Robbo The Best Of A Bad Bunch?

While the country debates who will partner Wayne Rooney in the up and coming qualifiers; Rob Facey foucses on the worrying plight of the English goalkeeper and the serious dilemma Steve McClaren now faces.

While John Terry soldiers for Chelsea looking like the phantom of the opera, the bigger picture is that he is fit to captain England for this month’s crucial qualifiers. His return, however, can not mask the biggest problem facing the England team – who to play in goal.

Whilst I am all for goals, goals and more goals in football, the England fan in me could not help but hide behind the sofa watching Monday night’s game at White Hart Lane.

Paul Robinson and Scott Carson, two of the goalkeepers battling for the England jersey both shipped four goals. You can’t blame them though, after all, they must have seen Portsmouth’s David James do the same just two days previous. Like I said, I’m all for entertainment, but when England are already in a tricky situation, liquid goalkeeping is not an attribute I want to see.

The most worrying thing is that this isn’t a new phenomenon. Cast your mind back to last season and the teams that were involved in the relegation battle. Ben Foster (who conceded Robinson’s long range effort) was at Watford, Robert Green was at West Ham and Scott Carson was on loan at Charlton. Hardly a ringing endorsement for English goalkeeping, is it?

Last weekend’s games mean that after just eight fixtures the three goalkeepers vying for the number one spot have picked the ball out of the net a total number of 36 times. Steve McLaren now faces a real dilemma as who to pick as his first choice.

Against Israel and Russia, injury and suspension forced him into changing his team and unearthing some gems. Though it is unlikely that Barry and Heskey will feature prominently for the rest of this campaign, McLaren could do with a happy accident regarding his goalkeepers. He had put pressure on Robinson by recalling James but it is almost as if nobody wants to step forward, letting goals slip left right and centre.

There used to be a joke about Scottish goalkeepers. I have a feeling that, unless something changes in this country, the nationality in that joke may be changing sooner rather than later.