We’ve got another keeper in the midst today! (Arentya just excited??? š)
Unfortunately, there isn’t that much of an impetus when we are talking about Goal Keepers for some reason, but it seems that it’s our responsibility to actually ensure that our lads between the stick are being properly represented due to the fact that (like we mentioned in season 7) they also NEED love!
Season 7: SMW Superstars Episode 31: Goalkeepers need love too!
Today’s GK especially is in need of more recognition since he is arguably one of the better ones over the past decade or so… If you know your footy then you should also know the reason why he hasn’t been garnering the repsect he deserves… It’s not necessarily anything to do with his ability, I mean the dude is a Premier League champion after all, but it mainly has to do with whom he happens to call “Papa”…
Unless you’ve been living under a proverbial football rock (without actually engaging in any football), you’d know that Kasper Schmeichel is the son of the legendary Danish icon Peter Schmeichel who is widely considered as the greatest GK not only in Premier League history, but one of the greatest Danish players ever alongside Michael Laudrup, and one of the greatest GK’s of all time alongside Lev Yashin. When you’ve got that type of royalty within your family it becomes quite difficult since you know that you’ll always be compared to him and it makes it even worse for our ghost (Kasper…) since they both play in the same position.
Regardless of all that external pressure, Kasper has been a good pair of hands, and we are privileged to be able to check if he is well represented within SM24! š¤
SM24 ATTRIBUTES
So, what kind of player is Schmeichel Junior? For someone who’s Dad was all about getting into the face of his opposition and aiming to input fear within anyone beaming down his goal, Kasper plays in a completely opposite fashion as he is extremeley composed on the ball, isn’t that much of a shouter, and is less worried about using up his energy by getting into battles with opposition players… The one thing that he does have a lot in common with Schmeichel Senior (besides his looks, hair, and nationality… š¶) is the unorthodox manner in which they both save shots coming their way, and I presume that Senior was behind ensuring that Junior fundamentally understood this unique style of shot saving from a very young age.
Kasper’s attributes on SM24 identify a player who seems to be on the decline, but some of these attributes should be improved since man like Kas is of age in Keeper jargon and has that added experience, but it just isn’t the case for some reason…
Anywho, let’s take a deeper look into the attributes that make up “Peter Schmeichel’s Son”, as YouTube Comedian Darren Farley likes to say:
TECHNICAL ATTRIBUTES
It’s quite interesting to see that Kasper has an overall rating of 81 even though most of the attributes within his technical make up are within the 70’s. Although Kasper is playing at a lower level compared to when he was at Leicester, some of these current in-built attributes do the Dane a huge disservice and simply aren’t good enough which make it seem like he’s a mediocore ‘Keeper’ when in fact he has always been touted as one of the best GK’s outside of the so called ‘Big 6’ (and let’s not forget that Kasper only left Leicester, which was a stupid decision on the clubs end, only 2 years ago…).
WHAT WE THINK
Alright, so Kasper is a pretty accomplished technical player that is more than capable of being granted a role of a ‘Modern Keeper’, but we’ve decided to keep his role the same. When it comes to the adjustments, we’ve increased his Command of Area, Distribution (looking back, I should’ve placed this into the 80’s), Handling, and Shot Stopping.
Although we mentioned that Kasper isn’t as vocal as his Father that doesn’t mean he’s a timid GK who is afraid to put people in their place. It just means that he wasn’t as vocal as his Dad; when discussing Kasper’s Distribution, I personally believe that he was a bi-product of playing at a team that weren’t known for playing possession based football. When Leicester won the Premier League in 2016, they played a pretty defensive style of play which meant that Kasper had to primarily focus on his goalkeeping attributes. But when Brendan Rodgers was hired, a new apporach emerged and Leicester began to play a more expansive game and this is when we saw what Kasper had in his bag of tricks in terms of being a proper Ball Playing Keeper with his calmness on the ball extremeley important in allowing Rodgers to implement his style of play, and although he ain’t no Ederson or Onana, he can still be a compotent backup and do a solid job when it comes to having the ball at his feet; along with his unique shot saving skills, Kasper also possesses a quite unique capability of catching the ball as well as being someone who tends to hold on to shots that most Keepers would choose to palm away; speaking of Shot Stopping, Kasper is also quite effective in his ability to save shots coming his way and has shown time and time again that when it comes to stopping the ball from going in the back of his net he has to be considered amongst the best of the best within this compartment.
PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES
If you were thinking that today’s look at Kasper’s technical attributes was a mouthful well that is simply due to the fact that it’s the only area within his current rating that needed to be changed. His Physicality and Mentality are a good representation of him, so there’s no adjustments needed from us…
MENTAL ATTRIBUTES
A pretty good way to start off another set of 6! Although this might not be enough to convince any of you Soccermanagerites to use Kasper Schmeichel in your squad (unless you’ve just started playing in a gameworld where there’s already like 80 other real managers within), at least we now know that Kasper has been given the representation that he truly deserves!
The Soccermanager Experience 