Is Ben Roberts the best goalkeeping coach in England?

Is Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper coach Ben Roberts the best in England? It is a question we have often pondered but never got around to attempting to answer. Well, now seems like as good a time as any following David Stockdale’s fall from grace.

Stockdale, you remember him. For two seasons between 2015 and 2017, he was one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship and a huge reason that the Albion made it to the Premier League.

He then decided not to take a chance at playing top flight football. Instead, Stockdale turned down Brighton’s offer of a new contract in favour of a lot of money from Harry Redknapp at Birmingham City.

That controversial departure has seen the history books rewritten a little. Some Albion fans now try and claim that he was a bit of a liability, even in those two campaigns in which Brighton finished third and then second under Chris Hughton. That we would have been promoted with any old goalkeeper between the posts.

We used to like Stockdale bashing as much as the next man. We had several Twitter arguments with Dave on the way back from away games, most notably after the 2-1 defeat at Wigan Athletic in April 2015 after he had bizarrely found a tweet criticising him for a goal he had conceded three weeks earlier.

Stockdale must have been searching for his own name when he decided to take task with what we had written from a game that had been and gone.

Things got even more bizarre when Adam Virgo got involved to say that We Are Brighton were right, Stockdale was at fault and he should take a look at himself.

Virgo and Stockdale then spent the next hour or so arguing before agreeing to talk face-to-face next time Virgo’s media commitments brought him to the Amex. Oh to have been a fly-on-the-wall at that little meeting.

Yes, Stockdale made some pretty high profile and looking back, hilarious cock ups. The two own goals in 21 minutes at Norwich City in April 2017 is an achievement that we’ll probably never see repeated.

Then there was the Aston Villa game, his last appearance in an Albion shirt. With two minutes of the season remaining and the Championship title heading for the Amex, Stockdale somehow let a Jack Grealish shot from 30 yards go through his legs to confine Brighton to the runners up spot. Poor Dave.

But by-and-large, Stockdale was excellent for two seasons. His double penalty save at home to Sheffield Wednesday is one of the best stops we’ve ever seen a Brighton keeper make, up there with Michel Kuipers away at Wolverhampton Wanderers 15 years earlier.

Stockdale was a massive reason the Albion are a Premier League club now, whether we like it or not. Which makes the fact he has just been released by Birmingham after playing only 40 times in three seasons all the stranger.

Where has it all gone wrong for Stockdale? How has a goalkeeper who moved to St Andrew’s in the prime of his career having been named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year ended up unemployed via a series of loan spells with Southend United, Wycombe Wanderers and Coventry City?

The answer perhaps lies in the fact that he is no longer working with Ben Roberts, which is where we begin our argument about the talents of Brighton’s goalkeeper coach. It cannot be coincidence that the two best seasons of Stockdale’s career came under the guidance of Roberts.

Stockdale first joined the Albion in the summer of 2014 for £1.5 million from Fulham. He didn’t make the best of starts to life at the Amex – it wasn’t until a 3-2 defeat away at Brentford in the seventh game of the 2014-15 campaign that he made his first save of any note.

After Sami Hyypia gave 18-year-old Christian Walton his debut away at Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup, there were growing calls throughout the remainder of the 2014-15 season for Walton to take over full time from Stockdale.

Brighton just about survived relegation to League One at the end of the campaign. Chris Hughton moved quickly that summer to improve his keeper options, signing Niki Maenpaa from VVV Venlo. It was assumed at the time that the Finnish international would be installed as first choice.

Hughton’s strengthening of the goalkeeping department wasn’t just restricted to players. He also brought in Ben Roberts from Charlton Athletic as goalkeeper coach, the former Brighton number one returning to the club 11 years after injury forced him to retire following the Division Two playoff final victory against Bristol City.

Under Ben Roberts guidance, Stockdale went from being unsure of a place as Brighton & Hove Albion’s number one to becoming one of the best goalkeepers outside the Premier League.

The turnaround was astounding. Stockdale had seemingly always struggled with his weight – a problem that was extremely noticeable at points during his ill-fated Birmingham career – but he was a lean, mean saving machine under the tutelage of Roberts.

Stockdale’s stats speak for themselves. He missed just one league game in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 season and that was because of injury.

He kept 40 clean sheets. Stockdale got as close as anyone has managed to equalling Roberts’ own club-record of six consecutive shutouts when keeping four in a row in the autumn of 2016.

When Maenpaa left Brighton in 2018, he joined Bristol City. He instantly became Lee Johnson’s number one in a top-six chasing City side; and yet Stockdale was so good in the two seasons they were both at Brighton that Maenpaa couldn’t get a look in.

Maenpaa has played nearly as many Championship game in two seasons at Ashton Gate as Stockdale has managed in three at Birmingham. Stockdale wasn’t Hughton’s number one by default – he was keeping a genuine Championship-class goalkeeper on the bench.

People close to Brighton were quick to lay the credit for Stockdale’s transformation at the door of Ben Roberts. It’s hard to think of a player who has undergone such a dramatic change in form and quality in such a short period of time, all brought about by one coach.

For said player to then revert back to his previous, questionable form almost the minute he stops working with that coach is equally extraordinary. Stockdale is now only deemed good enough for a spot on the bench at League One Wycombe by his latest loan manager, Gareth Ainsworth.

Stockdale’s dramatic improvement under Roberts isn’t the only example of the Albion’s goalkeeping coach’s talents either. It often goes forgotten that in Maty Ryan’s first few Premier League games after signing for £5 million from Valencia, he looked like a rabbit in the headlights.

So much so that in the final throes of the summer 2017 transfer window, Hughton moved to bring in a proven top flight goalkeeper in Tim Krul from Newcastle United.

Signing a man who only three years earlier had been one of the heroes of the Netherlands run to the semi finals of the World Cup with his penalty saving exploits was something of a coup for the Albion.

And yet Krul wasn’t required to play a minute of Premier League football. Roberts coaxed such improvement out of Ryan over the coming months that Krul instead found himself turning out for the Under 23s.

Playing in front of 389 supporters in a 3-1 defeat against Stevenage in the EFL Trophy was a far cry from keeping out Costa Rican spot kicks in a World Cup quarter final in Brazil.

Krul was probably the best backup goalkeeper outside of the big six in the 2017-18 campaign. He’s shown his quality with a string of fine performances for Norwich City in Premier League so far this season.

He couldn’t shift Ryan however, who has consistently improved under Roberts over the past three years. It’s no exaggeration to say that without Ryan, Brighton might not be a top flight club right now – particularly when you consider the three consecutive clean sheets he recorded in three consecutive 1-0 wins in October 2018.

That earned him the PFA Premier League Player of the Month award, the only Brighton player to have ever won such an accolade – a far cry from the goalkeeper who looked like a startled Hobbit when he first joined, and much of that is down to Roberts.

There is more to come of course. Brighton have an array of goalkeeping riches at the minute working with Ben Roberts. Graham Potter has said that Walton will be part of his plans for 2020-21 whenever that may be, news that is generating great excitement.

Further down the pecking order, Robert Sánchez has been earning rave reviews on loan at Rochdale in League One – the same level that Stockdale cannot get a game at.

18-year-old Carl Rushworth helped Worthing to the top of the Isthmian League Premier Division before the season was curtailed.

Rushworth has reportedly been watched by Barcelona which tells you how talented he is – it isn’t every day that scouts come from Camp Nou to Woodside Road.

Working with Roberts has proven to be a big boost to young goalkeepers in the past. It was Roberts who spotted Nick Pope playing non league football for Bury Town.

Roberts recommended that Charlton brought a young Pope to The Valley and he’s since gone onto become one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League and a full England international. If Roberts can repeat the trick with the likes of Walton, Sanchez and Rushworth, who knows how far they could go?

There is no doubt that Brighton have some excellent goalkeepers on their books. But, given the dramatic improvements and career-best form that he has drawn from the Stockdale and Ryan, the most important member of that close-knit team must be the one who never actually steps onto the pitch.

Goalkeepers may come and go, but Brighton will be in safe hands all the while they can keep Ben Roberts. He is probably the best goalkeeping coach in England. Just ask David Stockdale.