Simon Mignolet - Real Madrid 4.11.2014

Simon Mignolet

Goalkeeper

Age 26

Height: 6’4

From: Sint-Truiden, Belgium

Career:

Year	Club	Appearances	Goals
2006-10	Sint-Truiden (Belgium)	104	1
2010-13	Sunderland	101	0
2013-	Liverpool	54	0
		259	1
2011-	Belgium	11	0

Some Simon facts:

·         Simon was Sunderland’s player of the year 2012/13.

·         June 2013: Simon was signed by LFC (Brendan) for a fee of £9m on a 5-year contract.

·         Simon was in the Belgium 2014 World Cup squad but did not kick, or lay a hand on a ball during the tournament (unused squad member behind Courtois). 

·         Simon has a degree in Political Science.

Before today:

·         LFC had conceded 21 goals in 14 matches in all competitions thus far in 2014/15 and kept 2 clean sheets (both in the PL away to Spurs and at home to Hull). 

·         The PL table by goals conceded: LFC’s tally of 13 would put them in joint 7th place. 

·         The PL table by goal difference: LFC’s 0 GD would put them in joint 9th place.

·         In the Champions League LFC had conceded 5 goals in the 3 previous games.

·         In the League Cup tie against Middlesborough, the visitors put 13 penalties past Simon in the shootout at the Kop end. 

·         The defence in general has been criticised but Simon himself has been singled out, notably on ‘MNF’ by Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.

·         In the 2013/14 season LFC’s defensive record on goals conceded alone (50) was the 8th best in the league.   They finished second in the PL with 84 points, had the longest winning run (11 games) and longest unbeaten run (16 games) in the league.  Simon played all 38 games and was arguably one save away (Demba Ba?) from clinching the title for LFC (Carra’s argument was that a better keeper makes that save at the crucial moment).  Goals scored in 2013/14 (101) was surpassed only by champions Man City (102).  Therefore, LFC’s defensive record this season so far is nothing new, but the goals have dried up!

Tuesday November 4, 2014

Champions League Group B – Match Day 4

Real Madrid 1 – 0 Liverpool

LFC : Mignolet; Manquillo, Moreno, Skrtel, Toure; Lucas (Gerrard 69), Can (Coutinho 75), Allen, Lallana, Markovic (Sterling 69); Borini.

RM: Casillas; Arbeloa (Nacho 83), Varane, Ramos, Marcelo; Modric, Kroos, Rodriguez (Bale 62), Isco; Ronaldo, Benzema (Hernandez 87).

Three days since the away defeat to Newcastle and less than four days before a home match against Chelsea, much is made of a starting line-up excluding Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho, Sterling and Balotelli with Lovren and Lambert not even making the bench.  Brendan was always going to have to rotate his squad this season, but questions are asked as to whether he is managing the rotation thing in the correct way.  A very busy night is expected for the subject Simon Mignolet.

Here is how Simon’s night went:

1^st minute – After just 16 seconds the ball is passed back quickly to Simon under pressure from Real and Simon goes long, hoofing the ball out to touch on the left flank.  This goes against Brendan’s philosophy of passing it from the back, though to be fair it was some good pressure by Real.

2 - Noticeable that when Real are probing in the final third, the LFC back four is a few yards up from the edge of the box, whilst Simon is more or less on his line.  Should he be at least on the edge of his 6-yard area ready to come out?

3 – Simon makes a good save parrying from James Rodriguez.  His crouched starting position in anticipation of the strike much maligned by Gary Neville proves not to be an issue in this case, though Neville would probably argue that Simon would have been able to catch this had he been standing up tall.  However, had he been standing up tall a powerful low strike may well have been curtains for Simon.

9 -  Makes a good high save after Skrtel gifts the ball to Benzema.

10 – Paying particular attention to corners.  No danger from this one as it is easily cleared away.

13 – Simon makes a very decisive catch from a dangerous Marcelo cross.

15 – Corner-watch.  An outswinger is cleared and Simon is put under no pressure at all.

15 – Ball comes to Simon.  He had been involved in passing it around the back on a couple of occasions since the first minute incident, but this time he chooses to go long again but barely reaches the half way line, with no LFC player challenging for the ball.  Seconds later, Simon is making a save at the feet of a Madrid player with Skrtel almost getting in the way.  It is a good stop but the source of this pandemonium is his relatively weak and aimless kick-out.

18 – Simon holds a Ronaldo shot with relative comfort, though the shot lacks the usual CR7 power.

19 – Makes a very decisive punch with good distance on it from another dangerous cross.

26 – Refer to ‘1’ and ‘15’.  Again Simon is forced to go long when the ball comes back to him and again there is no great distance or direction on the kick with no LFC player challenging.  The result is with the next wave of attack it is 1-0 to Real Madrid, as they come charging down the left hand side and a cross whipped in the corridor is finished by Benzema.  Simon is not blamed for the goal but what about the kick out?  Note however the need to go long and get rid of the ball is not necessarily the keeper’s fault, but you would like to see better distance and/or direction (towards a red shirt) on these kicks.

27 – Another long kick by Simon only just reaches the half way line.  You would suggest some kicking work should be done on the training ground.

34 – Simon bats away a Ronaldo free-kick.  It is hit straight at Simon but with typical CR7 power and swerve and also came straight through the wall so Simon’s sight is slightly impeded.  Evaluation of a goalkeeper is often very fickle in that if he makes a save you might say “good save” but if he does not you would say “awful goalkeeping”.  This save is one “you would expect a good keeper to make”.

37 – Corner-watch.  Cleared at the near post by a defender.  Real clearly have no interest in putting Simon under pressure from wide set-pieces.

39 – Simon picks up a bouncing ball easily after dangerous pass is missed by both defender and attacker in close range of Simon.  Potentially awkward but got away with it.

39 – Simon makes another save but this time parries the ball straight out towards the penalty spot and therefore right into a dangerous area.  It is cleared away by LFC, but I wonder could this have been steered in a safer direction?

43 – It is noticeable that Simon is shouting at Skrtel and Kolo to push up a few yards when Real are knocking it around in the LFC half, but Skrtel and Kolo are not really listening.  Seconds later, both Skrtel and Kolo drop back to try and run with Ronaldo rather than trying to play offside, whilst the two full-backs seem unaware of the concept of a back four moving in unison? 

49 – After a busy first half, Simon is already called into action in the second half and makes a comfortable save from Ronaldo, though he does spill it unnecessarily and is forced to scramble to secure the ball.

59 – RM have a free-kick in a wide area but again Simon is put under no pressure.  When a goalkeeper is under pressure generally, rain balls on top of him as much as possible surely?   

68 – The second half is proving quieter for Simon thus far but he is given a scare when a cross from the left flashes across him, but Benzema misses.  Had Benzema hit the target, it looked like Simon would have been snookered, but to be fair you must acknowledge the failure of the defenders to cut out the supply / deal with the cross / cover Benzema.

70 – A Bale strike from close range beats a flapping Simon at head height but hits the post.  Again it appeared that the keeper was well beaten but the defence was not exactly cutting out the danger.

72 – A Ronaldo free-kick struck weakly straight at Simon, but Simon decides to punch it away when a comfortable catch looked favourable.  It goes down as another save in the stats, but an odd decision by Simon?

78 – Simon kicks one straight at Isco but luckily he is quite far out.  Simon’s distribution is hit and miss overall.

81 – Simon receives the ball at his feet with Ronaldo approaching and feints past CR7, thus giving him a taste of his own medicine.  Simon seems to oscillate between calm and panic at times.

85 – Simon makes a good high save from a powerful Bale free-kick.

No further action.

Post-mortem:

·         Simon made 9 saves, though this includes 2 that were either parried into a dangerous area or punched away when catching seemed a viable option (see ‘39’ and ‘72’ respectively).  It must also be said there was really only one excellent save (from Rodriquez on ‘3’) and that some of the shots on target were tame.

·         Simon dealt with two dangerous crosses well, catching one and punching away the other convincingly.  He was not put under pressure from set-pieces apart from that.  However, there were two moments when dangerous crosses from wide areas in the corridor caused havoc (on ‘26’ for the goal and on ‘68’).  However it is not suggested that Simon should be dealing with these balls as they are of supreme quality, rather it is a question about the back four and the supply. 

·         On five occasions (1, 15, 26, 27 & 78) Simon’s distribution caught the attention, particularly the chance on 15’ and crucially the goal on 26’.

·         Real had 60% possession, 27 shots, 9 on target, but in reality (ignoring the stats) clear cut chances were restricted.  Simon’s performance was a bit like LFC’s overall - not brilliant, just decent, with errors going unpunished apart from that one occasion for the goal.