Opinion: Two Outstanding Goalkeepers Are Key

Despite Birmingham City’s goalkeepers being the hardest names to spell in the squad, they are absolutely key in helping the team push for promotion. Tomasz Kuszczak would be maximum points in scrabble and he also helps the team to maximum points with amazing saves such as his brilliant flying save at the weekend against Fulham. He is the first choice goalkeeper but he has had to work hard for that with Legzdins being a superb reserve option.

Quite a few teams have one good goalkeeper who they rely on and as a reserve goalkeeper barring an injury, it is very likely that the majority of the season will be spent watching from the sidelines. However, often these players do the bare minimum as they don’t need have any real competition from a third choice goalkeeper and it is hard to dislodge the number one. This is not the case at Birmingham and this is a real plus point.

Adam Legzdins has been snapping at Tom’s heels ever since he joined the club. He did really well in his first pre-season and despite it being almost set in stone that Tom was going to be number one for the season, Adam certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. No doubt this competition helped Kuszczak though. He would have been constantly looking over his shoulder and trying to better himself in order to cling to the number one jersey and this would mean that his personal improvement is better for the team in the long run. By having that competition, it means that both players rise to the challenge of improving themselves and it means we now have two top goalkeepers.

The addition of Adam also helped because it means that Tom has a training partner who is a goalkeeper. So the coaches can feed the ball in all day but it is often the other goalkeeper who is participating in the drill. Recently I watched the England squad train and if Hart was in goal for the drill, Heaton and Forster would be the ones shooting. This helps as they know the limits of a goalkeeper and where the ball needs to be in order to help their team mate. It is all positive in order to improve each others skill. So I have said it is a competition but also the team work plays a massive role.

The obvious plus point although, is the fact that we have a second goalkeeper who can step in and be a number one. Tom was injured just before the Reading game and it shows how good Adam can be by stepping in at late notice and keep a clean sheet. This was crucial as the back four had confidence to play the ball back to him and it is a credit to Rowett for rotating the goalkeepers in the cup competitions to how well they adapted.