So why do Arsenal fans STILL DOUBT Ospina’s quality?

The Colombian international number one has made himself a very popular figure among Arsenal fans since he was given a proper chance to show what he can do. Unfortunately for him and for Arsene Wenger, Ospina arrived at his new club carrying an injury over from the World Cup final in Brazil and after a couple of early games in the cup he suffered a recurrence of the problem and did not make his full Premier League debut until January.

But ever since he took over from the struggling Wojciech Szczesny, Arsenal have stopped leaking goals and started climbing the table. But there are still plenty of Arsenal transfer rumours linking the Gunners with keepers like Petr Cech and Iker Casillas. These rumours seem to be generally welcomed by the Arsenal fans and amany of us still seem to see the Poland international as our future between the posts but why?

I have done a few stat comparisons between Ospina and some of the best keepers in England and he always comes out extremely well but for some reason we continue to question whether he has got the quality to lead Arsenal to glory. Maybe we should pay more attention to the stats because according to a Metro report, not only do Ospina’s stats stand up to his current rivals in the league, he is the best keeper ever to play more than 10 Premier League games. EVER!

At least on the key factors of clean sheets, goals conceded and shots saved at least and they seem to me to be pretty important numbers for a keeper. It seems to me that we feel that Ospina has not been properly tested yet but don’t forget that this is his debut season in England so maybe we can expect him to improve and at 26-years old there is plenty of time.

So should we be a bit more appreciative of this fantastic Arsenal player?

Tags Szczesny Wenger

26 Comments

  1. Ospina is great. I think most of us already recognise this and are aware of his good stats so we don’t need to be convinced. I get a little worried when Szczeny is playing though…. It wouldnt be professional to keep him on for sentiment sake, we need a better backup gk

    1. I like Ospina. I was a little skeptical of whether he was really big enough to be a top keeper. If you look at the best keepers around most are at least 6’2, so I’ve always had the assumption that height is an important quality of a top keeper. But of course there has been a notable exception to that rule – Casillas was arguably the best in the world for years, and isn’t particularly big either. So Ospina has got me thinking differently.

      I still feel Ospina needs to make a couple proper ‘world class’ saves though. He’s made some very good saves so far, but nothing that really gets you out of your seat. We’ve been so much more solid defensively lately that he almost seems to have had an easy ride. I’d like to see how he reacts to being pushed out of his comfort zone a bit more before I’m truly confident with him, but then again that would mean Arsenal playing badly and exposing him, which we could of course do without…

  2. I don’t doubt ospinas ability at all, he’s been one of the stars of the second half of the season for us and has proven his worth however I can’t see scezza staying at arsenal in the future to play fiddle to ospina therefore if shezza does leave this summer, we should go out and buy someone worldclass such as Cech. Surely the competition for #1 spot would be high between the two, but that’s what you need in your squad! And for those who say Maureen wouldn’t sell to us, this is an exception because Cech has been at Chelsea for a while now and has done very well thus Maureen said that Cech deserves to choose his own path due to the service he provided for chelsea

  3. Off topic, but if Wenger sells Bellerin to Barcelona for big money, that would mean he is not interested in winning UCL or BPL. Remember he said 95% of players will stay, and that we are not in a position where we have to sell our best players.

    If he starts resting players for the FA cup final soon after securing top four, you know he isn’t interested in top 3 or top 2. INfact I won’t be surprised if we secure top 4, then end up 4th place because he starts resting players soon after for the remainder of the season. He will then say we need to secure qualification (through play offs) before we can attract big players, which will then mean end of august or last two weeks of August.

  4. No one is doubting his ability but to have a very reliable 2nd and 3rd. Chelsik do not bother if it is the Belgian or Cech in-between the post. Get Cech if he will agree to be on bench.

      1. Your assessment might be true, but for Ospina World Class does apply, he was Colombia’s GK in the World Cup and they played great football loosing only the quarter finals to Brazil…..Ospina was great in the WC so yes he is World Class

  5. I think the boss has by his own statement put to bed to sleep the issue of a new goalkeeper for Arsenal. So I don’t understand why the attempt to wake the sleeping dog to start barking, which is a disturbance to calmness. What is my own concern now is, Arsenal MUST aggress from the commencement of their away game to Hull City tomorrow night. The Gunners must never chicken out of that game under any pretext of confronting the relegation battler Tigers. For our ego and bride, we will manage a 2nd position in the table. Despite the fact of to come 3rd still give us the same privilege of finishing 2nd in the table. But for a good omen, the Gunners have to dragged down the Citizens of Man City to whatever position in the table. So as to confirm our state of mental readiness to battle the new champions Chelsea successfully next season by stopping them from retaining the 2015/2016 Barclays Premier League title. And win it ourselves. Let all the 2 Manchester clubs and the Merseysiders trail behind us this season.

  6. Great addition and most importantly he’s brought a sense of calm and authority into our back 5.
    Schez gives our defenders, (and fans the jitters).
    Not sure who’d be ideal for a back up keeper as Cech wouldnt want to sit on the bench.

  7. He has not put a foot wrong why waste 10 mill on when we already have top class keeper!

  8. I think its very annoying that we cant win a league with these players. Shame on other managers that Mou(big mouth)rinho won the league with toothless chelski… I am very sad to see we are trailing them.. On paper, we are the best in whole league. There are few corrections to be made… We just need a world class /top class striker.. Buying Dybala with van persie can do the job.. Van persie still has 2 years to show he is a world class striker. Till then we can get Walcott and Dybala gunning down big mouth oppositions. I would buy RVP & Dybala… Gunner forever.

    1. Van who?…… Perhaps i didn’t get u clearly….. Do u mind re-posting that?

  9. Only reason for us to get a new GK is if Shez is sold. The #1 jersey should be given to Ospina starting next season to be honest, he deserves it fully.

  10. OT. I think 3 signings will do for next season and those players I’d like to see but probably won’t happen are:

    ST-Paulo Dybala
    RW-Nabil Fekir
    DM-Geoffrey Kondogbia

  11. So I just came across a stat of average distance covered per game. The story was posted a couple of days ago so excuse me for being late to the party, but Alexis Sanchez only covers more distance than Monreal, Koscielny and Mertesacker. Wow. Everyone else is above him. Giroud, Özil, Cazorla etc. I guess it’s also to do with the intensity of the distance covered though. Sprinting to close down a defender take more effort than walking across the pitch to catch up with the play.

    Strange that Flamini covers over 2km more than Coquelin but doesn’t provide anywhere near the level of cover. Unsurprised to see Flamini high up, his running has always been his best asset, but I was a little surprised to see him pip Ramsey to the top spot.

    1. This is mostly down to position and positional sense though. A left wing (where Alexis is deployed) is generally one of the least travelling players. He doesn’t have the width of the pitch to cover, he doesn’t have to track back every time (because we play a loaded midfield) and he doesn’t often get beaten by players and need to chase them. The most running should be by our B2B and AM who will need to cover width on the pitch and the distance from the 2 banks in defence to the opponents box. Coq only has to cover up to about 35 yards out. He will also often have to track the player on the ball as opposed to players making runs – this means less diagonal coverage which obviously adds to distance covered.

      Flamini is poor because he tries to do too much. Instead of focus on filling pockets of space he tries to impact the ball too much. This results in his higher running rate but also the reduced coverage. The best DMs are not forced to be too involved but rather dictate the game by limiting space instead of limiting the players themselves.

  12. I don’t “doubt” Ospina. I think he is a great goalkeeper and deserves his place as our number 1. The problem is, he doesn’t instill in me that sense that he will bring out a world class save. He’s consistent, a good presence and makes good saves. I can’t remember a single save that made me stop and go “Blimey! He just stopped that team on his own! LEGEND!” I think he does a great job and does practically nothing wrong. I just don’t see him doing the extraordinary.

    I think what I’m getting at is would you take Ospina or De Gea? Ospina or Courtouis? Ospina or Lloris? Honestly with the exception of Lloris I didn’t even hesitate. I mention Lloris because he CAN pull off the brilliant saves and in the right defence he becomes nigh unbeatable. And that’s the thing – I don’t think Ospina is unbeatable. I think he is a good goalkeeper doing a good job but he’s not in that VERY top tier.

    Still wouldn’t go prioritizing a keeper in the summer. In fact I’d go as far as to say there won’t be any keepers on the market of the calibre I’m talking for several years and it’ll only be if a new talent emerges that I’d be tempted. Except maybe Forster…he has potential to be a WC super keeper but I’d be in no rush to hound him because we can’t offer automatic first team football.

  13. Good analysis and honest opinion FFFanatic. You touch on a number of interesting points. For me the key point is that NO-ONE except perhaps Wenger and the Arsenal GK coaching staff really has much of an idea as to how good he is, or perhaps more importantly how good he can become. He is a bit like Coquelin in that respect – many, both in the AFC fan-base and the pundits in general are just standing back and waiting for them to properly f&**k up because their subconscious is telling them these players cannot possibly be very good or excellent because they come to us with fairly low-key expectations, no big transfer cost and without a stellar ring to their names. You get the feeling that they are still auditioning for the part, FC is 24 games in to his “second-coming” at Arsenal, David with only 13 under his belt. And everyone is still waiting!

    I hear what you say regarding “Ospina or De Gea” or “Ospina or Courtois” etc but, and I think you say as much afterwards, these are not real-world options so it is pretty much wasted energy to ponder these hypothetical questions. I am still not convinced, despite the media buzz that Cech is a real-world possibility. Would also be worth saying that Man Utd probably couldn’t have given De Gea away in his first season – so we have to be patient with David Ospina.

    Lastly, and we don’t talk about much on this forum (we tend to talk about individuals rather than systems or collectives of players), but we would appear to have (at least at the moment) a properly functioning and reasonably fluent, consistent and reliable defensive back 6 at present (DO/HB/PM/LK/NM/FC) and it is really difficult to tell who is helping who look good, how much certain individuals are raising the games of others etc. I know in an earlier interview that DO was especially grateful to PM and LK who spent a lot of time with him, encouraging him in the early days and building up a good rapport. The overall unit is effective but the inner workings and the nuances are not obviously visible. Ospina’s rise has coincided with the emergence of Coq and PM and LK being consistently paired at CB, HB’s stunning development and NM’s class and maturity kicking in and taking shape. The fact that we have decent options now with MD, GP, KG and CC only adds to the present confidence. I do however feel a little sorry for WS in this respect – he grappled with about 10 different back 4 combos and no FC. The fact that DO has not had to save the team single-handedly is really more of a compliment to the defence than an indictment of him – I suppose as Gooners we should not worry too much if these heroics are not called upon for some time yet.

    1. Well put couldn’t agree more. Especially comparing him to coquelin and his situation people don’t think (almost don’t want) these two too be good enough since they are not big names with big price tags.

      1. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think I’d add that he does seem a more rounded individual then WS who always seems to have his head in the wrong place. My biggest positive with DO is his attitude and the fact he sat on our bench for 6 months and then made a big break through, no complaints, good understanding with his team, very positive. I still haven’t seen him do any WC show stopper saves but I really cannot complain having him at the back. He might not be in that top bracket right now, but our defense is certainly shipping a top bracket worth of goals (i.e. virtually none). Don’t think we’ve conceded more then 1 in a game since playing Spurs!

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