I believe that, should we let Reina go, we’ll be mourning that decision once he hits form again at a new club. Also, let’s try not to forget that the club being most heavily linked with the 30 year-old is his former club, Barcelona. Yes, that Barcelona, the strongest and most respected footballing side in Europe at present. Do sides like Barcelona sign average and past-it players? Silly question, we know the answer to this. The outcry against Reina has been rumbling all season but appeared to reach its crescendo after his supposedly ‘howler’ against Man City at the Etihad. Maybe he made a mistake in coming so far out of his box, for me he had no choice but to come out and try and arrow the angle but can we all agree that Sergio Aguero had absolutely no right to score that goal. Aguero is one of the world’s best, but the angle alone should’ve been too much. 99 times out of 100 he would’ve put that well wide or it would have hit Reina and we’d have been praising his brilliance as a top ‘keeper finding his form again. Which reminds me: how many times has Pepe come flying out of his box and caused an attacking player to miss after slipping through our defence? Numerous. Reina is, for all intents and purposes, a sweeper-keeper, slipping seamlessly off his line in times of need and basically becoming an extra defender. When he does this we love him for it, but it’s inevitable that he was going to pay for it eventually. I’ve also read a lot about how many mistakes he has made this season that have led to goals. The highest
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I’ve seen quoted is 8, with a total of 14 points he’s apparently cost us. This is utter drivel and it’s disappointing that so many of our fans seem so keen to use this in their attempts to have Reina replaced. Some of those errors were actually not in the league, so the total stands at 4 errors leading directly to goals and has more than likely cost Liverpool as few as 4 points. Of course, this doesn’t excuse Reina from making those mistakes but it does represent a small contribution to the sheer amount of defensive mistakes that have cost us this season. Another factor that isn’t taken into account (to refer back to how much we’ve taken him for granted) is the amount of times Reina has pulled off great saves that could potentially have saved us points. There isn’t a direct stat for this and the fact that Reina tends to not have as high a ‘saves-per-game’ ratio as other goalkeepers is usually taken to mean he doesn’t make enough saves. What it actually indicates is that Liverpool tend to dominate possession, so he rarely has to make any saves. However, when he is called upon, Pepe tends to be one of the best shot-stoppers around. An example of this was his save near the end of the game against Swansea at Anfield. Yes the points were in the bag but it so could have been another goal conceded. Yet another stat that can be brought up in favour of Pepe is the fact that, over the past two seasons he has a 100% record when it comes to catching balls