qs! wrote:
I definitely think Szczesny is very underrated. I reckon its because he sweeps up so much, it makes people nervous and they then think he's a problem. Despite the reality that his sweeping is excellent and almost never turns out bad for us. They just can't separate that from the feeling they have while its happening.
I see it the other way around. When I think of great sweeper keepers I can't think of anyone who gets sent off or fooled as often as Szczesny. He plays a high-risk game and he's not quite good enough to pull it off. He's got potential, but the potential has been there for seven years now. I think we set the bar pretty low with keepers in the post-Lehmann era. Szczesny stepping in and actually saving us points now and then was nice for a while. The flaws he has right now are the same ones he had when he was eighteen, though. The underlying assumption was always that he'd keep on developing and it hasn't really been the case. Reflexes are great but decision-making is still poor.
On one hand, who knows how much of it is down to Arsenal leaving him constantly exposed. We're not in the habit of making life easier for any of our players. On the other hand I see him play the same way for Poland on international level. That's why they decided to drop him post the World Cup. I'd trust him to save a penalty or a deadly header from close range any day. I would be willing to put money on him getting another red card if we draw Bayern in Champions League again, though.
