The real point is though, that he is doing well but people have jumped up and down on a couple of errors.
Utter impatience. Typical arm chair fan that comment. I've watched the game back and I don't think he can even be criticized for the first goal. You say he hasn't learned from his mistakes??? His mistake at Villa was he came out too indecisively and then came out... mistake; against Utd, he didn't come out, he was decisive (not that I think he had much chance to come out when you watch where RVP is on the replay and where the ball is played too) but RVP scored. That isn't a mistake in any book. Someone earlier said he should have done the Boruc/Schmeicel starfish ... well that would not have stopped the ball going through his legs. If he had come out low and RVP had chipped him, someone would say he should have stood up. No win. Having said all along I think he should have come for the second one, I now see why he didn't; that cross started so far out and wide that he didn't expect it to whip back in so quickly. I still think he could have come, but not as glaring an error as I first thought having watched it on the TV replay. By the way .. how many chances must Long miss, or rush, or snatch at before he hasn't learned from his mistakes. A player that has been like that for seasons and seasons. I don't want a thread on Long or anyone on his back, just pointing out that you are being totally vindictive on Fraser. In my mind, he has cost us one goal this season. Last night the first goal is squarely with Jose and the second one was poor marking shared with Fraser not coming for the cross. (I'm ignoring the criticism on the Aguero save! FFS, criticizing his decision after he made a save)
That I agree with jumping on him but his errors are same ones I've seen him make at celtic and is still making but he is the clubs number one and hopefully his buddy Watson is desperately trying to work on those issues
Ask Maya how nervous he was last night. I haven't seen him show so much confidence in a saints shirt. "in 3 of the last 4 games he's looked shaky at least one point in the game and it's making me nervous" ... really. Every time a keeper let's a goal in they must look shaky. They are not invincible and I bet you can say that about every keeper for 90% of games.
It is easy to castigate someone after the incident......no doubt his judgement may have been to blame. However ask yourself this, how many times have you made a decision in a nano second and been wrong? On the other hand how many times have you been right? He let in a goal through making a bad judgement call perhaps but nothing is definite. It does seem to be down to a run of bad luck....that as they say is life. When playing Arsenal his decision making was spot on.....last night.......well who knows but that is football. Also ask yourself another question......how many times have we won but didn't really deserve to? That is what happened last night...they had the rub of the green we did not. It happens.... roll on the next match COYS.
I said something at some point about Boruc and the starfish but I wasn't criticising Forster exactly, I just think Boruc would have made life harder for van Persie than Forster did. I also think Boruc would have come for the cross on the second goal. Forster has had one great game for us and otherwise done what he's had to do (not much) pretty well. He's been fine but has had a couple of games recently where he's looked a little unsure of himself. Mind you, he generally looks a bit sheepish so maybe that doesn't mean anything. As for Shane Long, he is what he is. I saw an Irish guy describe him as 90% of a brilliant striker - the problem being that the 10% is that he can't finish his breakfast. He's not here to play as a main striker and probably wouldn't get into our best side so the poor finishing is less of an issue than it might be.
How many times has he done that recently (City and Utd)? Quite a few times, so I am not buying the "he's not learning/improving" that some are saying. They are being selective.
Firstly, I never said he was fault for the first goal. Secondly, against City, he was indecisive again when Aguero was through so that's not learning from mistakes. And for the 2nd goal, maybe I was a bit harsh when I said it was abysmal keeping, but it is poor keeping. Especially considering his size - he would have easily got there had he come out.
poor finishing isn't a single player issue for us. it's unfortunate for keepers but they have a very singular responsibility.
We will have to agree to disagree. On the Aguero one, you can not criticize him as the facts say he judged it perfectly... he saved it. Who is to say if he had come out earlier/quicker that Aguero wouldn't have had a burst and poked the ball past him and been brought down for a red card. On the second goal, you are not even allowing yourself to consider that the cross started very wide and curled in late and quick (I have said he is partially at fault still though). On the replay, he is already in a good position facing the attackers (slightly facing left from behind the goal) when the ball starts to swing in closer to him. It wasn't great, but not a massive error. First call still has to go (or at least equal) to a defender leaving a top quality striker to be unmarked at a free-kick. The point is we lost the game mainly, in my opinion, because we couldn't finish our chances or find the right final pass (Tadic to Long in the first half for a simple, basic example)
I don't agree he would necessarily have got the ball if he had come for it, that's the whole point. The trajectory the ball followed meant he would have had to come nearly to the edge of the area, only to find that the ball had suddenly whipped round and dipped towards the back post, where RVP would then have been between him and the ball. The only way he would have got the ball was to wait and see where it was going. Unfortunately by that time it was too late, and there was RVP completely unmarked. And to go back to your main point about his not learning from mistakes, how would you describe his performance against Arsenal? Was that Fraser's twin brother playing that night?
agree with what I think you are trying to say, however when looking at an instance with a keeper as several are here with Fraser, they look at it in isolation. Looking in isolation at the finishing last night, there were more bad examples of those than bad keeping. That is what cost us the game.
training ground move, you reckon? i'm not criticising the finish. (though I'm surprised it wasn't given as an OG with our luck)
At the moment, the most important thing is that it was counted as a goal for Southampton FC. Nothing else really matters!
