Images via @ChampionsLeague and @juventusfcen
Last night’s early Champions League kick-offs saw Kamil Grabara keep a clean sheet and save a penalty for Copenhagen against Manchester City, whereas Wojciech Szczęsny failed to keep out waves of attack from Maccabi Haifa as they recorded a famous 2-0 win over Juventus.
Grabara had a great game, his hard work finally paying off after he made a number of great saves in the reverse fixture last week despite conceding five goals. The most refreshing element of Grabara’s performances both yesterday and last week was the maturity he’s shown, not completely rid of personality but far less likely to have his own actions come back to bite him.
Szczęsny didn’t have the best game of his career, but to blame him for the goals Juventus conceding would be cruel. Yes, he could probably have got a stronger hand to both shots that became the goals, but the Juve defence were more than happy to let attackers cross and shoot at will.
As someone based in England, watching on British TV and consuming British reactions, what became apparent during and following both performances was the difference in perception between them as goalkeepers. Perhaps it’s not that odd, considering they are at the relative opposite ends of their careers (at 32, Szczęsny is still fairly young for a goalkeeper even if he has been playing first-team football for over a decade), but the overarching tone of analysis lay bare that the key to being well received in England is to play well either for or against an English team.
Grabara has had two fantastic games against City and I couldn’t be happier for him; we’re talking most likely about the future Polish no.1 and this is a fantastic feather in his cap early in his career. However, the way pundits in England are talking about him would have you believe that he is one of the best young goalkeepers in Europe, and the truth is he’s not there just yet. There are young goalkeepers playing in better leagues for bigger teams and performing at a higher level, two good examples being Gianluigi Donnarumma and Ilian Meslier. However, given the good PR from these games against City, I wouldn’t be surprised if a Premier League team or a big club from a Top 5 league attempts to sign Grabara in January or next summer.
Szczęsny is still thought of as the inexperienced and occasionally error-prone goalkeeper he was at Arsenal, because that was the last time a lot of English pundits would’ve watched him week-in, week-out. Nigel Spackman commentated on the Juve game last night for BT Sport, and he frequently commentates Juventus games as part of the channel’s Serie A coverage and is oftentimes an insightful co-commentator. Despite this you still got the sense that when he criticised Szczęsny, particularly for the first goal, there were the Arsenal days in the back of the mind. If reports from last month are to be believed and Szczęsny is primed for a Premier League comeback, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if after a few good games he is spoken about in far better terms.
A good example of perceptions changing thanks to staying in England would be to use another Polish goalkeeper, Łukasz Fabiański. Seen as a liability up until around two or three seasons ago, when suddenly he was being talked about as a valued Premier League veteran. This is in my opinion because he stayed in the Premier League for so long, combined with being part of a West Ham team that was improving. Don’t get me wrong, Fabiański has played at a level above for the Hammers, but it’s a level he’s been at for a good five or six years now, going back to his Euro 2016 heroics for the national side.
Perhaps I’m overreacting by writing this article, and I’m not stating anything new with the fact some English pundits care only about English teams to the point of arrogance, but it felt like last night highlighted this even more and it was obviously more noticeable for me because it was surrounding two Polish goalkeepers.
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