My gut feeling is if we persist with Davis we will do bloody well not to be relegated and it's is not because we are a bottom 3 team! Get rid of him and we could look forward to a glorious mid table finish! Prem is tight 7 or 8 points could be the difference and that is the difference between a average/decent keeper and a top keeper!
Don't agree but even if you were right we have what we have. Gazza is totally unproven at the topl level as is Cropper. They need to be brought in slowly not chucked in against Arsenal!
Watched Gazzaniga warming up Saturday and I know you can't judge fully on that but I thought he looked outstanding! I say get him in and blood him quick!
Davis is a perfectly good shot stopper and PENALTY saver, but he isn't a footballer. That's his main problem. Besides, I don't forget performances like against Leeds, only a few months ago. Every keeper has deficiencies, Davis's aren't so bad that he's a weak link.
Goalkeepers don't need to be good football, they need to be good goalkeepers and as Kelvin is a good shot-stopper, penalty saver etc he's fine It's really pissing me off all this Kelvin bashing
I am loving some of the full names we have in the squad... Cork, Jack Frank Porteous Do Prado Raymundo, Guilherme Fonte, José Miguel RamÃrez Pereyra, Gastón Ezequiel Rodriguez, Jay Enrique
Well, the only glaring weakness in Davis is his distribution. He's obviously been asked to occasionally kick the ball short, or to vary his distribution, and there are a few variables at work here which means it isn't coming off well at times. 1] He doesn't throw the ball well [or he would do it] and his kicking isn't the best either, hence he's not the best footballer. 2] His decision making on distribution isn't brilliant. The other day, when his passes were intercepted, the players he passed to were actually staying up-field in order to eliminate themselves from being a passing option. Anyone who has played football knows how to make themselves unavailable for a pass, and Fox did it the other day, as did Clyne. Now, that wasn't Davis's fault as he was left with no option other than to leather it. But he chose not to, passed short, and put Saints in danger. That's not good decision making. But someone needs to give both Fox and Clyne a good talking to. They made the situation worse for Kelvin. Make Kelvin's distribution safe, and there's not an awful lot wrong with him.
Whatever you think of SKD, I just don't think that we can finish potentially 10 league places higher just based on replacing him! I don't think he has done badly at all, and considering the step up and nerves involved playing both Manchester clubs in the first month, he's equipped himself well. Keepers of all levels make sloppy pass mistakes sometimes, and while I agree that his distribution is amongst his weaker points, I think Fox could have come to the ball and won it in that first instance. As said before, he has saved two pens (one from VP, and one from Silva - rather than Tevez, as previous poster stated) - not bad for a new player in this league, and more than a lot of keepers save all season. VP's third was unstoppable, and a defensive error. VP's first was down to Clyne - show me a keeper who would save a shot from VP on his left foot in that position! (And he got his leg on it.) Had he saved that one, and then got a finger to that Rio Ferdinand header that hit the post, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Man U had their fair share of luck in that game. If anything, he's been let down on all three losing occasions this season by his defence - Fox's header into the 18 yard box aginst City, Fonte's slip aginst Wigan, and Clyne's slip against Man U. Without those, we'd be on two points. Nothing to do with SKD imo - and certainly not up to ten league places different. Spurs managed to do well with Gomez and all his follies. Experienced keepers who know the team and system they're in, and whose (in our case shaky) defence are comfortable and secure with, are worth their weight in gold. Who else would we get in? Schmeichel comes to mind, as does Friedel, who will probably unjustly go out of favour at Spurs now, but how many seasons does he have left in him? I say back SKD. Certainly don't call for his head after three games where he hasn't actually been directly culpable for a goal (and where he is directly responsible for the non-concession of at least two).
It's not just about shot stopping though as I'm sure you know, and anyway I know we have conceded eight but I can't think of much Kelvin could have done with any of them. Nigel and team will have had a long sit down about whether to stick or twist and decided to stay with him. If it's not working out by January I'm sure they will act. Anyway he's done better than Green, Federici, Ruddy, Given, Reina, de Gea........
His distribution is not great, but that will rarely be put under as much pressure as it was against United. Not every team has wingers like Valencia who are going to be closing down the full-backs for 90 minutes.
Speaking of goalkeepers, have we all noticed the trend of teams switching their starting keepers around at the moment? De Gea replaced in our game on Sunday; Guzman in for Given at Villa; and DiCanio subbing his keeper off after 20 minutes. Never used to happen unless keeper was injured, but in these cases, the first choice keeper has been fit and well. Arguably, Lindegaard was strategic (to combat Lambert threat - what better praise from Ferguson?!); Di Canio's choice was down to performance issues; and not exactly sure in Guzman's case...
That's true, PSF, but it would take a pretty stupid opposition manager not to note Kelvin's distribution down as something that his players need to pressurise.
Obviously Kelvin has a lot of fans and I am wrong! I'm going to stick by my word and predict that Davis is replaced either by Gazzaniga or someone else pretty quickly....give him 3 or 4 games!
We cannot register any more players until the next Window, however Stoke are already trying to buck the trend, asking special dispensation for Michael Owen who signed too late. I guess that is because they already have 25 registered players.
This is the case with the exception of a keeper we have only submitted 23 players so if a keeper was on a bosman we are ok I think!
Michael Owen was a free agent and therefore can sign outside of the transfer window. Of course, if Stoke had already submitted their 25 players, then it would indeed be too late. But, if like Saints, they had submitted less than 25, then they'd have places to fill.
