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THREAD: Footballers make mistakes. It happens. It happened yesterday, it happened today and it will happen next week. Sometimes you can get away with it. But as a goalkeeper, you can’t. There isn’t another player to save you, no hiding place, no help.
When a striker misses a sitter, or if a midfielder is sent off, they’ve made an error, but it hasn’t changed the score line. Whereas when a goalkeeper makes a mistake, it immediately changes the game. And that has huge repercussions, which is why the criticism is greater.
Maybe we do go in too harshly on them, compared to other players. I used to play keeper on the playground and it’s just as easy to be the hero as it is to be the villain. Zinsberger was lucky that her error didn’t change the outcome of the match. But she has to learn from this.
This isn’t the first error Zinsberger has made, and the fear amongst Arsenal fans is that it won’t be the last. The last thing we want is for an error like that tip the game against us against Chelsea or Man City. She needs to learn to be focused for the full 90 minutes.
Goalkeeping has improved tremendously over the last 10 years. Just look at the World Cup, and the performances of Ellie Roebuck and Ann-Katrin Berger. Errors like that can no longer be deemed accepted as normal for the Women’s Game, as they once were.
Joe now has the experienced Williams and the young talent Stenson in the wings. Zinsberger clearly has talent, Joe wouldn’t have bought her otherwise. But if she continues to repeat the same errors on the big stage, she could soon find herself sliding down the pecking order.
