A sticking plaster for many Palace since promotion has been goalkeeping.
The aged Argentine but fan-favourite Julian Speroni did wonders in the Championship and may still be between the sticks (at the ripe old age of 39) for the Eagles had playoff victory not been achieved in 2013, such is his popularity.
However, success did come that year for the club and for the past six seasons managers have come and gone, with more or less all of them attempting somehow to fit Wayne Hennessey, the Welshman every Palace fan loves to hate, into their squads.
It hasn’t worked. Hennessey may have won fans over in the past couple of years (picking up the Player of the Month award in December 2018 before promptly becoming injured) but his inconsistency and lack of grip (sometimes quite literally) on both his own playing identity and the defence in front of him have shown him to be a poor investment.
Bought from Wolves in January 2014 for the princely Premier League sum of £3.3 million, Hennessey had made 42 clean sheets in 166 games while on the books at Molineux and was surely worth a try in the bigger league, given his price-tag and especially considering Speroni was well placed back then as another viable, regular option for Palace.
It was clear both Ian Holloway and Tony Pulis initially thought of Hennessey as a second choice in his first two seasons. He only made four appearances in the Premier League from 2013-15 and kept just one clean sheet. Since then, despite clocking over 9,000 minutes of game-time, his clean sheet percentage has been just under 28%, a figure only marginally better than in those first four games, games in which he surely wanted to prove himself.
Too often he is in the wrong place when facing a free-kick, or positioned incorrectly in relation to his defence once an opponent is on the attack. Finally, Roy Hodgson has done the thing that his predecessors have not had the confidence to do (much similar to actually substituting Benteke) and that is to drop Hennessey. Even if it was only because of an injury he sustained.
Too many times have the full-backs been blamed for concessions when Hennessey is responsible. Both Patrick van Aanholt and Aaron Wan-Bissaka have taken flack for speed or errors when it is, in fact, the goalkeeper at fault.
Palace’s recent run of positive form (not just results-wise but in terms of play) has coincided with two important events; Benteke and Hennessey coming out of the starting 11. The team have looked more comfortable in clearing the ball and structuring their response to attacks, shown in the memorable win over Manchester City and their clinical dispatch of Wolves. The architect of the clean sheet at Wolves, and only the one goal conceded against Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea has been none other than Vicente Guaita.
Despite being about two inches shorter than Hennessey, Guaita sustained a much more dominant 35% clean sheet record in the 2017-18 La Liga season at Getafe, a side not renowned for defensive prowess. On top of this, he only conceded 28 goals in 34 games, much more positive than Hennessey’s 41 conceded in 28 games for Palace in the same season.
You could argue that Hennessey was up against tougher opponents in that season, but Guaita has already kept three clean sheets in five in the Premier League and has only conceded three goals. This comes after he has faced a red-hot Manchester City side.
His initial stats look even more promising than those he acquired during his 10-year tenure in Spain.
The two ‘keepers are both 31, but Guaita was thrown into full-time professional football at a much earlier age. When Hennessey was struggling to find his feet at Stockport County and in the Wolves reserves, Guaita made 30 appearances for Recreativo Huelva in the Spanish third tier, keeping an impressive 10 clean sheets. In the following season, aged just 24, he competed in La Liga itself for none other than the behemoth Valencia, playing 21 times and keeping seven clean sheets.
His stats only improved over the years. Guaita firmly found his feet among some of La Liga’s best, going onto play a further 165 times for both Valencia and Getafe. When he left for south London in the summer of 2018 he was one of the longest-serving and most well-respected ‘keepers in the Spanish game.
His first matches in red and blue have proved hugely encouraging; he appears light on his feet and quick in his reflexes. Whilst Hennessey’s shaky presence was always felt on the pitch, even when he wasn’t near the ball, Guaita has perfected the art of melting into the shadows during a match, only to pull off a crucial save when it matters the most. This style is comforting for attackers and defenders alike, who know they have a professional behind them who makes little fuss, but is hugely effective.
In my opinion, Roy has pulled off a masterstroke in pulling away from such an established force from Spain and bringing him to England, with still so much more to give.
In his present form, Guaita could go on to make 10 or more clean sheets in the league, despite only earning his first start this January.
Hennessey has finally received his comeuppance after being left alone for far too long, festering between the posts, the club with no alternatives but to continue playing him. He is tall, gangling and struggles to hold his defensive line or in fact, the ball. In Guaita we have a capable, athletic and composed sportsman who is willing to contribute maximum effort for the full 90 and never allow a lapse in concentration for more than a second. He is what Crystal Palace has been crying out for as a fresh goalkeeping option, and with him the Eagles can expect many more pleasing results to come.
