Thoughts on Manchester United’s Peter Schmeichel

Eight years after his retirement, I still think Peter Schmeichel is the benchmark for modern goalkeepers. It’s amazing to think how different Manchester United’s modern history could have been without him.

Everybody remembers the two late goals in Barcelona in 1999, but how about the saves the Dane made when United were 1-0 down and chasing the game. How about Ryan Giggs’ FA Cup semi-final goal? That doesn’t happen if Schmeichel doesn’t deny Dennis Bergkamp from the penalty spot. The save against Rapid Vienna? The performances home and away against Newcastle in 1995/1996? You could go on and on.

When you look back on players careers, the temptation is always to over-romanticise their impact and embellish on their qualities; that’s not the case with Schmeichel, he’s exactly as good as we remember.

It’s been said many times that Manchester United never really replaced Peter Schmeichel, which isn’t really a failing of Sir Alex Ferguson as where would he have found such a player? This is a goalkeeper who was peerless during his career, and still doesn’t have a contemporary equal – he was generational talent.a. If you create a list of the Premier League’s top goalkeepers over the last ten years, and that’s a list that might include Petr Cech, Pepe Reina, Brad Friedel and Edwin Van der Sar, then Schmeichel would still belong comfortably at the top of it.

Even if you extend that list to include global greats like Casillas, Kahn, Buffon, Toldo, then you may have players that exceed Schmeichel’s ability in a single category, but not in his all-round attributes. Others may be more flamboyant and make more eye-catching saves, but you’d always pick peak-era Schmeichel ahead of all of them.

Maybe it was part of the aura built-up by Manchester United’s dominance during that era, but that team looked so secure with the Dane in goal. You were almost surprised to see him concede goals. One-on-ones, shots from distance, reflex saves, he had it all – there was no obvious weakness.

That’s what made Peter Schmeichel great; he had a complete set of goalkeeping attributes. He had the emotional presence to control his defence, he had the agility to claw shots out of his top corner, he had the physical assets to be genuinely dominant within his 18-yard-box, and he had the temperament to play at the very top of the game. Maybe my generation was spoiled by growing-up watching him, because he was essentially perfect.

There may be a time when we do see a better goalkeeper, but it’s a huge complement to say that it’s hard to imagine how Peter Schmeichel could’ve been improved upon.