Goalkeeper.

Today’s keepers are every bit as good as years ago, and that includes the best. Keepers now are fitter, probably more aware of the technical aspects of keeping and certainly have reflexes that are as good if not better due to better training. Distribution now is streets ahead of the historic punt up field.

What has changed is the game. Players are a damn site fitter and faster over the whole game, both boxes being congested far more than ever before. And players able to manipulate the movement of the ball now that was not dreamed of in the past.

Of course the influx of foreign internationals makes a difference.

a massive difference and what you've missed is the re-structing of the coaching philosophy that the FA have implemented, that the academies have implemented and the younger more forward thinking and adaptable coaches coming through have all bought into. It's made a massive difference.

Then you have the top coaches who've come to work here and brought the good habits, ideas and finally the top internationals who've added to the mix. When you put all that together you see what you see now.

Our young talent is as a good as anyone in the world, technically as gifted as a Brazilian with the work effic of old British player.

Better as footballers but not as goalkeepers.Referees help goalkeepers too much both past and present.Probably the best goalkeeper and ball distributer was Peter Schmeichel.

Yes I do and it is very interesting.

Confucius say: “Every man’s memory is his own private literature.”

A very underrated keeper in my opinion was Phil Parkes in any other era he’s probably the England keeper but having clemance and Shilton around at the same time made that task nigh on impossible. But a bloody good keeper he was.

More top flight sides had English keepers in 70's/80's that for sure. My personal view is that Shilton was massively over rated and that in the 70's /early 80's Clemence was a far better keeper. My view may have been skewed by the fact that Shilts was such a bellend. It was pretty clear well before the 1990 World Cup Finals that he was no longer anywhere near being good enough. The media were still queuing up to kiss his arse though. In the 80's I thought the best top flight keeper in the 80's was Grobbelaar.
Of the current crop of English keepers I think Pope is very good indeed and Sam Johnstone at Palace is international class too. Neither of them are playing right now (injured I think but I'm not sure) so that only really leaves Pickford who's OK but not fantastic. The position has changed though. Shilton's career was effectively finished by changes to the back pass rule. Klopp and Guardiola etc want a different skill set from their keepers than used to be the case.

Well as regard to the comment " I doubt the best teams of years ago, considering their limitations on coaching, training facilities, diet etc would live with today’s championship teams. Then as they were then not what they could have been today." This comment doesn't stack up with Graham Souness. I recently heard him on the White and Jordan Talk sport morning show saying it would be a walk in the park playing today on a carpet like pitch compared when he was in his prime. His era had to play on plough like pitches, they still according to him even with their questionable lifestyles would still compete in todays game.

I think you have said and Souness too the point I was trying to make.

I am comparing players as they were then, which of course includes training, diet, etc compared to players now.  Lifestyles for many too are a million miles apart, one pro whose name I forget, liked a cigarette at half time!  Another liked a pint before the game, yet another stopped off at the betting shop on the way to the game.  It was a different world.  Not a criticism, just the way it was. Normal.

Had those players benefitted from today’s facilities they of course would be great players and on a par at least with todays top players I have no doubt. Maybe better in some cases.  But my comparison is them, then and modern players now.  Fitness alone is massively better and I’ve little doubt tactical awareness, switching systems and full on 90 minutes would leave players as they were then, struggling.

I remember the old W formation, pretty basic, then the revelation of 4-4-2 then the focus on work rate.  Now players need to adapt, not at the start of a game but during the game.  The introduction of substitutions allows for another layer of tactical complexity that just didn’t happen then.

 Past plays could adapt, of course they could. But the difference between them then and players now is vast.  Same for all athletes.  Bannister a revelation when he did a 4 minute mile, considered impossible.  Now it’s pretty average for top athletes.