Are Goalkeepers worth the money?

This is not a rant or complaint, just a genuine enquiry as to whether paying big bucks for a top class GK is worth it.

Seems to me that the AI has a shots on target ratio/goals much higher than I do. Yes, no doubt this is down to the AI's tactics against mine but it seems my GK is largely unemployed apart from watching shots whistle over the bar or picking the ball out of the net.

At the other end because the players (our) tactics usually result in more shots on goals that the AI team, the AI keeper often plays a complete blinder no matter his standard.

I accept that having a "middle class" GK would have an adverse effect on the result as worked out before the match starts, but how much of an effect would that be if I signed Muslera or Frey for a fraction of the cost?

Would money therefore be better spent on outfield players rather than forking out > £20 million on Casillas, Neuer etc even if you could sign them?

Ideally, you can look at every transfer as an investment. Let's say you pay a lot, but do so for a young but proven keeper between aged 20-23 years. You may have to pay just over £10 mill, but can, if everything goes to plan, sell him on for the same amount 6-7 years later, and repeat the process, or have your own talents as a back up.

Furthermore, you can buy a good sweeper keeper that adds an extra dimension to your squad. This kind of keeper is a good passer and is able to not only hoof the ball long up the field, but will connect these hoofs with a striker, thereby not loosing possession. He can even create some assists, or inspire great counter attacks. Suddenly you have something like 10+0,5 outfield players and a keeper, which isn't a bad investment.

My goalkeeper is actually very good and has a reputation of 'worldwide'. Strangely, I have found that you actually don't need to spend money on the goalkeeper position very often. I have signed 5 in my time on my current save all on free transfers and not even had a rival bid giving me a free run. I have had my current first choice keeper for 5 seasons now and never received a bid, got England's 2nd and 3rd choice keepers, got a young German regen who is potentially better than any of the others and I had an Italian who I shifted for 5m after a season because he was highly rated but rubbish.

I'd say yes.

I had Krul at Newcastle and in the first year, he leaked a few goals where I had the impression that they were avoidable, even though they were no blatant lapses. Then I got ter Stegen to replace him and haven't seen any such goal since.

I'd say the difference between a good and a really good keeper could be about 5 goals conceded or not a year, which may translate to about the same amount of points. Well worth the money then imo.

I actually feel like a goalkeeper is an instramental part of my team. My side only gets on average 2/3 shots on target. But most of these are converted into goals. Therefore i always felt like i need a strong defence and an even stronger man between the sticks.

However as many state you can buy a young keeper and keep him there for years.

I will always buy a high potential goalkeeper as young as possible and put him in the first team at the age of 19 and keep him there until he reaches 35.

Ive got Jack Butland coming through now, bought him for around 2mill I think, tutored by Robinson turning into quite the keeper, I reckon by 22 he will be first choice so then I will eithe keep for rest of his career which will say 35 or sell him when he is nearing 30 for quite a big amount if he keeps impoving as he is, then use my new young keeper to take his place. So a very good investement for 2mill thats how I usually manage my keepers

Yeah i have noticed big differences in the performance of my defense when my main keepers are injured or otherwise unavailable. Having a good keeper will win you points during a season, or get you through a tough knock out round.

Easily the most important position on the pitch.

There is a noticeable difference. A high-class goalkeeper will save shots that lesser keepers will not. This is not to say that you will necessarily concede less goals on average than with a lesser keeper, but when you need it the most that's when classy players all over the pitch stand out and make a difference. I would say that a world-class keeper will have a positive impact in 10-20% of the matches you play, and that at the highest level even ONE such match could be the difference between gold and silver and thus he's worth whatever that gold is worth to you.

When that is said, my world class/continental class goalkeeper cost me less than £5m so you don't need to buy Neuer (he's not that good anyways - too many huge weaknesses).

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There is a noticeable difference. A high-class goalkeeper will save shots that lesser keepers will not. This is not to say that you will necessarily concede less goals on average than with a lesser keeper, but when you need it the most that's when classy players all over the pitch stand out and make a difference. I would say that a world-class keeper will have a positive impact in 10-20% of the matches you play, and that at the highest level even ONE such match could be the difference between gold and silver and thus he's worth whatever that gold is worth to you.

When that is said, my world class/continental class goalkeeper cost me less than £5m so you don't need to buy Neuer (he's not that good anyways - too many huge weaknesses).

ok, i thought that this happens only in my saves, but seeing your keeper, perhaps i was mistake.

In all my saves, its incredible the amount of top keepers born in Africa. Countries like Zambia, Nigeria, Marrocco have always, in FM, the best keepers.

For me, a top class goalkeeper is worth his weight in gold and will, over the course of a season, earn you more points than any other player. Of course that is not to say you have to pay big bucks for one. I picked up my current number one from some African club for £675k five seasons ago and he's certainly in the top 3 in the EPL at the moment. His current value is £8.25m and Arsenal, Man City et al are interested. I wouldn't let him go for less than £50m

In the excellent book "Why England Lose" I believe there's a section on how goalkeepers are undervalued and strikers are overvalued. I think it's a good idea to consider that principle and I always make sure the man between the sticks is one of my best players.

My current goalkeeper joined for free and is worth 14.5m now. He is worth a lot of points even though in 80% of games he has nothing to do. I would say who he is but he is real and not known by everybody on here. There is no other keeper on the game I would swap him for on the whole game.

Easily the most important position on the pitch.

In FM this is very true. The difference between a world class keeper and a good keeper is noticable.

Because it's such a specialised position, and the need for most teams to have a decent backup, the talented guy playing second fiddle leaves so there's usually a lot of talented goalkeepers floating around on frees after every season. So if you're not desperate you can wait for a bargain (and if he's not fantastic you can usually sell him for major profit and pick up someone even better floating around).

I would have said no until I managed to buy Akinfeev for a cut price in FM2010 - what a difference he made.

Having said that, in my current save I'm persvering with Joe Lewis because I'm contrary like that.

I've always found that you can do perfectly well with a modest goalkeeper if you have a good squad of outfield players. Having said that, I've never been afraid to spend if there's a goalkeeper that I feel I just have to have. On FM2008, I spent £40m to bring Igor Akinfeev to Man Utd. Worth every penny.

IMO YES.

A good goalkeeper and a very good goalkeeper can be the difference between 5/6 and 4th in english premier league.

I had brad friedel for my first half of season with spurs. In the January transfer window i went and bought a keeper for 12 million pound, Alder the German keeper and i only just missed out on top 4 by one point. When i bought him i was 7/8 points behind.

yes - even big clubs like Lyon have noted this in transfer policy - a goalkeeper makes a huge difference

Yes.

Who else is going to take my freekicks?

Yes.

Who else is going to take my freekicks?

wow, that may just be the bets 19yr old keeper ive seen yet. I presume all of his goals are from FK's?

Think 60 of them were, he was also my pen taker for a few seasons.

Didnt think an assistant would set a keeper as a free kick taker

Your assistant uses whatever you set up before the match, if you tick the right options.

Though Amauri was at my team early enough that I may not have actually started doing the assistant thing at that point, I can't remember. That save ended up in 2068 iirc.

The keeper I bought in to replace him was even better, I'll see if I can find a screenie.

Never scored anywhere near as many freekicks though.

That, mixed with the ridiculous wages I offered him by mistake, meant I shipped him out after a few seasons.

£30 Million Gk

I spent £30 million on that GK and he improved me defence hugely. The season before I had signed him with my previous club as well, a top class GK will save you point over the course of the season.

I've never spent huge money on a goalkeeper since I bought Casillas in about FM2009 after trying to sign him since he was in the game, and then getting him injured for nearly a year in his very first match.

I'll still spend £10m on a keeper in an eye-blink, but I rarely spend more.

AC Milan were loaded so I thought I might as well buy the best GK on the game.

I hate injuries to big players I signed David Silva for £50 million and he got injured for just under a year. Next game my other signing Jesus Navas broke his leg then one of my first teamers broke his leg in the following match.

Id say yes, when I start at a new club the first position I look at is the goalkeeper.

A good 'keeper is worth 12 points a season.

I currently have Joe Lewis and Frankie Fielding vying for the number 1 shirt at Leeds in the Premiership, the amount of saves they had no right to make was worth the whole £1.2m I paid for the both of them.

In one of my old saves, i took over a BSP side and when i was in league 2 i conceded 55 goals. When i got promoted i had the same squad, bar 2-3 and got hold of a top notch championship keeper on a free. I only conceded 36 goals in that season....AND won the league, so i say a good goalie is just as an important choice as your main forward....just from my experiences.

As someone who has played the 'give youth a chance' challenge for many years (In this challenge you can not transfer inany players, they have to come from the youth team), I can tell you the difference between having a good keeper is absolutely huge. At least for the style of football I play on FM, the two most important positions to have good players in are forwards and keepers. Fullbacks is the least important in my opinion.

I always worry about a poor goalkeeper more than a poor first choice striker.

A good goalkeeper does make a difference. Also i very rarely bother with keepers under the age of 30 as this is when they hit their peak and you can easily get 8 or 9 seasons out of them. They also seem to make great player/coaches as well

Funny in that the keepers you have posted the screenshots for seem to have what i'd personally term "high" eccentricity: I'd try to get a keeper with less that 7 if possible. I had Barthez once in one of my earlier games and never again!!!

I love high eccentricity keepers. They're the ones that will pull off the amazing saves.

Admittedly, they're also the ones that will dribble the ball, fall over and concede, but that's part and parcel. They more than make up for it with amazing saves other keepers just wouldn't get.

None of my keepers above have high eccentricity. I prefer it to be around 15.

like high eccentricity, this is my keeper

this guy got 9.1 for his last rating

The most obvious aspect of GKs is shot stopping, but thats not what makes a truly top class keeper. As was mentioned in an early post a sweeper keeper can add so much to your side. This is especially true when you are a strong side playing against weaker sides, which is where the shots-on target-goals dispariaty usually happens. When playing with a strong side I play a very high line, lots of pressure and push FBs into attack, this will produce lots of shots and the opposition will usually bunker down into a defensive shell and counter. So of course I get lots of shots from sharp angles or distance. And of course I will give up counter attack chances. The Keeper doesn't just stop some of those CCCs for the opposition, but a good sweeper keeper comes out and prevents it from happening.

The keeper can also have a positve, or negative effect on the back line with his Influence, Comand of Area, COMMUNICATION, Arial Ability, Decisions...as well as Determination, Consistency, Important Matches etc.

Basically there is a LOT more to good keepers than shot stopping.

I personally think lower eccentricity is preferable, as consistency at the end of the day wins championships. That said, I barely pay Eccentricity any notice. I usually decide what sort of keeper I want, whether it be a commanding keeper, a shot-stopper, or a sweeper-keeper (think Valdes), and make sure they have the attributes to carry out the role.

eccentricity is a key attribute for sweepers when i check them in game.

I always avoided eccentricity but reading those last posts might try to sign one eccentric keeper next time.

mine won the golden glove.

i dont exactly know what effect it has on the keepers play though.