical wages and left to train away from the first team, he really enjoyed his loan at Middlesbrough, where he has demonstrated that he is still a top-class ‘keeper having kept a clean sheet in more than half of his games there and having played an important role in their defence. However, he has now returned to us and while he will probably be looking for a move away from Villa in the summer, we don’t know if a move can actually materialise because of his high wages and his contract running until 2016. Offloading Given will be one of the major challenges for Lambert in the upcoming summer.
Benjamin Siegrist and Bradley Watkins
Finally, we should also have a look at the two goalkeepers fighting for the number one shirt in the U21 team: Benjamin Siegrist and Bradley Watkins. Both had rather unsuccessful loan spells this season – Siegrist at Burton Albion and Watkins with Tranmere Rovers – as the experience they gained was mainly off the pitch with both of them having been unused substitutes at their respective loan clubs. I can understand that the nineteen-year-old Watkins will for now be second choice at a League One club but twenty-two-year-old Siegrist only being number two at a League Two club makes me wonder if the Swiss player actually has the potential to make it here at Villa. Furthermore, Siegrist’s performances for the U21s (seven matches, eighteen goals conceded, no clean sheets) weren’t as promising as the displays of Watkins (six matches, seven goals conceded, three clean sheets) and Watkins makes our whole defence look a lot safer than Benji Siegrist. In fact, I really liked Watkins’ performances during the NextGen series and I see a lot more talent in him than in his Swiss counterpart, which makes me think that I would prefer Bradley Watkins as our future number three rather than Siegrist.
For me, our future goalkeeping department should look like this: Guzan, Steer and Watkins. Strong, talented and reasonably cheap, that is how I would describe the three of them and that is really all you can ask for from your ‘keepers. It will be interesting to see how Lambert assesses the situation in between the posts in the summer and if he will agree with my suggestion. I would be more than happy if he does.
