Should Fraser be "rested"?

Agreed. Ibrahimovic in particular deserves credit for both his goals, which would have made things difficult for the best keeper in the world.

 

I agree with your main point, but imo, Fraser has been performing well below his usual standard for most of this season. His saves to shots ratio is poor and i've not noticed a match this season where i thought he has had a very good game. We are playing in the top league in English football and to get anywhere we need a reliable Keeper who can make great saves fairly regularly.
I'm not saying that he won't return to his former level, just that him playing isn't entirely beneficial to him and the team atm.

 

Yeah, lower body injuries make it difficult to push off with any kind of power, which is somewhat essential when getting down. His confidence also looks shot, but I suspect that's where the problem began.

 

Absolutely, I would guess few Man U die-hards are blaming De Gea for the 3 he let in on Sunday!

 

I was about to say similar. Do we all think that Man U are analysing our goals? We all think they were amazing, but someone is to blame for all of them. Even if one of them is the lino

 

I agree with you about goals 2 and 3, but the first was easily saveable. First of all his positioning was questionable and secondly for the distance of the free kick he was very slow to react. As has been said many times since Sunday, the ball was a good way in from the post, good positioning would have covered that. But he wasn't the only one at fault for the first goal, it was a defending horror show and so was the second.

 

It's not just Sundays performance that is causing concern, he has been well below par since before Xmas.
I recently saw a table showing that he had the lowest ratio of shots on target to saves in the premiership. This reinforces what I and a lot of us posting on here feel about him.
Any low shots seem to beat him as he appears very slow at getting down there. Not surprising bearing in mind his size.

 

De Gea has been criticised for the one that went through his legs.

Of course the other factor is that the combined total distance from goal of all three of our "goals" was probably less than the distance from goal of either of their first two.

 

Nobody, even on a good day, was going to save those three goals. They were flicked past him before he could even move. It was world-class finishing.

 

Certainly for me, I think he already would of been had McCarthy been fit.

I agree that he has been carrying an injury for a while, but I just think that he's simply no where near as good a keeper as he's made out to be on here.

I've always maintained that for a keeper of his size/stature he doesn't dominate his box well enough.

Yes he is (was?) a good shot stopper, but most keepers at this level are. The problem is his all round game isn't good enough.

This year he hasn't even been a good shot stopper, so what is he good at?

If we can get through the Summer without many (any!) departures I'd be looking to buy a keeper tbh.

 

I thought the third goal was tough, could argue that's the kind of save he 'used' to sometimes make, as in miraculous strong-handed saves close to his body, but any saves from that close are difficult even if they are well within reach. But the first goal, the top 100 keepers in the world let alone the best would expect to save that 98/9 times out of 100 especially going to their stronger side. Reachable, perfect height, clean trajectory, powerful but not to an extreme degree... That's routine. I've for some reason made myself suffer by watching it several times in real-time and I can't see it any other way. Whether what went awry was the wall placement, positioning, agility getting to it or any combination of the three, it should've been saved. Ho-hum.

 

About the first goal: we were dead behind the goal and something that wasn't apparent on the TV coverage was how unexpectedly quickly it was taken. I think that accounts for Fraser looking slow to react. Argue as much as you want that he should be ready but it was really quite startling and I can understand the delayed reaction. You can even see that Fraser was flat footed when goalkeepers in the "ready position" are on the balls of their feet.

Vin

 

Rest? Only if injured. He looked injured after his great save with his legs.
If not injured no- won't do his confidence any good.
Frazer hasn't been making the worldies he did but is a great keeper. We're lucky to have him when you look at goalkeeper option.

 

Should be rested to recover from his injuries. This sounds harsh but currently he is not up to the job and will become a liability for the back-four (assuming he is not already) as they start to lose confidence in the man between the sticks. Poor positioning and reactions on the first goal and how many times have we seen quality keepers make a reactive save on the third when the striker has headed the ball too close to the keeper and the keeper has got something on it (and then we have ranted at the striker for not heading it down onto the line and away from the keeper)? As mentioned above - if he was more commanding of his penalty area and the six yard box in particular he could have come for it and swept up Ibra and stifled the ball.

 

He's still better than Claudio Bravo though.

 

Just seen a piece on Saints FB page where FF was giving a goal keeping masterclass. The comments were not very positive to say the least..... Not great timing from the Saints Media team.
I hope FF doesn't read the comments

 

Ergo, he's better than Joe Hart.

 

I've been a staunch defender of the big man, but I think it's fair to say he is going through a dreadful spell.
I agree that the free kick should have been saved by a top level keeper. He has cost us points this season in all honesty, something is not right. The question is, do you keep playing him and try and get him back to his best? I say yes, he has earned that.

 

CP has a good excuse to drop FF to the bench, he has a young keeper on loan to the end of the season and wants to give him a run of games to see if he is worth hanging onto.
That would stop all the media headlines sensationalising FF being dropped due to poor form

 

If you pause the free kick highlights; when they show from MU end, just as Ibhra is about to kick & look at FF positioning, you'll see with a dive to his left he'll be able to easily touch the post & reach the top LH corner - look the other way ................ he was definitely too far left - he could never cover, even close. Simple positioning error IMO. Shame because if he's to the right 1/2 step that makes Ibhra really try for the inside of the post & puts pressure on him. What FF did was provide a class player with a really easy placement - and he did. Shame.