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Brad Freidel
Unusual take, but he was pretty damn good for a lot of years.
Brad Freidel
Me neither. And I agree, but the Doors Isn't a particularly high bar.
Martyn's relative lack of international recognition should be a clue that he might not be as good as he looked in those games.
Peter Schmeichel for me
Had a long chat with a friend last night about goalkeepers. He says Peter Schmeichel. Personally I went with Nigel Martyn, as he was brilliant beyond belief in every single Everton game I watched back then as well as in plenty of games I've watched from the 90s.
Who would be your choice?
You won't find much love for any Ex Palace players, other than Murray, on here.
Schmeichel and Seaman for me.
Whilst there's no question in my mind that Nigel Martyn wasn't fit to velcro Schmeichel's gloves (I saw Schmeichel play in the flesh a number of times, and he just had such an incredible presence), it is striking how few caps a number of top English players won during that era:
Tim Flowers - 11
Steve Bruce - 0
Gary Pallister - 22
Nigel Winterburn - 2
Lee Dixon - 22
Matt Le Tissier - 8
Les Ferdinand - 17
Andy Cole - 15
Stan Collymore - 3
It certainly seems easier in more recent times to get a cap, particularly when you consider that Ashley Cole has more to himself than those nine combined.
Ashley Cole was one of the best left backs in the world at the time. He seems an odd pick for your comparison.
I guess in the era of the players listed above most of the players in the top division were English, giving a huge pool to pick from. Now the percentage of English players must be much lower, hence if you’re English and playing in the Premier League you have a decent chance of getting a cap.
Can't believe no one's mentioned Mark Beeney yet.
On a more serious note, I would say either Schmeichel or Seaman followed by Cech & van der Saar with honourable mentions to the usually underrated Martyn and Jääskeläinen.
Jääskeläinen is another good call. Also came to think of Shay Given, perhaps not the same level but excellent in Newcastle.
I wonder if its just nostalgia but generally it feels like the goalkeeper standard was higher about twenty years ago. Perhaps because they were all about shot stopping rather than participating in the game in other ways.
Ashley Cole was one of the best left backs in the world at the time. He seems an odd pick for your comparison.
I guess in the era of the players listed above most of the players in the top division were English, giving a huge pool to pick from. Now the percentage of English players must be much lower, hence if you’re English and playing in the Premier League you have a decent chance of getting a cap.