We are starting to see more and more Chelsea links to potential new goalkeepers, meaning that this is an issue for the club.
As we know, the club are considering a new stopper this summer, and they are being linked to a handful of names on a potential shortlist and considering options.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is too inconsistent and for me, should not be our number one going forward if we want to get back to the very top.
Edouard Mendy was fantastic for a season, but then also showed too many inconsistencies and should not be our number one going forward.
For me, we must now make a decision to go all out for a new number one, which I do feel that the club will end up doing, but it looks like they’ve been keen to see the season play out first and then make a decision when they’ve had a look at everything. This is probably wise. But for me, I can see now that we need a new number one and that is what we should prioritise.
There’s plenty of names out there, but a lot will depend on price and availability at the time.
For me, one of the main bits of criteria we should be looking at is physical stature and height. I know that you don’t always necessarily need to be the tallest person in the world to be a good goalkeeper – we have seen many world class goalkeepers who are not the tallest – but for me, I’d very much like to see a more dominant keeper in the box, one you can be confident will take control of crosses coming in, rather than flapping at them.
I think it gives the defenders more confidence as well, when they know their stopper is going to eat anything up that comes in.
But equally as important is having a goalkeeper who as well as being a top shot stopper, is also good with his feet, because that also breeds confidence to the rest of the players, knowing they can go home to the feet of the goalkeeper if they need to.
So we need to run the data on this but also look at physical attributes, as well as leadership. I love a stopper who leads from the back.
I like Gregor Kobel from Dortmund, I think he ticks a lot of the boxes. But his agent has said he is not available this summer.
Andre Onana stands at 6ft 3in, and I’ve always liked him. Again, ticks many boxes, but Inter have him on a long contract there.
Diogo Costa is also a very good keeper, but he’s the same height at Kepa (per Wiki). Again, I do not think height is the be all and end all, but for me, it should come in to play. Even if Kepa had a longer reach sometimes he would have saved some goals, so I do think it needs to be looked at.
But the fact that we are even having and seeing this debate right now, proves to me that Chelsea need a new number one this summer.
