If that's what's supposed to warrant Neuer being a top 3 football player the hype is even worse than I thought. Getting directly shot at when the scoreline is 5-0 against Brazil is worthy of a gif now.
Standard highlight reel of a top goalkeeper, if I could be bothered I would post 200 gifs of Keylor Navas' impossible saves to put that into pers pective. Neuer was neither the best GK in the WC nor in the CL. No one is questioning that he is the best GK in general based on potential. No one is questioning that he pulls great saves. Did he perform so far ahead of his peers in 2014 that he is now a top 3 football player (not GK but football player in general)? As if. He's there because Germany needs a respresentative after winning the WC, not based on merit.
Edit: lol Just checked all the gifs. Posting
http://gfycat.com/BruisedDangerousErmine in this discussion sums up the Neuer hype. Obviously any other goalkeeper and it would have been an own goal.
I take it you included some of these for comic relief and not as any serious Ballon d'Or justification :
^^Must surely be some kind of piss take. Where are the Neuer looking serious on the halfway line pictures just for good measure? I can never decide which of Neuer or his cult are more pretentious.
It's not about a cult. I'm not saying he deserves to win an award based on those few outtakes alone. What I'm saying is that the myth that he does nothing all game long is undoubtedly wrong. People always joke around saying "why should Neuer win an award for just stepping out of his line and doing nothing all game"? But if you look at the chart, he makes more saves on average than Buffon, and about the same as the other keepers.
Neuer makes some flashy moves here and there but that doesn't make him deserving of any awards. But the high quality at which he plays and the consistency of it does. I mean, how many of Ronaldo's goals he scored this year are actually spectacular in anyway? He's scored 11 penalties in 2014 alone. And a high number of them are probably tap-ins too. But he is a consistent goal scoring threat at a high level and probably at a much higher level than most other players. Players like him and Messi are difference makers. And Neuer is too.
Last season, when Bayern had to use their third keeper when he was injured, in 5 games they conceded 8 goals. 1.6 goals conceded on average. With him last season: 0.58 goals conceded on average. 2 points per game avg without him, 2.68 with him. In an average Bundesliga season, that amounts to a difference of
23 points. Actually 10 goals in 5.5 games, if you count him being subbed out in the 46th minute against Dortmund.
To be fair, most of this was after they had won the league and gotten complacent, but Neuer's influence is undeniable. Just having his reputation means opponents are less likely to shoot at goal. And clearing the ball off the line is much safer than having to face a shot 1 v 1 close to goal, especially if you have the skills to pull it off. Having a keeper who has the technical skills/distribution accuracy to help with buildup play is very important when other teams know how to mark your important midfield players. It also keeps the defense confident knowing that they can have such a freakish high line and can still have absolute trust in their keeper to save the occasional slip up. Sometimes he makes it look easy, but if other keepers tried to pull the stuff he does it would usually look like this:
http://gfycat.com/DisfiguredIllinformedBobwhite Sorry for using such low hanging fruit as example though lol but even when he does all this risky stuff how often does he concede a goal resulting specifically from it?
It's like asking if Messi deserves an award for just trying to dribble the ball into the net: a mass exaggeration and 99% ignorance. The difference Messi and Ronaldo make to their teams isn't unlike what Neuer makes to his and I could even argue that Neuer makes an even bigger difference for Bayern.
dat rage. 
