Liverpool are often referred to as a one or two man team with reference to the importance placed on Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres by the club. Those who make those claims are overlooking a lot of important players for the club – but none more so than goalkeeper Jose Manuel Reina who has saved the club on many occasions with this weekend’s Merseyside derby being the latest instance of his heroics; Reina was the best player on the field as he repelled wave after wave of attacks, denying countless Everton players and even making a sublime double stop – first from Tim Cahill and then from Marouane Fellaini as the Belgian looked to pounce. It’s no wonder that Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez was full of praise for the goalkeeper after the game, declaring today “For me he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and yesterday he showed why”.

It’s no small thing to refer to a player as one of the best in the world – though Liverpool supporters are quick to claim their players are either the best in the world or simply world class. Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel world class? I don’t think so! – but Reina can be justifiably proud that his name is rightly up there. He has consistently been one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership since his arrival four summers ago with a fantastic defensive record and a few Golden Gloves awards to his name too. Liverpool baiters will argue that Reina’s success is down more to the performances of the defenders in front of him than his own performances but the Liverpool defence has looked very shaky on a number of occasions and Reina’s not often a passenger in Liverpool games, often being called on to contribute and keep his team in games.

So he’s arguably the best in the Premier League, any goalkeeper with his record would be, but is he up there among the best in the world? I think so, yes, whilst there are still goalkeepers out there who I would class as better than Reina – think the likes of Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon – I would say there aren’t many out there who outperform the former Barcelona youngster. But the fact that Real Madrid stopper Casillas is one of the few better than him is a major blow to Reina as it’s Casillas who has prevented Reina from having a glorious international career and from being the first choice ‘keeper for Spain’s European Championship winning side. Reina’s already doing well to be Casillas’s deputy ahead of the likes of Barcelona’s Victor Valdes but the fact is that he will never be Spain’s first choice unless something happens to Casillas, something that seems highly unlikely and the fact that Casillas is only a year older than Reina means that the latter will probably not get much of a run when the Real Madrid custodian retires.

A lot of criticism has gone Liverpool’s way this season due to their poor results – but this criticism has become a lot harsher than it would have been had it happened last year for the simple fact that Liverpool’s stock has risen due to their title challenge last season – many fans thought that this could be Liverpool’s year and their failure to follow up last year’s challenge has many disappointed – don’t forget that Liverpool have spent a lot of recent seasons fighting for third or fourth place so this season’s criticism is more than warranted. 20 goals conceded so far is not an impressive tally and is worse than even Birmingham’s goals conceded but the blame cannot be placed on Reina – though he has had the odd poor game – as the defence have looked suspect; Jamie Carragher in particular.

The importance of Liverpool’s key man cannot be underlined more though – they may be doing worse than they would have liked by being sat in 5th place in the Premiership but it could be a lot worse if their key men weren’t performing and Reina is performing – a player who can almost single-handedly earn you three points, like he did against a raging Everton side, is a very valuable player to have in any kind of situation. How Reina’s name is not always mentioned as one of Liverpool’s most influential players is beyond me and as long as he keeps playing well the club will earn points whether deserved or not because a top class goalkeeper can make a hell of a lot of difference – as Everton learned the hard way.