Should he be dropped after Saturday's clanger cost us ? In general, I'd argue that dropping a player because of a mistake is simply knee jerk stuff and helps nobody. Not only is it a dump in confidence to the individual but it has the risk of rippling through to the other players, potentially making them nervous in case they in turn do something disasterous. And the last thing we need at the moment (as COYW and SuperBri illustrate well in their posts on the Villa thread) is our lot being ultra cautious. Indeed Jokanovic, despite constantly moaning about mistakes costing us, hasn't dropped the likes of Ream, Madl or Sigurdsson when blatant errors led to goals against. Nor did he ditch forwards for missed opportunities. Okay injuries may have given him fewer options but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Likewise Malone being left out on Saturday after giving away the two penalties against Norwich - reckon it was simply Sessegnon's turn in the LB rotation pattern. However, Button regulary provokes palpatations every time he tries to replicate Neuer and a failed attempt defintely led to the penalty and us losing to Birmingham. Add to that his pretty poor distribution overall (something like 40% of his kicks reach one of ours) and there may well be a case to drop him. The obvious stand in is Marcus Bettinelli. Arguably but for injury, this debate might have been about him rather than Button. Why do I say that? For one, he doesn't command the six yard box. For two, his distibution is as bad as Button's and - repeating myself from earlier posts - I have never, ever seen another goalkeeper who has no follow-through on his kicks (Marcus just sort of stabs at the ball). So, my vote is ... stick with Button.
As I pointed out in the Thread before the Villa game I think we need to find a proper keeper in January. Someone who commands respect from the opposition. I'm not sure how keepers are trained during the week, but they seem to lack the basics, of accurate kicking, being comfortable with both feet, being able to organise their defence during a game, there's even an art to punching the ball properly if needed instead of catching. They need to work on these techniques, repeat them till they can do it in their sleep.
You've got to stick with button. There's always 2 sides. How many games has he saved us! I think he's a decent keeper.
