He's perhaps the most Health and Safety conscious goalkeeper in British football history, but he's also a brilliant custodian.

It got me to thinking: taking it as read that Brazilian teams are excluded from this, has there ever been a truly great football team that did not feature a great goalkeeper? A team with such attacking verve and defensive steel that a plodding journeyman could stand between the sticks for them with the express purpose of picking the ball out of the net occasionally and picking up his wages at the end of the month?

You all have my permission to turn this thread into an intense scholarly debate about the relative merits of Bruce Grobbelaar, by the way.

Holland in the 70s come pretty close to what you're describing there.

Are your caricatures published somewhere? Cos if not, they ought to be.

There've been a few that haven't been tested & never needed to be spectacular or influential. John Lukic would be one.

There's a few on here who would say that Sebastiano Rossi is a prime example of this, although I always thought he was a pretty good keeper myself.

Nice to see you getting a bear and a giraffe in there, Dotmund.

I'd say that neither Gary Sprake nor David Harvey were great goalkeepers for the 1968-1974 Leeds team, but times were different then, I guess.

I spy a monkey, a duck and a ninja too.

Quality picture. You and BDG should have a sketch-off or something.

I suppose a lot of it comes down to what makes for a great team. I just thought of Dida, on the basis that Milan won the Champions' League with him in the team. But one Champions' League title does not a great team make.

I suppose the last great team from the British Isles were probably the unbeaten Arsenal of 03/04, which was Jens Lehmann's first year at the club. I don't want to be too dismissive of his talents, though, because his massive stroppy sulks enlighten my days.

In the narrow confines of a Scottish context, Celtic had their greatest team for decades around the period 2002-2004, yet their goalkeeper around this time was the incredibly average Rab Douglas.

Dida and most of last season's Milan team have won 2 CLs. He was also, last minute fumble in the wind and rain at Elland Road, pretty decent all told for a while.

Indeed Dida's insistence of being closer to the juve penalty taker than the goal line when the penalty was the decisive factor at Old Trafford

It is said he has never been the same since being hit with the flare from the Inter end.

That should say:

Indeed Dida's insistence of being closer to the juve penalty taker than the goal line when the penalties were taken was the decisive factor at Old Trafford

You bastard. I'd just about forgotten that fucking tedious rubbish that called itself a football match.

Absolutely loving your pictures (sketches? paintings?) Dotmund, do you have a website or anymore online?

Victor Valdes for Barcelona would get my vote.

Great series dotmund.

I'll add to the praise dotmund. I like these a lot.

Seeing as he's not about to do it himself, I'll direct you here:
http://nicerworld.wordpress.com/

(There's not much football-related going on there, though)

Thank you everyone. (Tratorello: they're pen and ink drawings coloured with watercolour paint, so half and half).