Since the start of the 2014-15 season, Fraser Forster has kept 35 clean sheets in the Premier League - more than any other English goalkeeper.
More appearances probably. Heaton has only 1 PL season, Hart was in Serie A, Butland wasn't Stokes first choice and then got injured for a long time when he was. That being said, last season Fraser conceded 1 goal for every 1.29 saves so I'd say there is an element of facing less shots. We've usually had a solid defence.
He also missed 12 months with injury during that time too. Although then again, Butland also missed a year with injury, Hart missed a year whilst being on loan to Torino, Heaton missed a year whilst playing in the Championship, Foster missed half a year or so with injury, and Pickford has only played one PL season. I had issues with Fraser last season, but so far this season I'm happy again.
The first on target no longer goes in! The club showed great faith in him this summer, we should too.
He certainly can if he keeps getting knocked off the ball. At least Redmond and Tadic tackle back occasionaly - not sure that's Boufal's game, and might explain why he isn't in the side.
Really? I would say, if anything, Boufal tackles back too often. He regularly seems very keen to try and win the ball back in my view (albeit often because he's given it away) - whilst, whilst admirable, does then result in him picking the ball up very deep, and trying to beat two players from inside his own half. When you'd rather he was doing it 30 yards or so further up the field.
Are you providing the fireworks in this discussion? This could be dynamic!! See my message to you under General Sports Fran, re US Open!
I was avoiding the question about the Open because I have no opinion on it. Yes, you have found a topic on which I have no opinion.
Simply, we should be winning these games because our goal is European football. That's the stated ambition of the club. So to play the stoic supporter is fine and be ok with anything and everything is fine but there is no denying what the aims are for the season. It doesn't mean Hudds are ****, far from it, they're a good side but just like last season there will be very little to separate the middle of the table from the drop zone, there are lots of good teams. We are one of them but the difference is we aren't scoring goals. I went to bed with 20 minutes to go but so far, in the three games I am seeing a lot of the same issues we had last season. lack of penetration and poor vision. A failure to see even glaring openings for a dangerous pass. In the plus side, stoic defending, calm at the back and solid pressing in the midfield area. We are uncannily similar to last year. On paper we should be scoring goals but something in the make-up isn't working. We spent all of last season thinking the goals would start coming and they never did. Gabbiadini's arrival is now an obvious blip. Basically we are good except at scoring goals. Maybe its nothing to do with the manager...
I've said it more times than I can recall. We need a big line leading striker, like Rickie or Graziano were or could be. They don't have to get goals [but that would be nicer] but players can play off them and enjoy the space that those powerful guys create. We just need one as an option. An option that I bet gets played more and more as it becomes more successful. Shane Long isn't it and neither is Charlie Austin. They are different options again. One thing we're not short on is options, but we need a powerful, skilful guy to play off, and we don't have that. It's been successful in the past and we have a boatload of quick skilful players crying out for a focal point right now. So you can keep all your attacking midfielder transfer favourites. I want a big, clever striker. A guy who can take the ball, shield it and lay it off. We've been spoilt before, I know, with those previous two, and I know they are thin on the ground, but they are about. Just wish I could think of one.
None of what you have written tells me anything about why we should be beating these teams. It tells me why we want to beat them and that's clear, but it still doesn't tell me why we should be. I'm not playing the stoic supporter, I'm saying that you can't just say we should beat a team. For all we know, Huddersfield could be the new Leicester. Today, Huddersfield were the better team, so perhaps they should be saying that they should be beating teams like Southampton. Fans get "want" and "should" mixed up far too often. My goal could be to be Prime Minister but it doesn't mean it should happen.
I hear you, but if you have a team of people with the goal of getting you to PrimeMinister there are certain things that you should be achieving otherwise you are failing. Yes we want to beat teams but that's irrelevant. Ultimately, we need to beat rivals because if we don't then we slide into oblivion. Thats why we should be beating Wolves and we should be beating Hudds. That is our minimum level of achievement and if we aren't making it we are failing. If you're in sales you SHOULD be achieving certain targets for volume. If you aren't achieving that the company is in the **** and you are out of a job. We are less likely to be beating ManU, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, City, and Everton. There are teams in the division who we should be beating or we will be relegated. If we can't beat Hudds, we add that to the above list. Add Swansea to that list too. At the end of the season its a long list and we will all be looking back and going ****, we're in big trouble. So yes, I think there are games we should be winning. To be clear, I am not freaking out that we aren't on 9 points with +9 goal difference. I'm picking you up on what is reasonable to expect. Good on Hudds, they played well and gave us an entertaining but goalless match. An away point is an away point but once again we failed to convert chances to goals and missed opportunities. That will need to change at some point.
There's a big drop in quality in our current side compared to one under Koeman or Pochettino. And I'm still using performances of those teams as a benchmark, so of course I'm going to be disappointed by performances like this one (and many other before). I guess still haven't adjusted to the new reality. (yeah I'm aware there were ****e performances under Koeman also, but overall the quality of our performances was higher)
I wasn't so much disappointed by the performance which was good overall. At the same time its blindingly obvious that we are rubbish infront of Goal still. Maya has had an absolute sitter in each game this season, two in the last and missed all. He is playing bloody well but why is he the one getting into open positions infront of goal? Is this going to be another season where our defenders are top scorers?
I'll stop with this last one, because we clearly don't agree, but I still have read nothing in footballing terms to telll me why we SHOULD beat Huddersfield. You tell me you are "picking me up on what is reasonable to expect" but not why, unless you are saying we are better than Huddersfield but not explained why.. After two games, I couldn't see why we should beat them. To add to your teams, throw in Norwich City. We lost to them and finished 6th in the league in a season when we couldn't touch a win in november and December (almost). Using your logic, Chelsea can't win the league because they lost to Burnley. A company can miss its sales targets and still be in profit. If we are going to use sales as the analogy, it feels like you're sacking the sales team for being behind budget after month one of the year. Football is about swings and roundabouts and you don't always know which one your are approaching.
