Abby Brammell

By Martin Samuel in Oporto

Luk out: Arsenal's goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski parried cross from Porto's Silvestre Varela into his own net

It hardly behoves a layman to offer advice to a professional on the way to execute his job, but in the opinion of this correspondent, and the majority of those in the Estadio do Dragao last night, it is of inestimable benefit to a team if, at vital moments, their goalkeeper is facing the right way.

When Lukasz Fabianski begins to consider where it all went wrong for Arsenal in their Champions League second-round tie, he may care to start with the basics.

Outwards. That is the way goalkeepers should be looking when a free-kick is about to be taken

Towards the play. As a rule of thumb, if what is in front of you is a large expanse of grass, populated with players, you are on the right l ines. I f there are 20,000 Portuguese peering at you, it might be an idea to adjust your position. Fabianski did, but too late. By the time he had turned round, after arguing with Martin Hansson, the referee, over an indirect free-kick awarded with total justification, Porto already had the ball back in play. The next time Fabianski got his hands on it, he was retrieving it from the net.

So where have all the good goalkeepers gone? True, Fabianski cannot be made to shoulder responsibility for what would appear to be a global dearth of talent in this specialist area, but his failure to guard Arsenal's goal with any conviction did seem to reflect a very modern malaise. Would Fabianski have got near an Arsenal team in a match as important as this a few years ago?

Almost certainly not. He is young, he is raw, he is a decent shot-stopper and may well mature over time, but for all Arsene Wenger's protestations of faith before this match, the fact Fabianski made a succession of errors more commonly seen on the school playing field suggests he is some way off assuming the responsibility demanded of a member of Europe's elite.

Iker Casillas, in the Real Madrid team as a teenager, made the odd error, too, but not like this. Standing in for Manuel Almunia, out with a finger injury, Fabianski was an accident waiting to happen: and sadly for Arsenal, nobody had to wait long.


Luk out: Arsenal's goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski gestures with his back to the ball as FC Porto's Ruben Micael gets ready to take a free kick


It is an irony, too, that the trouble really started when Arsenal's goalkeeper actually got his hands on the ball. He pushed it into his net for the first goal and then picked it up when he shouldn't to concede the indirect free-kick that led to the second.

The lack of confidence in his capability was plain in Arsenal's defence, which struggled with Porto from the beginning. Fabianski was unsure and his team-mates were unsure of him.

Wenger waves away the doubts but he hardly has an option unless he is to send his third choice, Vito Mannone, out against Sunderland on Saturday. He may feel this would destroy Fabianski's confidence and he cannot afford that.

So what else can he do except blame random factors: the decision of Hansson to allow Porto to restart the game before his goalkeeper was ready, or the piece of turf Fabianski appeared to be blaming for his woeful positioning for the first goal.

Just 11 minutes had passed when calamity struck. Silvestre Varela tore past Gael Clichy and hit a low cross which any goalkeeper should have smothered comfortably.

Somehow, Fabianski got into a horrid place, meaning the ball entered behind him, turning a cross into a shot.

He parried it like a shot, too, although by now he was facing his own goal, which had the unfortunate effect of pushing the ball over his goal-line.

Replays showed that, untroubled, the Varela cross would have passed harmlessly through the six-yard box. Varela optimistically claimed it, and UEFA obliged him, but it was a Fabianski own goal.

As his defence looked on, appalled, Fabianski appeared to be taking issue with the pitch. He stared at it, snarled at it, kicked and stamped on it. Maybe he was undone by some rotten sod that seized his studs at the worst possible moment, but he did not look to be set up right from the start.

Modern pitches are better than ever; alas, the same cannot be said of modern goalkeepers. Fabianski never recovered from that. He made the odd good save with strong hands, and he is certainly an athlete. Yet, these are basic requirements.

On other occasions, tearing from his line to deal with a loose ball that Sol Campbell was marshalling to safety, and then shinning it into touch when he had time and the field open, he looked overcome by pressure.

In the second half, he inexplicably collected the ball from a Campbell backpass and was still making his way back to goal, having pointlessly bickered with Hansson when the indirect freekick was taken.

Wenger was enraged, but only partisans will lend a sympathetic ear to the Arsenal manager. Shut up and get on with it would be better advice than a flawed defence of his player. Maybe he made this point behind closed doors.

After a costly mistake it is hard for a goalkeeper to escape selfdoubt and, if such dark thoughts did for the magnificent David Seaman in the end, what must have been going through Fabianski's mind for the remaining 79 minutes after his initial error?

He has been over-promoted, although some would argue Almunia is no great improvement. He is not regarded as international class in his native Spain and his overtures to Fabio Capello, the England manager, have been met with withering disinterest. Capello rates him as no better than England's mediocre domestic crop.

We think of this as an English problem because of the legacy of Gordon Banks, Ray Clemence and Peter Shilton.

Yet, the truth is, truly great goalkeepers worldwide are down to the fingers of one hand. The fact that Dida has kept goal for AC Milan for a decade says a lot. So there may be hope for Fabianski yet. Just remember: outwards.


source: dailymail