Pepe Le Pew

Reina disappointed after conceding a goal

It was not too long ago that Pepe Reina was one of the best goalkeepers on the planet, or at least in the English Premier League.  He is a multi-time Golden Gloves award winner for conceding the least goals during the season and while Liverpool has struggled around him, he has been one area of the team where there weren’t any worries.

Every once in a while he would make a silly mistake which would raise eyebrows, but honestly, so does every goalkeeper. When a goalkeeper makes a mistake, due to the nature of their job it is magnified by the likelihood that it leads directly to an otherwise avoidable goal.

Reina has been a member of the all-conquering Spain squad that has dominated football over the last few years; however he has been the backup to Iker Casillas for the most part.

Also, Reina is only 30 years old, which in goalkeepers terms, is a baby. Goalkeepers’ primes are typically later than outfield players and no one finds it surprising for a ‘keeper to play into his early 40s. Therefore, barring a transfer request, Liverpool fans figured that they had their long term goalkeeper locked up for years to come.

But then this season happened. To be fair, there were signs last season as Reina started making a few more mistakes than previously, but he was still a solid keeper and no one was really calling for his ousting. But in the 2012-13 season so far his performances have been nothing short of horrendous.

When he was injured and replaced by Australian Brad Jones in goal, no one seemed to be overly concerned even though Jones isn’t particularly good either. The downgrade from Reina to Jones simply wasn’t that significant and that itself is a massive problem when a team is trying to qualify for the Champions League.

After a terrible start to the season, Liverpool have been on the right track in the last couple of months as they work their way back up the ladder and are now at least in contention to qualify for the Europe League. Players and manager Brendan Rodgers are still talking about making a charge towards the top four, however unlikely that may be.

But how much closer would they already be to that if they had 2007 Reina in goal as opposed to 2013 Reina? It seems baffling for a goalkeeper to be significantly better at 25 years old than 30 years old without something like the Petr Cech head injury to explain it.

With rumours that Barcelona are interested in bringing Reina home to his junior club when current stopper Victor Valdes moves on in the offseason, Liverpool and Reina have come out saying Reina is going nowhere and plans to see out his contract which runs until 2016.

In the past that would delight me, but after Reina cost Liverpool more points with a horrible mistake against Man City this week, I think it’s time the club give serious consideration to replacing him, or at least buying him some legitimate competition.

Young English starlet Jack Butland was available during the January transfer window and Liverpool were linked with him, but in the end they never big and he went to Stoke after rejecting a move to Chelsea. Liverpool should have made him a priority, but that opportunity is gone now.

There are plenty of other good young keepers out there all over the world (including here in the A-League) and Liverpool need to start taking a proactive approach to finding their future goalkeeper, because the future might be sooner than they think.

How long can a team realistically give a guy to turn around his form when it is in such a crucial position? Does someone earn the right to play their way into form when each mistake they make has a serious impact on the position of the club?

Were Liverpool to sell Reina in the offseason, I would approve of that but that’s not to say I think he will never be able to find his form again. It’s entirely possible that after some time off during the summer he will be back and as good as ever. It’s also possible that he can recapture that old form, but only with a change of scenery and a new club. However, it is also possible that Pepe Reina will never be able to find his old form again.

Some players have slumps and then come back from them, some players gradually decline as they get older and some players simply just lose it.

We can’t know which category Reina falls into until we see what happens in the future, but Liverpool also can’t put all their eggs in one basket and hope for the best.

Whether they sell Reina and move on or whether they simply buy another keeper to push him for a first team place, Liverpool has to find a way to fix their goalkeeping issues so they can go back to focussing on the outfield issues that have already been widely accepted.

The Rodgers era has finally started to show some positive signs with Daniel Sturridge’s arrival and even Jordan Henderson showing signs of life along with the emergence of Raheem Sterling and Andre Wisdom, but a lot of that hard work is quickly undone when you can’t trust the man at the back.