Bundesliga Commentator Kevin Hatchard talks Bernd Leno


Experienced Bundesliga Commentator and football writer Kevin Hatchard gives me his thoughts on Bernd Leno, who is closing in on a move to Arsenal.










KH: 'Arsenal are getting a goalkeeper who has built up a huge amount of experience in the Bundesliga, Champions League and at international level. He has been the undisputed number one at Bayer Leverkusen for a long time, and at the age of 26, he still has a lot of football left in his career.

Leno is agile and an excellent shot-stopper. He is brave, willing to commit himself to dangerous challenges in one-on-ones. 

Where Leno falls down is that he can be guilty of losing concentration and making costly errors, whether it’s with the ball at his feet or in situations where his handling lets him down. Cutting out those avoidable mistakes will be the key to whether he reaches the next level.

His final season at Leverkusen was ultimately a disappointment, as the team was smashed 6-1 by Bayern in the DFB Cup semi-finals, and narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification. To make matters worse, Leno didn’t make the cut for Germany’s World Cup squad, as he lost out to Kevin Trapp. 

With Petr Cech seemingly on the wane, Leno is a good replacement, but at this stage I don’t regard him as being in the world-class bracket like Alisson, Jan Oblak or David De Gea. Manuel Neuer and Marc-AndrĂ© ter Stegen are rightly ahead of him in the Germany set-up.

I think it says a lot that Leno has been linked with a lot of big clubs, but none have really taken the plunge and made a big bid for him. He hasn’t rocked the boat, and that’s to his credit, but this is the time for him to show to other clubs that they missed out. His agility, bravery and calm demeanour should serve him well in England, but although he’s a good signing, he has work to do to prove Arsenal have made a great signing.'
A big thank you to Kevin for agreeing to do this for me and taking the time to give all of us an interesting insight into the player.  

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