Victor Valdez

[Kahn_2001]

Where does he rank among goalies? I hear many people blaming him every time barca gets scored on, but I think he's a pretty good goalie and gets blamed unfairly. He's not on Neur or ikers level, but he's still a very good goalie i think.

What do you guys think? is he as bad as some people make him out to be?

[Foye]

Solid keeper. Not among the top 10 in the world, though.

[5DOM]

Poor and annoying is how I feel

[Brt19]

He should stay with Barcelona no matter what happens. He isn't too bad but that is because of Barcelona. He isn't anywhere near compared to other big teams' keepers.

He is around 10-15 range at best, probably 15-20 or 20-25.

[Slava]

He's lucky enough to be playing for a team that keeps 80% possession on average. He's a good shot stopper but any more pressure than that and he panics more than he should. Terrible in dealing from crosses though.

[_SRV_]

Victor Valdez is maybe the weakest link in Barca's team, him and the lack of natural striker after Villa's injury.
He's not bad, but he's not on the level of top team's golies (except maybe ManU's )

[Mirjalovic]

Solid/Average GK, in the mold of Sebastiano Rossi, Jussi Jaaskelainen, or Christian Abbiati (Valdes better than Rossi though).

He has very high level of confidence, good reflexes & work ethic. That things alone made his career in Barcelona.

[Massimo]

He is not that bad but Barcelona's defense is pretty awful to make him look as bad. People do not think that Barcelona's defense is doing well just because of they conceded a lot less than they scored this year. In my opinion, except Dani Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Puyol and Adriano are not even in top 20 defenders. That's why whenever other team passed their midfield(which is a great midfield, there is not much chance of passing them), they always look dangerous.

So, Victor Valdes is not that bad but defense is just terrible.

[kdawg32086]

Solid keeper but not world class. He's a product of Barca's success although he's not a liability by any means. Definitely top 25 in the world but nowhere near top 10.

[MitchellUK]

Solid keeper but not world class. He's a product of Barca's success although he's not a liability by any means. Definitely top 25 in the world but nowhere near top 10.

Top 25 in the world is hugely generous to Victor Valdes. If not for the fact that he had spent his entire career at Barca, he wouldn't be anywhere near as highly regarded. He's decent, average.

I remember Alex Ferguson saying 15 years or so ago that Peter Schmeichel was the kind of keeper who earned you points throughout the season. Over the course of the year he would pull off two or three miraculous saves that he had no right making, which would earn a point or retain a winning position. There have been plenty of keepers in history for whom something similar could be said, but I've never felt that way about Valdes. He's without a doubt the least integral piece to Barca's success, and I'm pretty certain you could replace him with nearly any first choice keeper from a La Liga, Premiership, Bundesliga or Serie A team and they wouldn't miss a beat.

[Kahn_2001]

Victor Valdez is maybe the weakest link in Barca's team, him and the lack of natural striker after Villa's injury.
He's not bad, but he's not on the level of top team's golies (except maybe ManU's )

I think the fact Barca rarely gets scored on, everyone assumes it must be the goalies fault when they do get scored on. The fact is goals are rarely the fault of the goalie and 90% of the time is caused by poor defense. What could he have honestly done about Chelsea's first goal? it was completely the fault of Barca's D.

[5DOM]

If you are talking about Ramires' goal at Camp Nou, Valdes didn't really have to come out.

[_SRV_]

Victor Valdez is maybe the weakest link in Barca's team, him and the lack of natural striker after Villa's injury.
He's not bad, but he's not on the level of top team's golies (except maybe ManU's )

I think the fact Barca rarely gets scored on, everyone assumes it must be the goalies fault when they do get scored on. The fact is goals are rarely the fault of the goalie and 90% of the time is caused by poor defense. What could he have honestly done about Chelsea's first goal? it was completely the fault of Barca's D.

Barca doens't get scored on a lot mainly because their high ball possession, I don't think their defense is great, Puyol is a great leader, with great heart, and good back defender, but like Valdez, he isn't great, and not at prime Terry or Caravalio, despite the fact he gets a lot of praises also because Barcelona is an elite team.
I still think Valdez isn't a great goalie, he has great instincts, but in many cases he's too much of a knucklehead, and makes defense unstable as a result.

[Mirjalovic]

Wow, Puyol is an amazing defender, he had excellent knowledge when it comes to defense & reading the game, like most Italiano defenders but he is Spanish of course. Carvalho is a really solid & smart CB, but i think Puyol > Carvalho & Terry.

When Puyol was young, & hyped a lot by media & fans, i thought he was very overrated, but when i saw his game, wow, he is so good. This coming from a Barca hater. Puyol as defender waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy better than Valdes as goalie.

[kdawg32086]

I think we should start voting on positional rankings to settle all of this. That way we can see how many keepers we think are actually better than Valdes.

[Kahn_2001]

I think we should start voting on positional rankings to settle all of this. That way we can see how many keepers we think are actually better than Valdes.

I;m not sure he would rank too well, considering Barca would still dominate with any half decent keeper.