Paris Saint-Germain legend Bernard Lama launched a scathing attack on current PSG shot-stopper, Salvatore Sirigu, calling into question his aptitude to be a great goalkeeper.
Sirigu’s performance in PSG’s Champions League Round of 16 second leg against Chelsea has drawn a lot of criticism, with the French press having found him the worst PSG player on the night.
Lama was a guest on RMC Sport’s radio show Luis Attaque, where host and former France International Luis Fernandez requested Lama’s opinion on Sirigu. The latter thus let loose, blasting the Italy international.
“From a general standpoint and personally, I don’t like goalkeepers who are too tall [like Sirigu] because they can’t move well enough within their penalty area,” Lama said on Luis Attaque.
“But when talking about his ability on the ball [with his feet], he [Sirigu] is not good enough.
“Goalkeepers today [in general] are trained to only be goalkeepers, and not footballers; and that is a grave mistake being committed by most coaching staffs.
“Because of this, he [Sirigu] doesn’t read and understand the game well enough.
“When he needs to play out of the back and apply the necessary vision to cleanly execute it, Sirigu is incapable of doing it; he doesn’t have the ability.
“It already happened against Barcelona [in the group stages] and PSG conceded a goal because of it.
“Sirigu is like many other goalkeepers, very good at the domestic level but [he] has not yet shown that he has the ability to shine at the international level and indeed take [Gianluigi] Buffon’s Italy shirt or win PSG a European trophy.”
Lama kept goal seven years for PSG, spread over two separate stints between 1992 and 2000. Lama remains one of the rare players to have won Paris Saint-Germain’s only european trophy to date, the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996.
This comment about his height seems very interesting because he is the same height roughly as Neuer and Buffon who are 193 cm and 191 cm respectively compared to Sirigu who is 192 cm. If you believe Neuer and Buffon don’t move well in the box then you might be crazy, these are some of the best keepers in the world and also happen to be this tall. Most keepers are this height, the only one I can think of that would be smaller that’s up there with Neuer and Buffon is Casillas, but wouldn’t say he is a better keeper than the other two because of his small stature.