Roberto Martinez recently said that he doesn’t feel Everton need a new goalkeeper. A lot of fans feel the time has come for some fresh blood between the sticks, but the Spaniard is of the belief that Tim Howard and Joel Robles are enough.
He said Everton are “strong in that position”, but are they? A lot of the much mentioned individual errors that have cost Everton this season have come from the back, including the goalkeepers. Tim Howard often plays silly balls out, putting his defenders under unnecessary pressure and Robles is the same. In my opinion, both are too cavalier with the short game from the back and make too many errors. This is probably largely down to Martinez’s philosophy but doesn’t that stress the need even more for Everton to get a goalkeeper that is smart enough to know when to do it and when to be no nonsense?
Their strengths lie in shot-stopping. We saw Joel Robles have an absolute stormer at West Ham in the cup and Tim Howard made an incredible save against Southampton last month; something we’ve seen him do a few times over the years.
However it is an area I think Everton need to improve in. Every club should always be looking to move forward and this is a particular area Everton should be looking to do that in. If you look at the teams above Everton this season, most of them pushing for the top 4 and 6 throughout the season they all have better goalkeepers than the Toffees:
- Tottenham- Lloris
- Southampton- Forster
- West Ham- Adrian
- Swansea- Fabianski
- Stoke- Begovic
This shows that Everton are weaker than teams you’d expect them to be challenging with next season. Obviously the expectation is to certainly be above teams like Swansea and Stoke but both are set to finish above Everton this season, so are going to be teams Everton are going to have to overtake next season.
So to get to that level again of being able to challenge for the top 6 or possibly even 4, Everton need to improve in a few areas; and one of the main priorities should be a goalkeeper. People talk about the likes of Dea Gea winning his team so many points this season, that’s what Everton need. A ‘keeper that wins them points with game changing saves and to be there to make a crucial save when the defence fails to stop an attack. That is what the likes of Southampton have on a more regular basis than Everton; I’d say Everton’s GK’s cost as many points as they win with errors that are becoming too commonplace.
