Martin Dubravka

Martin Dubravka
Image from: freelargeimages.com

Martin Dubravka





Current Club: Newcastle United.

Previous Clubs: Sparta Prague, Slovan Liberec, Esbjerg fB, MSK Zilina.

Loan Clubs: Newcastle United.





International: Slovakia 16 caps.

Trophies Won: Slovak League 2011/12, 2009/10. Slovak Cup 2011/12.





Most of the time Dubravka is a solid professional goalkeeper, though he does, like all keepers, have a rick in him. Most of the time he is very reliable, but he is not at the best when facing a ball hit in or around his feet, as he is old school and always looking to use his hands. It takes far longer to get hands down below knee height than it would just to move his feet to block off the ball.



His agility is not outstanding, nor are his reactions, but he is very good at positioning himself, which helps ensure his agility is good enough most of the time. His agility and reactions are not helped by his footwork, which can be a little bit cumbersome at times, he is not a sweeper keeper by any means.



Dubravka is an older style keeper, one who is very good at the basics but lacks the quick feet, high starting position and distribution quality of a newer style keeper, such as Ederson. He is one of those keepers that likes to stay on his line and stop the ball going in, rather than looking to come off his line and play out from the back.



Perfectly suited to the way Newcastle play under Rafa, as he is very rarely called upon to act like a sweeper, with a defence that drops off when out of possession, so he is not having to move out of his comfort zone. It does show why such a good keeper went undiscovered for so long, he just does not have the skillset most clubs are now looking for in a keeper.



Requested by - Chaki