Gary Neville at it again about Arsenal but is he right?

Former Manchester United defender turned Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville just loves to give his opinion on Arsenal and while most of the time he is just jumping on the bandwagon having a go, he does on occasions come out with opinions that are worthy of debate.

Basically, Neville has called into question the quality of Bernd Leno, in fact, he has done more than just question his ability he has outright stated that he does not think the German is anywhere near the other top keepers in the Premier League.

“We talked about the goalkeeper, Bernd Leno’s mistake,” Neville said in his Sky Sports column. “I don’t quite trust him.

“I don’t think he’s anywhere near the class of the other top goalkeepers we have in the Premier League.”

Personally, I do disagree with Neville on this, however, I have had enough conversations with fellow Gooners and seen comments on here that his view of Leno is not necessarily a minority view.

His distribution, coming for crosses and general judgement does seem to be areas that some Arsenal fans are concerned about and to an extent they are right.

However, when I compare Leno’s performances to David de Gea over the last 12 months I believe that he compares favourably with the United number one and de Gea is considered top-class.

Seems to me that when Leno makes a mistake his credentials are called into question but when it is Hugo Lloris or de Gea that it is just one of those things and all keepers make mistakes.

For me, the biggest test is how does one feel when Arsenal are under attack and the truth is I do not worry about Leno cocking it up but I do about our defenders.

Do you agree with Neville’s assessment that Leno is not top quality or do you feel he is being unfair?

24 Comments

  1. I thought Gary Neville would be too busy nursing that hamstring he tweaked on Wednesday night ?
    All joking aside, yes Leno has made mistakes, but most gk’s do! Some not as many as De Gea though ?
    I’d much rather he’s in goal for us & tbh with our defence (sorry) in front of him, he is put under a lot of pressure!

  2. Leno is top quality, he is among the top 5 goal keepers in the league.
    In that same game he made two great saves, I will say rather it his defense letting him down, imagine Sokratis as mature in the game takes a wrong gamble and went for an aerial duel with Kane and lost that led to the goal.

    Allison
    Ederson
    De Gea
    Lorris
    Leno

    My top 5 in that order. I do trust in Leno.

    1. I will put Kasper Schmeichel ahead of Leno. Being a great shotstopper is not enough for a goalkeeper, Leno can’t deal with crossse, and please stop comparing De gea with Leno, even Schezny is a better keeper than Leno. Gary Neville is right Leno in my opinion is definitely not among the top5 in the league.

        1. Sir Szchezny has improved at Juve so much so they got rid of Buffon, Has got way more Champions league exp and won titles at Juve. Szchezney aint the same guy that was at Arsenal.

          Leno got lots to prove in comparison.

          1. Szcz has not improved he is just lucky he is
            playing for the team who wins everything in Italy.
            He did not replace Bufon.
            The Italian stood down aged 40 went to PSG
            but has come back already as back up.
            Szcz was playing great in England even shared the golden glove but the Arsenal defense fell apart for one season and Szcz got the blame.
            Cech replaced Szcz at Arsenal just when
            the defense came good again.
            Timing and luck can affect performance too.

    1. Phil
      Man united had a worse defense than us in the 2015/2016 season but de gea was still voted goal keeper of the season. I agree our defense is bad but Leno is not as good as people make him out to be, he’s a good goalkeeper but not a great goalkeeper, be honest with yourself Phil, how do you feel each time their is a cross into our box or each time the ball is passed to Leno, he has always been good with stopping shots but his mistakes are just too much, go and watch 2017 confederation cup in Russia, he started the tournament as first choice because Neur was injured before the tournament, he made 2 mistakes that resulted to goals since then he has been dropped from the national team he wasn’t even invited for the world cup the following year.

      1. LenoHappy- I can only judge him on his Arsenal performances and he has proved himself far better than an aging Petr Cech and Ospina. Man Utd have improved defensively this season and their first choice back four is better than ours at the moment but we will immediately improve with Tierney Bellerin and Holding back in the side.I also fail to understand how Calum Chambers is rated below Sokritis.
        But the topic is Leno.He needs to improve his handling but again that is mainly down to the defence.I have never known any Arsenal side allow so many crosses to come into our own area.And how many times do teams run straight through our midfield ? If the keeper has no confidence in what is in front of him then it’s only reasonable to expect him to make the odd mistake.
        As I say-he’s the best we had for a while and will hopefully improve with his handling.
        My point was -would ANY top 6 GK be as good with our defence?Im not sure they would

        1. What are you talking about Lenohappy?

          Leno made a mistake in Germany’s game and so is De Gea. Do you know how many games he fumble and he was also dropped too. The only difference is that Spain are not well equipped with keepers like Germany does but mind you both were called this season and both were benched.

          De Gea against Crystal palace is more a blunder than Leno against Tottenham. who has the better defence? De Gea
          Who play the toughest team? Leno.

          Give Leno the Man U defence and see if he won’t be full of confidence.

          And to think Szcz is better than him makes me laugh.

          Szcz was lucky enough to play for Big teams but Leno hasn’t been lucky cos he only play for teams which have no good defense.

          Liverpool’s Adrian is even looking better in goal.

          Man city Ederson is more assured in goal than with Brazil.

          Go figure.

  3. De Gea and Lloris are lauded as world class GKs, but they also made plenty of mistakes like Leno

    The GK and the defenders must be supported by the other players, otherwise the defense will suffer

    Once Arsenal get a great system, we will see a big improvement in the defense. Sanllehi, Edu, Emery, the other managers and the coaches have this season to create a good one

  4. In general I think both our defenders and our goalkeepers over the last few years have been made look worse, than they actually are/were, because our midfield and attackers haven’t been organized in pressing and defending. It has been too easy to get into our final third and to make unchallenged crosses etc.. Eventually, that will give the opponents too many chances and too many goals, making the defenders and the goalkeepers look really bad.
    If you ink about it, you probably couldn’t name a single Arsenal goalkeeper or a single Arsenal defender in the last 6-7 seasons, that would rank in the top 3-4 in the PL in his position.
    Not a coincidence, but a product of poor organization.

  5. People like us already know from three years ago that EMILIANO MARTINEZ is simply the best goalkeeper at arsenal.

    People at arsenal are always slow at seeing things.

    Just like as Mavropanos is the best defender at arsenal after Luiz.

  6. Leno is good I’ll rank in the top 5 in the premiership. I’ll probably have just De-gea,Allison, may be Edison and Spurs goalkeepers slightly of him if not at par.

  7. Why Arsenal always criticizing their players. We were not a noisy neighbors why now. Let`s keep praising our players instead of discouraging to play for Arsenal.Let Gary talk about his old club they were bad past years they talk little about them they trying destabilize us to under-perform.
    Unique Arsenal once a gunner always a gunner. Leno is our number one let`s praised him.

    1. For how long are we going to keep on praising under performing players. A player should be able to withstand criticism (positive/negative). It helps them to up their game and get out of their comfort zone.
      We love them but lets not spoil them. Its time to dress up our cabinet with trophies. Man U and Chelsea may struggle now, but they have won major trophies recently. We have spent millions on them(players) so they should pay back with a good performance.

  8. De Gea and Lloris are proven goal keepers in the EPL, so its time for Leno to do so. Leno is part of our defense who are licking goals week in week out. he cant save a penalty, we need another goal keeper to challenge Leno. We should not always blame the defenders alone, the goal keeper should be part of the blame for wrong positioning.

    De Gea and Lloris have won and drawn matches for their respective clubs, for just being brilliant in goal.

  9. Nwville was a very poor defender, ridiculed on many occasions in international tournaments ! How does he dare opening his mouth?

  10. I am personally not a G.Nevile fan simply bcos he is too critical of players. And he didn’t do well in his coaching career compared to other coaches like Morhinho who is also a pundit. I am more worried over Arsenal defenders than Leno. Leno is a good keeper and can be better. He has single handedly kept us in some games.
    The players and formation Unai Emery adapt 2moro will determine if we shall win, draw or lose
    I would prefer a strong midfield of Guenduozi Toreira/Wilock and Xaka. Watford always play physical we must compete with them. Just like against Tottenham, without Cebalos or Ozil we can get goals. After all, the formal didn’t provide any assist against Tottenham. It is better not to be too adventurous with our front line but be compact and win thru deadly counter attack. We must learn how to play on the road and win. Three points is what matters.

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