As a player I hated conceding goals and I still do now, even as I am watching from the sidelines. Nothing annoys me more than sloppy defending or goalkeepers whose technique is more suited to the playground.Unfortunately there have been too many errors for my liking in the World Cup so far. Don't get me wrong. I love to see goals scored but only after some intricate approach play or from a brilliant strike.
One of the biggest disappointments of France '98 has been the standard of goalkeeping.
Players are committing basic errors that I would not expect to see at any level of football. The Japanese goalkeeper Yoshkatsu Kawaguchi, for example, was pretty clueless with his positioning against Croatia.
There has been a lot of unorthodox goalkeeping and that is part of the reason we have seen so many goals. Just look at Tunisia's Chokri El Ouaer. He made a couple of brilliant saves before almost gifting Columbia a goal with a misplaced kick.
His performance sums up a lot of what we have seen in France'98 dashes of excellence followed by moments that would not look out of place in a playground.
It is too early to pick out the top goalkeepers of the tournament but I don't believe the list will be too long judging by the opening round.Even the big names such as Fabien Barthez are guilty of dodgy techniques.Just look at my old adversary Andoni Zubizerretta in Spain's first game against Nigeria. He made a couple of costly errors but showed his class with a commanding display against Paraguay. While we are on the subject of poor defending I can't help but mention the antics of USA against Iran. They showed astounding naivety to all move upfront without a minute's thought for defence when there were still quarter of an hour to go.
Experienced teams too have been guilty of tactical blunders. I was amazed to see the Germans employ a man-to-man markers against Yugoslavia. The ploy almost cost them dear as their defence was pulled all over the place by Predrag Mijatoic and Dragan Stojkovic.
England stepped upin class against Romania but were found sadly wanting. It is easy to argue this was a minor hiccup but you must be able to beat teams of this calibre to have any chance of winning the World Cup.
(Peter Shilton won 125 international caps for England and played in three World Cups.)
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Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
