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Good keepers hard to find

REUTERS, London
This week's Champions League matches highlighted a seemingly perennial problem for top English clubs -- foreign goalkeepers.
The influx of overseas players to the Premier League has drawn in keepers from around the world -more than half the 20 Premier League teams now feature nonBritish players between the posts.
Denmark's Peter Schmeichel was the rock on which Manchester United built an empire in the 1990s and Zimbabwean Bruce Grobbelaar's athleticism in goal took Liverpool to title after title in the 1980s.
Nowadays the use of players who are not eligible to play for England often appears more a hindrance than a help.
Liverpool shipped a late goal against Bayer Leverkusen after a mistake by Polish keeper Jerzy Dudek while German Jens Lehmann looked anything but secure in Arsenal's 3-1 defeat by Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
In recent years there has been a clear trend -- foreign goalkeeping imports play well for a season, maybe more, and then lose form. Often they are relegated to second choice, or move clubs, within three or four years.
United have failed to replace Schmeichel adequately since he left in 1999 despite buying a number of overseas players.
Australian Mark Bosnich and Italian Massimo Taibi came and went while Fabien Barthez, a World Cup winner with France, had one great season before increasingly becoming an embarrassment to
manager Alex Ferguson.
American Tim Howard also started superbly. Now he is backup to Roy Carroll who has made three gross errors this season, including against AC Milan in midweek.
Many English fans believe the Premier League is the toughest club competition in the world and they put the failure of the foreigners down to their inability to cope with the physicality, speed and stress of the English game.
Consistency is the key to goalkeeping and certainly with League, FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League games coming up every few days, it is hard for a keeper to maintain form.
Psychology plays a huge part in goalkeeping and it is more than likely that large squads and the rotation policy used in most major clubs to ease their players' work-
load has had an adverse effect on keepers' performances.
In the 1970s and 1980s, a top English club had a first choice goalkeeper and an understudy, normally a youngster learning the trade from the master.
When Pat Jennings, Peter Shilton and Ray Clemence turned up for pre-season training, they knew they would be number one choice for their clubs for the whole season. Arsenal and England's David Seaman was the last keeper from a top club to benefit from this security. This season the London side has been swapping between Lehmann and Spaniard Manuel Almunia and neither has given much cause for confidence -- the champions have conceded 45 goals so far in all competitions.
Having the same goalkeeper week in and week out allows the
defence to build up a relationship and work out how to cover the keeper's faults. Seaman was protected in the twilight of his career by a back four that knew how to guard against his poor judgement with crosses.
If central defenders are being rested or are injured, and their goalkeeper is changing from week to week, it is no wonder Arsenal's record at defending set pieces is so poor.
Liverpool have Dudek and Chris Kirkland, when fit, fighting for the number one shirt and the most interesting embarrassment of riches is at Chelsea.
Carlo Cudicini was the best goalkeeper in England in 2002/3 and yet this season the Italian has sat on the bench, watching Petr Cech help the London side to the top of the league.
Cech has been exceptional and has now gone 961 minutes without conceding a goal in the Premier League.
Whether the Czech's form will continue beyond this season remains to be seen and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho would do well to remember one idea prevalent in Europe -- find your best keeper and stick with him through thick and thin.
Oliver Kahn at Bayern Munich, Iker Casillas at Real Madrid and Gianluigi Buffon have been fixtures in their club sides who have profited hugely.
Buffon cost Juventus $46 million in 2001, a world record for a goalkeeper, an eye-watering sum in the current transfer market and not far short of the $51.5 million United spent on forward Wayne Rooney.
United have an embarrassment of striking riches but where goalkeepers are concerned, the merrygo-round keeps on spinning.