Well, I was discussing with a friend over the quality of Victor Valdes, FC Barcelona's starting keeper. Now keep in mind that I know as well as you do that he is young, and has plenty of time to improve, but is he of the quality required for such an important position at the club?

Over his time he has made amateurish mistakes, most notably this season against Valencia both home and away, and although he is an accomplished shot-stopper for the most parts his decision making leaves alot to be desired, not to mention his positioning on set plays. In the air he is a dominant force and I remain fairly confident that should a cross come over in his vicinity he will more often than not catch it, or get a good enough fist to it to knock it away.

A goalkeeper's job is obviously not only down to him, as the quality of the defence has to come into question, but for the most part the defence has dealt well with most threats when the entire starting backline has been available, but are the Cules, and others who have watched Valdes, either in La Liga or the CL, convinced of his quality?

Good question.

For now I would say yes. He has great shot stopping abilites. But mistakes ruin him. (Kind of like Barthez). As long as he improves and makes less and less mistakes then I would keep him. Also because most of the top keepers are taken. If we could get a world class keeper then we should jump on the chance. GK is one of those positions where we can improve a little.

true.... not to many gks are like casillias .... play in the CL at the age of 19 ..... Valdes can learn from a more experienced gk for the next 1 or 2 seasons.... and if he really wants to be on first team he should try his best every time in practice....
the big thing that bothers me its when he doesnt come out for the crosses.... also, setting up the wall is a problem .... juaquin scored 2 weeks ago from a free kick because the wall wasnt put in the right spot ....

I think he can handle it, he has his days... sometimes he has a solid performance, other times he makes school boy errors. But he has been our most consistent keeper as of late and so I'd say he's doing a good job. He's still learning and I know he'll keep getting better.

guys I think that Valdes is as good as Buffon...and Valdes is better then Reina...we all know that Casillas is better then Valdes but that is not the point...i believe that Valdes will improve a bit in the coming years...i guess there is no GK who is not doing stupid mistakes...Bartez made many and huge mistakes...i hope Valdes is not following his steps...so i think Valdes is maybe in top 6 of the goalkeepers under 30 ... and looking at his performaces I think he is the right man for Barca at that moment...and it is so tough to be GK,he make 2-3-4 saves one on one with a striker and it is still the strikers giving the points...i think Valdes is not that bad and the last season he gave us the points in some very difficult maches

Yes, I think we don`t need a new GK. Valdes has made some very stupid mistakes but I hope he has learned his lessons and he is getting more and more experienced with every match. He is only 24. Except these stupid mistakes he is very good in 1-1 situations and on the line. IMO he will improve a lot in coming seasons and then he will become one of the best goalkeepers.
And there is no worldclass keepers available too.

We haven't had a good, consistant keeper in years and Valdes is better than most that came before him. He's young and makes some silly errors, but those mistakes will vanish given some time. He's a good shot stopper but his decision making needs to improve. I don't see the need to splash out a ridiculous amount of money on a world-class GK (a la Juve going for Buffon). Valdes will only improve IMO.

yes i beleive so he is barca at heart and is a good keeper.

I'm going to have to say yes. If Barca are building an all star team, then Valdez should be the goalkeeper. Why? Because he has soo much talent. Sure, he makes mistakes, but everyone does and he is young, he can learn from them. He has fast reflexes and is one of the few goalkeepers that I totally trust.

I think Valdez is still up for it. He has made many mistakes, but he will hopefully learn from them. He is still young and good. He has young talent. His reflexes are pretty good. He will get more experience and improve over the years. Anyway, there is no other world class keeper that's available for this. This would still be an area to improve though on the team.

He is good but is he good enough for the best club team in the world?

I don't think so. I still like him. He has shown Barca what he can do. He has never been dissapointing, except in 2 or 1 mistakes.

Asforementioned, he's good, but not great. Playing a great match is playing a great match for 90 min. Not playing great for 89 min, and then making a silly mistake that costs the team dear. You may as well have Wiese of Bremen in goal.

I'd say world-class keepers are available, if Barca are willing to fork out. Greg Coupet of Lyon, Timo Hildebrand of Stuttgart, Gomes of PSV. Keepers like that should be in reach of Barca's budget. And I'm sure, if they stretched it a bit, they could get Henk Timmer, Sebastian Frey or Oliver Kahn.

BAD MISTAKE 2 DAY against osasuna but hey he has saved us many times,he is still the man,and he is a better keeper than all mentioned by valeron,only casillas,buffon,cech,maybe dida are better than valdes.

His mistakes are killing us. I say if there is a good keeper available, we get him. This is ridiculous. His mistakes are killing us and he might single handedly cause us to lose La Liga. All of the goalies mentioned by Valeron are capable of making good if not btter saves than Valdez. And they don't make mistakes as bad as that.

We are the best team in the world. Yet our keeper is not one of the top 15 keepers in the world.

If we can, we have to replace him.

Another typical mistake from Victor today. He really needs to stop making silly blunders like that. He's a good keeper and he'll only improve, but his errors have cost us quite a few points in La Liga.

Barca has a nice team mates and I say it as a Madrid supporter,but you need a new goalkeeper!
Thats the difference,I give Barca an advice but Barca fans only wrote something like:
Madrid is out in Cl,KING HENRY,Barca Madrid 3-0 and so one,that sucks!

Where exactly have you gotten these type of responses? I haven't seen anything like that in this topic, or on this forum in general.

Come on you know it as well,there a lot of madrid and barca supporters who do that and so things sucks!I hate fans who think that only there team can win and that there team doesnt't make faults!

So Barca4life look at this http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/index.php...pic=82343&st=30 Post 36

And this,all things written by you http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/index.php...pic=83521&st=30 Post 31

Valdez has cost us 8 points in the league. If we had someone more reliable we would be 17 points ahead of everyone. Valdez is costing us. He has gotten us quite a few amount of points, but not enough. There are MANY more reliable keepers in the world. And we need to get one.

I don't like the whole "we could, should, would be ahead by this many points" way of reasoning, but it's true that he has costs us points this season.

it doesnt really matter the points in la liga....

if he makes a mistake in CL we can lose the trophy ..... thats more "expensive" than 8 points in la liga.... there are still 5 games to come in CL, and if Valdes makes one big mistake we could be out .... and the club should realize that this can happen before it actually happens....


btw, does barca have another goalkeeper? i never saw any on the bench ....

I somehow knew that this thread will come up after today. Horrible mistake...

we have another keepr, albert jorquera, but from what ive seen, there is a reason he is behind valdes. jorquera played the copa del rey, look at the goal ewerthon scored against him... He did make some very good saves in the 2nd leg of that tie though. Valdes is better. Valdes is a great shot stopper, but everything else he is terrible at.

Ech, im going to stop making threads. I make this and this blunder comes about, I only say the first 35-40 minutes but we looked lethargic and uncreative in play.

I think Barca has to splash out on a new keeper to maybe put some pressure on Valdes. Or they might also as well buy a new one to replace him.

Though he is short he has conceded the least goals, I think. He came from Barca youth system didnt he, so I guess he's an ideal hometown hero to be your keeper just like Casillas.

Speaking of keepers, who was it who had to head the ball on the crossbar because of a dodgy backpass, was it Bonano? Funny but great work at the same time by the keeper.

Well you see there is such a user called Cicinho!?! He talks crap and in our forums. Criticises almost every club and a lot of his posts are nonsense. He comes here with: HAHA YOU LOSE PLAPLA". Ofcourse Barca4Life says something against him coz this kind of behaviour is insufferable.



Valdes is no where near Casillas.

And that crazy goalkeeper was Coupet IMO? His defender gave a horrible pass back but he saved it with head and then Rivaldo came to put it in (5 meter max away from goal) and Coupet made an amazing save

is it Valdes fault that we cannot score two goals??? for a lost we should blame the whole team not just the GK...we couldnt score a goal against Valencia...Valdes could perform better but he is not the reason for the losts of the team...

teams always play better when they arent under pressure .... the strategy of the game changes .... most of the time when barca doesnt score first, we cant win .... i think the score woulda been 3 or 4 nothing if valdes didnt make that childish mistake .....

Obviously all rival fans will have a little banter here and there. You specifically said that when YOU give us advice we start saying that RM sucks, Barça is the best, etc. and this isn't true at all. That has never happened, and what you brought up is something general. I made a sarcastic reply to Cicinho and told him to grow up, because that behavior is extremely childish. I don't understand why you'd come in the Barça forum and laugh about one loss, when in fact RM have been the laughing stock of Spain for much of the season. For the most part, I don't see Cules going in the RM and having a laugh.

Well..this season it hasn`t been so. IMO when Barca lets a goal in then they are playing even better( like against Chelsea in the 1st leg) and we have come back this season against Deportivo, Bilbao, Sevilla...
But yeah, Valdes makes too big mistakes. He is good but then he makes a totally WTF-mistake But it is hard to say what could have happened when he didn`t made that mistake etc.

Too many crappy amateur mistakes for my liking. I think he needs REAL competition for first team place to prove his worth.

Jorquera is no competition to Valdes...so VV gets all relaxed as No.1.

We shouldent ditch him yet, but he does need some pressure.

He made some good stops yesterday and looked confident overall. That's the thing with him, inconsistency. One day he'll look world class and the next he'll make one of the dumbest mistakes ever. The good thing is that these errors will slowly start to vanish with time & experience. He has most of the fundamentals of being a good GK but he just needs experience IMO.

valdez is a good keeper but the goals he receives are silly (most of the time) but he makes some great saves

YES HE IS OUR MAN!!!

Are there any doubts after today?

YEAH CARLOS TELL THEM,hes a FREAKING HERO I LOVE THAT MAN LOL!HE PLAYED WONDERFUL!VITOR VICTOR !

SO AS CARLOS SAID LOL


HE IS OUR FREAKING MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THERE ARE NO DOUBTS NOW,CHANGE THIS THREAD TO THE VICTOR VALDES THREAD NOW LOL.

lol, change it! A+ for the way he played today! excellent!

He was immense tonight! My MoM for sure, he kept us in the game.

Ever since his stupid blunder against Osasuna he has been solid, especially in the CL. I've said it before and I'll say it again: we don't need a new keeper. Victor is young and constantly improving.

I believe after today the answer to this question is a resounding YES. He was fantastic and there's no reason to sell him. Yes, his mind wanders sometimes but I can overlook that after his performance today.

He was Man of the match IMO

I think he deserves a place in the NT instead of Reina

YEAH HE IS!

I mean, he has done stupid things but like Barca4Life said, since the blunder in Osasuna game he has been very solid and yesterday in CL Final he was defenetly MOM for me.

Its been done, just because I know the questions/acclaim/criticism will come in through the next couple of seasons.

Valdes was immense last night, my heart was in my throat when Henry burst through. My thoughts were exactly "Henry doesn't miss chances like these, devastating" and to see the ball just stop at Valdes was something considerably comforting. He deserves the acclaim, any acclaim he receives after his solid performances throughout the season barring some isolated mistakes.

Unzué has complete faith in the keepers



FC Barcelona's goalkeeping coach Juan Carlos Unzué has analysed the fine season that both Víctor Valdés and Albert Jorquera have enjoyed in an exclusive interview with www.fcbarcelona.com and Barça TV.

It has been almost a decade since the Barça first team had such strong custodians and the fact that both Valdés and Jorquera have come through the ranks has made them true heroes at the club. "Both players have evolved over the last year," Unzué stated.

Has Txiki already confirmed that Valdés and Jorquera will stay?

"It is clear that they have been outstanding and have made it very easy for us to have complete confidence n them. Their strengths are their ambition and their desire to improve every day. They are home grown keepers and were already here when we arrived and we have to thank those people that worked with them before. They are both young and improving all the time.

In what areas have they improved?

"The pair of them have both developed a mentality that has helped through recent years. We have been through a few difficult years, with many ups and downs, with a feeling that the area of keeper was a worry, but they have made us forget all that. Now we know that we have the area of keeper well covered and that the team is in very safe hands."

Is the psychological work more important for a keeper than the rest of the players?

"In some way when you reach this level you already have that. You have the aptitude to deal with mistakes, to deal with the good things and to make things black and white. You play at the top because you are well-balanced. During recent season there have been great times and difficult times. Víctor has been through those on the field and Albert on the bench and they have both had to come back from injuries which has made them grow strong in every respect. If you grow stronger on a personal level then you grow stronger on a professional level."

As the coach of the keepers, how did you feel after Valdés' performance in Paris?

"I felt something special. As much for his great saves as for any small errors. The game was so big and so intense that it made it seem that the errors and the saves were your own. In that sense I was delighted, but above all a great pride that the team won thanks to some moments when Valdés was vital to the team. In the end though, it is the winning of the trophy that will be remembered. Clearly, if trophies are won because you have played very well, then all the better. But this is a team and the most important thing is what it does as a whole."

Are the two of them the strongest goalkeeping pair in the league?

"I do not like to make comparisons. We have two keepers in whom we have complete faith. They are two keepers that adapt themselves to different games and to the demands that are made of them and that always gives you a better chance of winning things. But I am not going to enter into whether there are better or worse keepers out there."

Has the evolution of the position of goalkeeper suffered in the last few years?

"The position has been changed slightly by a series of changes in training. It is nothing new. Now we have to start to forget, especially at this club, about goalkeepers that do not come out from their goal. Now a keeper is another player and can be involved in the play. He also has to anticipate everything that the opposition does and if that is not possible then he must track back to the goal. All the time keepers are having to improve their mental capacity when taking big decisions, their physical strength and their reading of the game."

In pre-season, will the programme of Valdés and Jorquera be different from the rest?

"There are some specific parts. What we do in pre-season is very physical. We always do related exercises where the ball is always part of the practice sessions, because we think that that is the best way of working."

How would you describe the characteristics of Víctor and Albert?

"Víctor is a keeper with fantastic natural physical capabilities. He also has great reactions and is a superb shot-stopper. If you look at the statistics in the league then you know that we are talking about the best shot-stopper. That is crucial. He has that. He is also improving little-by-little in every other area too. "Albert may not have the physical strength of Víctor, but he is very intelligent and that makes up for it, although it is obvious that he is still able to maintain the level that Barcelona demands. He is always ready and capable of playing 90 minutes and staying totally focussed and always anticipates what the other team are trying to do. Physically they are two keepers that suit our style perfectly."

Victor Valdes was a bit shaky in some games but has performed well overall, he reall y kept Barca in the Final. made some blunders in some games. Buffon should still come if Juve are relegated

He has performed well in the CL Final, stopping 2 good shots from Henryt in a one on one situation and consistent. he had made some blunders ( Valencia home & Away) and really need some pressure by buying another goalie

I want to ask you something... how many times you've seen VV making mistakes in really big games ?
I don't mean games on local level, like those with Valencia, Osasuna, etc.

Take this year, for example... games against Chelsea, Benfica, Milan, Arsenal... nope, he was perfect in these matches, and he was with great contribution for Barca's second european title.

That's the strongest thing in Victor's mentality - he's always on level when the team needs it. That's Barca's goalkeeper.

Well, one could argue that Valencia were our biggest rival in Liga this year, and he messed up in both games against them. Those are big games. And Osasuna were in the top 2 or 3 when he made that blunder, so that could be a big game as well.

It's not like Valencia and Osasuna games were like Malaga and Cadiz.

... and it's not like Champions League final. Valdes is big.

Valencia and Sevilla looking strongest




Two of the top teams in the Spanish League meet on Sunday night. Barça play Valencia, and fifteen days later, it's Sevilla. Valdés accepts that they are the two teams to look out for.

FC Barcelona, Valencia and Sevilla are the only teams to still have maximum points in the league, and the Catalans host the other two at the Camp Nou over the next fortnight. Valencia are first up, and it's Sevilla in early October - two games that will matter a lot towards final positions.

Víctor Valdés said "these are two teams that will be fighting to be at the top. Sevilla is a dangerous rival", as well he should know, after the European Super Cup. But Valencia are no easy pickings either and Valdés says he has a lot of respect for Quique Sánchez Flores' side that has started so well "both in the league and in Europe". On Sunday, he expects a very competitive match.

Glad to see children excited



The first team thoroughly enjoyed their trip to Manresa on Wednesday. "It was nice to train like that" says the Barça stopper. "It is nice for us all to see how children enjoy seeing the team."

But although there was a festive feeling to the session, Valdés describes it as otherwise being "a training session like any other".

Rotations at the back

How does it feel for a goalkeeper when the back four is changing around so much? Valdés has no worries there, saying "it is the defensive system, and not the players in it".

IMO he is very good at the moment with the capacity to get much better. Sometimes his decision making lets him down, but he has the potential to be one of the world's best. he is only 23 after all is he not?