Brad Friedel - The Best Of The Best

[Upside Down]

I actually have infinitely more respect for him having gone to Newcastle. 

I'm so glad he never played for the red scum.

[Mattyblue]

I’m glad he didn’t, would’ve made me sick seeing him in a Sharp emblazoned shirt… doesn’t mean it wasn’t still the right career move.

[Upside Down]

In that case he should have gone to Inter.

 

Or we should have signed Zidane. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Upside Down

[Mattyblue]

Both of those things should have happened. Shearer and R9, Sherwood and Zidane lining up in Champions League final…

[Oldgregg86]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

He was a fool, heart over head, one medal for one of the players of his generation- should’ve gone abroad or United.

Don’t understand this argument. Running out for the last ten minutes of a friendly against accy would mean more to me than a champions league medal with manure. I know people will say it’s easy to say from my position now but I truly believe I would play for rovers for five grand a week than Real Madrid for 200 grand a week. Shearer is a god to his people. He made the right decision 

[Mattyblue]

You are conflating two things. Of course he would enjoy/have more pride in playing for Newcastle, however for his *career* as an elite sportsman it was the wrong move at that time - as his medal haul proved.

He should have gone to United/Barca/Inter and ended his career at Newcastle, ergo scratching both itches.

[47er]

1 hour ago, renrag said:

I’d put him in the very good category

Better than that imo. Career ruined by the decision to pick that Aussie  keeper instead, which I thought was daft.

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

93-97 Flowers was top class, went very quickly downhill after that.

Top class for 6 years! I'll take that!

[Oldgregg86]

1 hour ago, Mattyblue said:

You are conflating two things. Of course he would enjoy/have more pride in playing for Newcastle, however for his *career* as an elite sportsman it was the wrong move at that time - as his medal haul proved.

He should have gone to United/Barca/Inter and ended his career at Newcastle, ergo scratching both itches.

I’m probably alone in this but the medals wouldn’t matter to me. Everytime you pull your teams shirt on is the prize . 3 points in a blue and white would mean more than any medal for someone else . Would you rather play and lose in an fa cup final for rovers or play and beat rovers and get a medal for united ?

[Mattyblue]

If I was absolute elite, and Rovers weren’t, I would go to the place where I would win most medals. I would then end my career at Rovers.

Why did a famous Evertonian leave them as a young player for United? To win things, as unfortunately he knew it wouldn’t happen there, he then returned at the back end of his career. Eminently sensible and rational - but of course football is tribal, emotional, not always rational, so players won’t always make the best decision for their careers.

Edited June 1, 2023 by Mattyblue

[frosty]

2 hours ago, Upside Down said:

In that case he should have gone to Inter.

 

He was definitely tempted by Italy. In his 94/95 season diary (available to buy for a few quid online if anyone's interested) he mentions wanting to learn Italian a few times. In fact, from memory, one of the final things he writes is "Now for those Italian lessons" or something similar.

Whether any foreign teams actually came in for him a year later in 96 I'm not sure.

[Mattyblue]

Hmm, maybe they were just slightly different personalities, what do you reckon? He was a troubled soul in his 20s, like a lot of young lads. He had a tough upbringing, living in a tough area…

But guess what he would have been a troubled soul if he’d have stayed at Everton living in the goldfish bowl of Liverpool too, winning trophies at Man Utd was bugger all to do with it… so what’s your post got to do with the point I was making?

Edited June 1, 2023 by Mattyblue

[SuperBrfc]

“I had a tremendous time of not just my career but my lifetime playing at Blackburn. I thought it was a truly impeccably run club at the time I was here and it is just incredibly fond memories of my time.”

 

“The league cup was a highlight no doubt, winning promotion straight away was a big highlight, the European campaigns, was a highlight, and every time you step out on the field is a highlight,” he said.

“The way the club was run, with Graeme Souness and Mark Hughes, no player could complain about how things were set up here".

I shouldn't have read that at this time of night. Quotes taken from article below:

https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/17419304.brad-friedel-humbled-rovers-hall-fame-inclusion/

[Oldgregg86]

18 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

If I was absolute elite, and Rovers weren’t, I would go to the place where I would win most medals. I would then end my career at Rovers.

Why did a famous Evertonian leave them as a young player for United? To win things, as unfortunately he knew it wouldn’t happen there, he then returned at the back end of his career. Eminently sensible and rational - but of course football is tribal, emotional, not always rational, so players won’t always make the best decision for their careers.

Yeah I understand that argument and 99% of people will , probably rightly, agree with you. If I was Rooney I’d rather play my whole career for Everton . That’s just me

[Mattyblue]

And we need to look at it from their perspective too, most players aren’t fanatical supporters of a club, they are in academies from a young age, see it as a job - not in the stands every Saturday, living and breathing it like us, so generally they will pick moves for the betterment of their careers.

 

[Oldgregg86]

2 hours ago, Mattyblue said:

And we need to look at it from their perspective too, most players aren’t fanatical supporters of a club, they are in academies from a young age, see it as a job - not in the stands every Saturday, living and breathing it like us, so generally they will pick moves for the betterment of their careers.

 

Yeah I know that’s why I said it’s easy for me to say in this position because I’m sure once you get inside a club and there trying to ship you out and you soon realise there’s no loyalty from them etc my perspective would probably be different. I suppose my argument only works if you are an elite player like Rooney and shearer.

I still truly believe now though without knowing the inner workings of football I’d play for rovers for the wage I earn now in division 2 than Real Madrid etc but admittedly from a naive perspective 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Oldgregg86

[Mattyblue]

Each to their own, but I’d be on that private jet quicker than you could say Madri…

[broadsword]

Before my time but how about that blacklaw fella? Friedel was an amazing keeper, and I'm not disputing he was the best, but I'm just interested is all. 

 

I'm the end, it doesn't really matter who was the best

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 minutes ago, broadsword said:

Before my time but how about that blacklaw fella? Friedel was an amazing keeper, and I'm not disputing he was the best, but I'm just interested is all. 

 

I'm the end, it doesn't really matter who was the best

Blacklaw ? “ Rafferty’s Pig “ . Carrying too much timber. His best days were down the road at the Dingle Dome.

[SuperBrfc]

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

13 minutes ago, SuperBrfc said:

 

Great stuff but some of those penalties were terrible. He still had to guess which way to go though.

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Great stuff but some of those penalties were terrible. He still had to guess which way to go though.

Some of them are poor but I tell you what, for the most part I don't think it mattered. Look at how early he goes and how far across he is even by the time the shot is struck. Even hard shots directly into the bottom corner would have been saved on most of those. To beat him would have required sending him the wrong way or putting it in the top corner area.

It amazed me that he committed to diving so early on most of those except the Barry one...which was pretty much straight down the middle and he stayed on his feet for it. How often do you see that? Keepers are always diving early, and he was doing too. If they save one straight down the middle it's usually with a trailing leg. Brad must have either really done his research on these takers or had terrific instincts, or both.

Legend. That stat at the end of pretty much a clean sheet every 3 games is something else too.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

3 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Some of them are poor but I tell you what, for the most part I don't think it mattered. Look at how early he goes and how far across he is even by the time the shot is struck. Even hard shots directly into the bottom corner would have been saved on most of those. To beat him would have required sending him the wrong way or putting it in the top corner area.

It amazed me that he committed to diving so early on most of those except the Barry one...which was pretty much straight down the middle and he stayed on his feet for it. How often do you see that? Keepers are always diving early, and he was doing too. If they save one straight down the middle it's usually with a trailing leg. Brad must have either really done his research on these takers or had terrific instincts, or both.

Legend. That stat at the end of pretty much a clean sheet every 3 games is something else too.

The best we’ve ever had in my time. You can argue about who was the second best. I always thought he was worth a goal start for us.

[wilsdenrover]

7 hours ago, Upside Down said:

Stick it in the Friedel thread 👍

There you go 😀:

 

[Tugayisgod]

Goalkeeping standards in general have dropped over the years in my opinion. Time was a keepers job was to keep the ball out of the net, nowadays they are being asked to do Cruyff turns and ping a pass 70 yards onto a full backs toe.

Consider that De Gea has just won the Golden Gloves award this season with performances like this

Imagine the reaction on here if Pears made anything like those kind of mistakes.!

[LeftWinger]

On 01/06/2023 at 09:07, Upside Down said:

Ridiculous. Friedel was the best in the Premier League for a good couple of years and you could even make an argument for him being the best in the world at a certain point.

His name should be up there with the likes of Buffon, Schmeichel, Khan etc.

 

Completely agree with this.

Think it was the 2002 World Cup where he became the first keeper since 1974 to save two penalties in the group stage of a World Cup. 

He was just completely reliable. I can definitely find more goals where Schmeichel is at fault (or lobbed or chipped) than Friedel being at fault. 

I remember thinking it was stupid when we signed him when we already had Alan Kelly and John Filan - both of whom were excellent keepers. How wrong I was!