World Cup 2018: 3 reasons why top goalkeepers failed to impress

The current World Cup in Russia has been full of surprises so far and a lot of big teams who were expected to be serious title contenders have been knocked out of the competition already. Though some of the teams have totally failed to showcase their ability as a unit, others have been hurt by individual mistakes or errors.

One particular department which has been rather disappointing in the tournament has been the goalkeeping one.

A lot of silly errors made by many other the keepers has cost their teams of crucial points. Though some of these mistakes were just bad luck, others were pure moments of madness.

From two of the best goalkeepers in the world, David De Gea and Manual Neuer, to a rather less regularly played Willy Caballero, there were so many significant errors made that it become impossible to ignore.

It was clearly visible that the level of keeping had dropped to a new low for some reason. The so-called saviours had undone all the good that the outfield players had worked so hard for and it did eventually have some impact in their teams.

Here are three reasons why this could be the case for such a horrific showing-

#3 Picked purely on reputation, not performances

A lot of teams picked their first choice goalkeepers based on reputation and not on their current form. Though there were a few exceptions to this, the coaches did not drop their first choice goalies, based on mere reputation.

One such example was of De Gea, with the Spaniard's mistake against Portugal that gave Ronaldo his second goal. Also, going further into the tournament his poor showing against Morocco should have been a talking point, but it wasn't.

Eventually, it cost Spain against Russia and the Manchester United star did not keep too many shots that were hit at him out. He was at another level for the Red Devils but looked out of form in Russia. Despite that, Fernando Hierro decided to stick with him than go in for Kepa at all, who could have done much better.

Further, an error by Neuer of pushing forward ended any chance that Germany has of going through to the next round at the expense of Mexico. It seemed as if the Bayern Munich man had not recovered completely from his injury in terms of form, yet Joachim Low never opted for Ter Stegen.

There were some crazy moments from these highly reputed goalies which hurt their sides. When you first choice keeper plays poorly, it is obvious that the team morale does go down completely.

#2 Less popular keepers set higher standards

The likes of Ochoa, Schmeichel (both under-rated) and some other much lesser known goalies (Cho Hyun-Woo, the South Korean one who helped knock out Germany) made an impact in the short spell of time that they were part of it.

Danijel Subasic and Pickford also did well to help their sides go through to the semi-final of the tournament, where some of the other names failed. These two keepers who have really impressed are nowhere near the best, though their coaches faith in them has really paid off.

Though Belgium did go through as well, Courtois did not look the same confident self that he generally is at Chelsea initially. He only picked up his game during the match against Brazil, after a rather ordinary match against Japan.

In the game against the Asian side, there was a moment in the match when he let a ball go through him, nearly into the back of the net. Luckily, he could gather it before there was any serious damage.

#1 Lack of consistency amongst the keepers

Caballero was Argentina's first choice and was really poor in the game against Croatia. The incident in the 3-0 loss to Croatia, cost him his place to Armani. Again, he was good in the match against Nigeria, yet it was obvious that he was suddenly pushed into the Argentine national side.

This was again an error for a player only playing his second international match, with the French attack that it is. The pressure of the game was too much and he was at times stuck to the goal and did not attack the ball. His positive movement could have made a huge difference, in terms of the Mbappe brace at least.

Further, it was Uruguay's Muslera made a huge error when he let in a shot by Griezmann in their quarterfinal match as well. He was one of the most confident goalies of the tournament, though he made such a silly error which once again showcased that how important it is to have a solid keeper.

This error killed off the game and things could have been so different if that goal had not gone in.