Peter Schmeichel played for both of Manchester’s flagship clubs in his career, and those loyalties appear not to have left him.
A central figure in United’s successes in the 1990s, the Dane finished out his playing days at City in their final season at Maine Road in 2002/03.
The 60-year-old was a guest on the latest episode of Stick to Football when he was asked to name who he thinks is the best goalkeeper currently playing in the Premier League, and he instantly plumped for Ederson, with David Raya a close second.
Gary Neville seemed surprised that his former Old Trafford teammate didn’t choose Alisson Becker, but Schmeichel retorted: “Alisson, in terms of one-on-ones and making big saves, I think he’s fantastic, [but] I think Alisson struggles a bit with his feet. There’s a few mistakes that you don’t see from Ederson.”
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Of course the ex-United stopper is perfectly entitled to his opinion, especially as a brilliant exponent of his position when he played, but for him to claim that Liverpool’s number one is suspect with the ball at his feet is laughable.
You only need to look at the 90-yard pass that he played to Mo Salah in last night’s win over Bologna, or his pinpoint long-range assist for the Egyptian when we beat the Red Devils in January 2020, as evidence that his passing qualities are sublime.
Indeed, as per FBref, Alisson has an 85.3% pass success rate throughout his career, which is only marginally eclipsed by Ederson’s 86.6%. Furthermore, the Reds keeper comes out on top for save percentage (75.3% to 72.1%) and a far better return on post-shot xG versus actual goals conceded (26 to 1.4).
We’ll have to respectfully disagree with Schmeichel on this one!
You can view Schmeichel’s comments on Alisson below (from 1:09:53), via The Overlap on YouTube:
The post (Video) Peter Schmeichel’s Manchester loyalties evident in claim which’ll amuse Liverpool fans appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.
