Do We Need To Sign Another Goalkeeper?
The obvious first question is, do we need another goalkeeper? We have three on the books, but you have to ask yourself if any of them is the best we could get? Scott Bain has just been signed, he’s clearly going nowhere except forward in the game. It’s a good signing. But it leaves us with two other keepers, both of whom have question marks about them.
Craig Gordon has his detractors in the Celtic support, and no mistake. But he also has a lot of fans, and that’s sensible because he has been excellent player for us these last few years and on his game he is a superb first choice. But even his biggest fan will admit to heart in the mouth moments and to his having made some shocking individual mistakes.
It is a dreadful thing about goalkeepers that they are the one position on the pitch where there is quite simply no hiding place and few second chances. Look at what’s happened to poor Loris Karius at Liverpool, who’s two errors on the biggest stage of all have made him a target for the boo-boys and the internet hard-men … and that’s just amongst his own support.
In no other part of the pitch are errors so difficult to forgive or impossible to forget. A striker can miss a hat-full of chances and pop up and score the winner and be forgiven … a goalie makes one major error in a match and he is haunted by it. I knew watching the Champions League Final that Karius’ confidence had been dented by the first mistake. The second mistake was always likely, as horrible as it was. Keepers have it tough.
But if Liverpool can pay £4.6 million for that guy, from the Bundesliga, and still not get a player with the mentality to play at the very highest level in the game, what chance do we have of bringing in better than Gordon? He’s an international with a long career behind him. Any signing we make in that area would struggle for his experience.
I think De Vries is done. I understand that he was signed as a player the manager knew and had worked with before, but his own confidence was at rock bottom and that was before the Europa League disaster in Russia where he was culpable for the second goal. He was on a shoogly peg before that game anyway.
On balance, it might be best – for now – to leave that position alone. A good keeper is only as good as those in front of him anyway … and that brings us to the most obvious areas needing improvement, starting with the full-backs.