It's a case of him being damned if he does and damned if he doesn't - if he picks Lloris the press will grumble that he picked Lloris, whilst if he picks Friedel the press will grumble that Friedel wasn't brought on against Everton, and if he picks Gomes the fans will grumble that he picked Gomes. Jordan Archer it is, then!
What an utter no-brainer. GK is a position like any other, and the manager needs to rotate where possible to ensure the others are ready to step up in case of injury. Well guess what, the best GK in the squad had an injury scare, and his squad peers have had insufficient game time this season IMHO to step into the PL fold. So the Lloris concussion is MORE reason for playing Brad et al (if squad rotation in lesser games is not already enough) .
Agreed, but AVB doesn't trust Friedal, and yes thats just my view, not stating it as a fact, yet AVB has come to have so much faith in Hugo's role as playing sweeper, he will do anything possible to play Lloris and Brad will only play as a last resort. We need to bring in a young keeper who has similar attributes as Lloris.
"We need to bring in a young keeper who has similar attributes as Lloris." Whatever way you look at it (no young GK, no Academy GKs getting a chance etc) , AVB is at fault. WTF is the point of assembling a squad with depth and breadth when you hang on one player remaining uninjured all season ??
This, and i can see AVB's point if this is the case. Playing Brad basically means having to play an entirely different way at the back or risk getting picked off repeatedly by average through-balls or balls over the top. We need a young sweeper-keeper understudy.
What I don't understand is if AVB doesn't trust Friedel (which I can see where Boss is coming from there as it's surprising that Hugo has played a fee EL games when Brad probably "needs" them) then why not play Gomes? He's quicker than Friedel and is probably gagging for game time and has more similar attributes to Hugo than Brad does (not that he's anywhere near Hugo's level). I like Brad as a No 2, even at 84 years old he's still easily one of the best back up keepers in my opinion, yet when we're playing a highline and needing a sweeper keeper, Gomes would probably be a better candidate for the role in my opinion.
And Spurm, the danger with this, is that Lloris has excelled and mastered the role of sweeper to the point he rarely makes mistakes, for a keeper who takes such risks he has never been viewed as a liability when charging off his line. If a young keeper operated in the same manner, a young Lloris, would the fans give him the benefit of the doubt if he screwed up (which would happen), yes in cup games which never meant anything, not in the league, it would finish him! But Lloris definitely needs an understudy, rather then a number 2 the manager doesn't trust.
AVB seems to share Redknapp's approach to 'keepers in giving the backup 'keeper certain competitions to play in. Like Cudicini was given the FA Cup in 'Arry's last season, even up to the semi final against Chelsea, Friedel has been given the League Cup and we'll see who gets the FA Cup. I don't particularly like it as I think our choice of 'keeper should depend on form, strength of opposition and importance of game rather than setting restrictions based purely on the competition. I really hope AVB shows some commonsense and plays Friedel in our last 3 Europa League games, they really don't matter so there's little for us to gain even though the cleansheets in the Europa League are adding to our impressive record.
I think he would be a complete liability in that role,no, i wouldn't want gomes anywhere the team,definetly when we play a high line
