Just got round to watching the U21 highlights from the weekend and noticed Cropper played in goal. Anyone know what's happened to Gazza>? Is he injured or just dropped down the pecking order?
He played in the second last game of the season against spurs, 0-0, where he apparently played well according to the match report. Just looking over the recent fixtures he has been regularly rotated with cropper, for whatever reason. I don't think either of them are much good atm, but they are young and it's hard to tell how much they will develop.
Wow. To think a few months ago there was a heated debate over which of Gazza, Kelvin and Boruc should play.
I am confident Gazzaniga will be future number 1 at Saints. He just needs to develop - a loan to a Championship club would be ideal.
Let's not forget he's only 21 and was playing in League 2 last season. The Premiership is a massive step to take for any young player. I think it was a huge mistake to play him at the start of the season as it clearly wrecked his confidence - he should have been brought on through the U21s straight away.
As a lot of people know on here, I have high hopes for Gazza .... he just needs nurturing and a spell out on loan to build his confidence up.
I don't think Gazza will ever make it, before boruc Davis was truly awful and so was Gazza. Enough time has elapsed to forget Davis's many blunders, plus he made a great save when he last came on as a sub. Gazza however showed nothing much other than good distribution, he made a good reflex stop against everton, apart from that he did no other good goalkeeping. Of course he can turn it around but I would want to see something other than physical characteristics and good clearing kicks before I got excited about some potential
Gazza wasn't awful, just had lapses of concentration. He made some excellent saves but also made some basic errors. He just needs regular playing time at a lower level to gain confidence.
Gazzaniga is a great shot stopper. Just needs more experience. He could be a top keeper over time. Just to add, I did a bit of research and the stats make interesting reading.... Gazzaniga let in 12 goals in 9 games (72.7% saving percentage). Boruc has let in 27 in 18.5 (61.4% save percentage). Davis has let in 19 in 8.5 games (60.4% saving percentage). Gazzaniga's last game was against Liverpool away when we lost 1-0. He made 7 saves in that game. In Gazzaniga's last 5 games for us he only let in 4 goals. I think Gazzaniga is 11th for save percentage for all keepers in the league. We picked up 12 points in those 9 games with Gazzaniga (1.33 points per game). We've got 22 points in 18.5 with Boruc (1.18 points per game). 8 points in 8.5 with Davis (0.94 points per game). So we let in less with Gazzaniga, got more points and he had a higher saving percentage..
I wouldn't give up on him but there's just as much chance he'll be the next Stuart Taylor or Richard Wright as there is of him being the next Joe Hart.
Boruc has not really impressed me. He has made a few really good saves (RVP springs to mind) yet he has one of the lowest % saves to shots in the premiership. He was aided by the defence getting thier act together. I actually felt safer with Gazza in goal.
I really like the fact that Gazza is young, he seemed to have a good connection with the defence too, which is very important, and we are now playing better football under a new manager- in which we are conceding less shots on goal, so Gaz would effectively have less to do. Boruc's save ratio is pretty shocking, but he has been doing the job. Gazza has great athleticism too
That shows how bullshit the save to shot percentage stat is. I think you might be the only Southampton fan in the world who thinks Gazza is better than Boruc, I've not felt this safe with a keeper since Niemi.
Agreed Dan. True, on Saturday Boruc let in 100% of Tottenham's on-target shots (1), but that was because he pretty much commanded the 6 yard box the rest of the game, together with the rest of the team not allowing more goal attempts.
And on top of that, he had no chance of saving it - yet according to that stat, it will be exactly the same as Gazza letting Snodgrass' free kick through his hands.
As with any statistic you can twist them to mean anything. Fact is I feel a lot safer with Boruc in goal.
Gazzaniga was very good considering he'd never played at this level before and was only 20 at the time. He's definitely a better shot stopper than Boruc. Boruc is better at claiming crosses and being commanding in general but he's played much more at this level and is literally a bigger presence (much wider). Gazzaniga was perhaps feeling his way into things a little. It's all well and good us saying we feel safer with Boruc (I have felt the same) but look at the stats I posted. We got more points and let in less goals per game with Gazzaniga which confuses me. Gazzaniga is an unorthodox keeper. His acrobatic saving style, kicking style and distribution are all pretty unorthodox which is why I think some didn't feel safe with him in goal. He did well though.
The stats I posted are fair whether you like it or not. They are not twisted to favour anyone so don't talk rubbish. I was surprised by them at the time.
