Admit it, even though you enjoy Manuel Neuer’s escapades, a part of you secretly wants him to be caught out.
It never happens though. The galavanting German goalkeeper constantly flies out of the security of his penalty area, getting involved with play, tackling opponents and generally just taking the piss out of everyone.
It’s as though he’s not happy with merely being the best ‘keeper in the world, a World Cup winner and Bundesliga champion.
Neuer is probably a good enough to play outfield for a lot of teams though, and it could get boring at times playing behind the defences of the German national team and Bayern Munich.
His willingness to get involved in play has also proven very beneficial for his teams, allowing them push higher up the pitch, safe in the knowledge Neuer will sweep up anything that comes anywhere near him. And it always works. Well, almost always.
We got so tired of waiting to see someone catch out the great man we had to go back into the archives to find an example of it.
In 2011 the goalkeeper was playing for his former club Schalke against Inter Milan in first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. In the opening 30 seconds of the game Esteban Cambiasso played a probing ball to Diego Milito on the edge of the penalty area. The striker was about to collect the pass when Neuer came steaming out of his area and performed an acrobatic diving header to clear the ball away.
Neuer’s clearance reached the halfway line, but was met by Dejan Stankovic. The Serbian midfielder hit an exquisite first-time volley over the stranded goalkeeper and into the net and Neuer was left with serious egg on his face.
However, Schalke won the match 5-2 and the German certainly didn’t let that set-back deter him. At his current rate he’ll be playing in midfield by the end of the season but we’ll still be left waiting for something like this to happen again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBaLEJCbRGg
