That’s my thinking on it too. The lad is probably doubting himself after only 2 mins against Slovenia.
Well it’s up to Howe to manage him and reinstall that confidence. A lot of players are off atm. And we have still got a good 7 points. When it clicks. We might be top 4.
I didn't see any lack of effort - just poor decision making. He just wasn't playing very well today. It happens to almost all players and it can often affect confidence.
Tbf it would help if like players didn’t keep passing it back to him when opposition players are chasing him down. They could just boot it away themselves
Pope is just a top end shot blocker, super traditional run of the mill GK and would have been fantastic years ago. However in the modern game you need someone better on their feet and he just isn't that. I don't dislike the lad and he was cheap, he does the job but we will one day need to replace with an improvement That being said, there are far bigger targets to go for and they haven't bothered so Pope will be with us for a while.