Thomas Strakosha, the 27 year old Albanian International keeper who was born in Athens, Greece is set to leave Lazio on a free transfer. He has spent 10 years at Lazio joining in 2012 for their youth team before moving into the senior team a few years later.
In his final season at Lazio he helped them achieve 5th place in Serie A. Unfortunately he only played 23 games. In the 23 games he registered 7 clean sheets which is 30% of his games played. He conceded an average 1.13 per 90 minutes, he played a total of 2070 minutes during the 21/22 season.
In his 10 year span at Lazio he won the Coppa Italia twice; the first in 2012/13 and then 2018/19. He would also go on to win the Supercoppa Italiana in 2017 before winning it again in 2019 beating defending champions Juventus 3-1; I guess you can say Fulham and Strakosha have something in common.
His style of play is imitating his father, Foto, a former keeper and current goalkeeping coach at Lazio. I think it’s fair to say no keeper is 100% perfect with every keeper showing some flaws in their play and Strakosha is no different. He has shown some weaknesses; against long shots, catching in general as well as catching crosses. While many think this will be a problem I believe Marco has seen some potential in the keeper. It needs to be said that he has very quick reactions with strong reflexes when it comes to saving shots from close range with both his feet and chest, this could be a joy to watch. He is a confident penalty stopper which is something we desperately need if we are to compete with VAR this season.
While many of you would like someone better, nothing is better then a risk free keeper on a free signing. He would be a great addition to the team and the keeping coaches have a job on their hands to improve Strakosha’s catches.
Problem he has same agent as Solomon who after agreeing deal wanted more money for himself . Which rightly Fulham told him we’re to go, so will need other deals in pipeline . I have a feeling this won’t happen
Different agents same company.
Surely there must be a compromise< It would be wrong for the club to give in his (or his agents') demand fully as it would create a precedence for other possible incoming transfers apparently under negotiation
You’re right it would be wrong for the club to give into these money grabbers but If I’m being completely honest if Khan and his team have learnt from their mistake a compromisewould be on the table. If we did give in I think it would effect other transfer target with our set budget of fees -transfer, wages and agent’s.
Come on surely we can go for a better type of keeper than this one
A weakness with catching in general, oh lord. I’m sure he’s a good keeper overall but although Rodak isn’t perfect he is pretty decent and any replacement should be an obvious improvement rather than of equal or similar abilities