It is probably safe to assume that Roma's Maarten Stekelenburg will be taking an acute interest in events at St James' Park on Saturday. Although the 6ft 5½in Stekelenberg is still widely regarded as Holland's first choice goalkeeper he knows he is coming under severe pressure for his place at Euro 2012 from Newcastle United's Tim Krul and Swansea City's Michel Vorm.
Arguably the two outstanding goalkeepers in the Premier League this season, Krul and Vorm will be at opposite ends of the pitch as Newcastle's aim to rediscover how to win and Swansea seek an eighth clean sheet of the campaign.
It is interesting to remember that, when Vorm arrived at the Liberty Stadium for £1.5m from Utrecht last summer, Brendan Rodgers, Swansea's manager, was seen as taking a gamble as, at a mere 6ft, the 28-year-old was regarded as rather small for a keeper. Similarly Krul, who joined Newcastle for £200,000 from Den Haag nearly seven years ago, prompted considerable raising of Geordie eyebrows when, back in August, it became clear that he, rather than the experienced Steve Harper, would be Alan Pardew's No1 this season.
Pardew's decision has been vindicated by a series of quite brilliant performances from a 23-year-old whose progress is reportedly being closely monitored by Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. Two inches shorter than Krul, Vorm did not have the benefit of the sort of loan spells which saw his Newcastle counterpart toughened up by stints at Falkirk and then Carlisle. Instead Swansea's last line of defence works regularly with rugby tackle-bags in a bid to harden him for Premier League combat.
"It's so different from Holland," he says. "In your head and, of course, physically. After playing Premier League games you feel broken. You can get battered and I'm not that big so I have to be smart."
Boasting excellent footwork, Vorm's sure touch, incisive distribution and, on occasion, willingness to leave his area, not only earn him a "sweeper keeper" label but are a big part of Swansea's build-from-the-back style. Big on psychology he has further burnished a reputation for saving penalties begun in Utrecht where he was known as "the penalty killer". Apart from devoting hours to studying penalty takers and their habits on his home collection of DVDs, Vorm also aims to psyche out his opponents.
"The secret is in the eyes," he says. "I like to look at penalty takers straight in the eyes and then I can tell what they are thinking. Then I leave it [the decision as to which way to dive] as late as possible. In training Danny Graham [the Swansea striker] almost always scored penalties against me but I've told him that he wouldn't be able to do it if he was up against me in an actual match."
Incredibly agile, Vorm's height has long since ceased to be an issue. "People said we were taking a big gamble with Michael because he wasn't 6ft 4in," says Rodgers, who reckons the Dutchman will probably earn Swansea at least 10 extra points this season. "But his agility is such that he makes saves most 6ft 4in keepers can't manage."
If Krul had not made it as a professional footballer he intended to train as a pilot and the articulate, supremely calm Dutchman certainly seems to possess the sort of unruffled, unfazed, temperament which would be ideal for coping with mid-air emergencies. Having made his full international debut for Holland by keeping a clean sheet against Brazil in June, Krul hopes to follow in the glove-prints of his hero Edwin van der Sar, who now serves as his mentor and with whom he is in regular telephone contact. Krul's prized possessions include one of Van der Sar's old shirts and a pair of the former Manchester United and Holland star's gloves.
He was marked out for great things when, at the age of 17, he made an impressive Uefa Cup debut in a 1-0 win at Palermo in Sicily after being thrust into the first team at the last minute by the then manager Glenn Roeder due to injuries. Shortly afterwards a knee injury required two operations and six months on the sidelines but Roeder, who engineered his arrival from Den Haag, never had any doubts Krul would make the grade.
"From the moment he joined Newcastle's academy, it was obvious Tim was a fantastic talent," he says. "In my opinion Tim is now Newcastle's most valuable player; he has been in unbelievable form this season. He is now one of the best keepers in Europe."
Such praise is widely echoed. As Martin Jol, the Fulham manager and a compatriot of Krul, puts it: "Newcastle have a young goalkeeper who is a great talent." Yet if his reflexes, capacity for acrobatic saves and polished handling were never in doubt, until this season, Krul was, albeit sporadically, prone to making some bad decisions under pressure. Now, though, it appears that nerves rather than major technical flaws were primarily responsible for those, admittedly occasional, moments when he ill-advisedly left or stayed on his line, showed off some uncharacteristically clumsy footwork or misjudged a cross.
"Tim still had a lot to do when I came to Newcastle this time last year," says Pardew. "When he played in the first team last season he looked a bit nervous." Things improved radically when he began working with Pardew's specialist goalkeeping coach, Andy Woodman. "We've given him self belief," says Newcastle's manager. "Tim's been outstanding this season."
With Rodgers equally complimentary about Vorm it promises to be quite some beauty contest on Tyneside this Saturday.
Gavin Wilson
MINDSi SPORTS PERFORMANCE
www.MindsiOnline.com
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