Morning gents, I hope you're all well and your tractors are running smoothly? It looks like we're signing David Stockdale on loan today, just wondered how he got on with you last season and what his strengths and weaknesses are. Cheers, OLM
I said the other day (watching us getting beaten by Leicester) that if David Stockdale was in goal we wouldn't have conceded the first 3 goals at least. He is a good shot stopper, in fact a very good shot stopper, He commands his area pretty well and distribution isn't a problem. The only issue he had with us was that our defence was pretty shambolic and so organising it well would be a task for even the goalkeeping greats. He was well liked here and it's fair to say that the 24hr recall option on his loan was always hanging over him and we were very frustrated when the call finally came and he had to head back to Fulham. If you get him for the rest of the season you will get a great goalkeeper and I think the lad needs games to be fighting to get back into the England set up again
Nice one, thanks for that, it's encouraging to hear. It's a bit bizarre that we already have Man United's third choice keeper on loan, yet we feel the need to replace him. He hasn't been terrible, but he has made a couple of mistakes in recent games and the defence seem to be getting slightly more nervous game on game.
King, I think you or I could have been in goal against Leicester and done better than Henderson - he really is abysmal. Other than that I would say your summary is pretty accurate. Its difficult to judge any player on individual merit because we have been so disorganised that some good players have looked poor whilst trying to cover mistakes from others. Stockdale may have conceded quite a few goals when playing for us but the fact he normally came out of games with a lot of credit says something about both his performances and those of the team - not many keepers would get praised in a game where he concedes 4 or 5!
We signed Scott Loach who has been solid if not spectacular and building a career at the club, then he has one match where he could be credited with both goals scored against us and he's out in the cold and we have a keeper (Henderson) on loan who turned us down a few months ago and has said in the press he would rather be playing for West Ham, the issue is he has made more clangers than Loach and we are looking to replace him with yet another Keeper on Loan (Davis) and so Loach still remains contracted to the club but sat on the bench having done very little wrong It's a crazy job being a Goalkeeper
We signed Eldin Jakupovic from Aris in the summer and it doesn't look like he's ever going to get a game outside of the reserves(and he's 28). He came on a free and it was all a bit last minute and Bruce hadn't actually seen him play, now he has, he doesn't want him anywhere near the first team. As you say, it can be crazy being a keeper.
