I did this a 3rd into the season and haven't been arsed to follow it up, but the media has. Get ready for some frustrating reading Revealed: Exactly how much Sunderland goalkeeper errors have cost Black Cats this season Between them, Robbin Ruiter, Jason Steele and Lee Camp have contributed to far too many goals conceded for Sunderland this term By Craig Johns 19:10, 18 APR 2018 SPORT please log in to view this image New Sunderland keeper Lee Camp, right, talks with Jason Steele, left, and Robin Ruiter during a SAFC training session at the Stadium of Light (Image: Sunderland AFC) Get Sunderland AFC updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Sunderland’s goalkeepers have come under the spotlight this season after costly mistakes which have plagued the struggling Wearsider’s campaign. Bottom of the Championship with just three games remaining, the Black Cats are almost certainly heading for relegation to League One, thanks in part to their own mistakes throughout the campaign. Not just errors, the performances of all three goalkeepers used - Robbin Ruiter, Jason Steele or Lee Camp - have not been convincing, to say the least, which in turn has not helped settled a leaky defence in front of them. We can in fact reveal that in total 17 errors from keepers have cost Sunderland a goal and/or points this season. In total, 16 of the 17 errors led directly to goals. The 17th was Jason Steele’s red card at QPR which did not lead directly to a goal, but certainly contributed in three dropped points, as they went on to lose 1-0 at Loftus Road. By our calculations, goalkeeper errors have cost Chris Coleman’s side 31 points in total this season. They sit on 34 currently. Those 31 points would see them on 65 in total which in the current table would see them joint-10th and just three points off the play-off spots. Those 31 points aren’t a given, of course. For example, we’ve said they were cost three points in the defeat at Barnsley when two Ruiter errors led to goals in a game the Tykes won 3-0. While without the errors Barnsley still would have 1-0 technically, who knows what might have happened had the error to make it 1-0 not occurred. Maybe Sunderland would have gone on to get all three points, maybe they would have nicked one. please log in to view this image CLICK TO PLAY MCNAIR, ASORO, MAJA... CAN SUNDERLAND KEEP HOLD OF THEIR BEST PLAYERS? There are two errors which led to goals we haven’t credited as costing points. Those are Jason Steele’s at Ipswich. His poor goalkeeping made it 5-2 in the 89th-minute; clearly without the error the game was still lost. Likewise, Lee Camp’s error in Sheffield Wednesday’s opener on Easter Monday was quickly cancelled out by George Honeyman’s equaliser. Wednesday went on to win 3-1, but that can’t be put down to Camp’s earlier error. As you see, the points lost is a little harder to determine exactly, but it is clear that without all 17 errors, Sunderland’s points tally would be significantly better to the point that relegation would not be on the cards. The statistics call into question the club’s decision to sell long-serving Vito Mannone last summer. They allowed him to go for just £2m, saving a good amount on wages by replacing him with Ruiter and Steele. But will the money saved on Mannone’s wages this season make-up for the loss in revenue that comes from relegation to the third tier? One suspects not. Our list of goalkeeper errors this season: - Robbin Ruiter, Barnsley (a), 1-0 (3-0 FT) - Ruiter pushes a tame effort from out wide straight into the path of Ike Ugbo for a tap-in. - Robbin Ruiter, Barnsley (a), 3-0 (3-0 FT) - Ruiter beaten by George Moncur on his near post. - Robbin Ruiter, Sheffield United (h), 0-1 (1-2 FT) - Ruiter beaten at his near post by a tame Clayton Donaldson effort. - Robbin Ruiter, Hull (a), 1-1 (1-1 FT) - With eight minutes left on the clock and Sunderland leading, Ruiter fumbled a tame toe-poke from David Meyler into his own net. - Jason Steele, Ipswich (a), 5-2 (5-2 FT) - Jason Steele is rounded by Grant Ward allowing a tap-in, after a bizarre effort from Steele to stop him. Already 4-2 down you can’t say this 89th-minute goal cost them any points, but an awful piece of goalkeeping nonetheless. - Robbin Ruiter, Millwall (h), 1-1 (2-2 FT) - On a bad day for goalkeepers, Ruiter’s first error was to let George Saville’s free-kick slip straight through his legs when he should have easily had the shot covered. - Robbin Ruiter, Millwall (h), 1-2 (2-2 FT) - Just six minutes later he was at fault for Millwall and George Saville’s second. Another free-kick, this time he dove across, got a hand to it, but only palmed it into his own net. - Robbin Ruiter, Cardiff (a), 1-0 (4-0 FT) - Ruiter came for a cross and made a weak attempt to punch the ball away only to be beaten in the air by Callum Paterson to head into an empty net. It set the Bluebirds on their way to a big win. - Robbin Ruiter, Birmingham (a), 1-0 (3-1 FT) - Ruiter doesn’t make himself big enough as he’s beaten far too easily at his near post again by David Davis. - Robbin Ruiter, Birmingham (a), 3-0 (3-1 FT) - Ball into the box which Ruiter comes for but is beaten to it by the Birmingham striker who simply has to roll it across the box for Sam Gallagher to tap in. - Lee Camp, Bolton (a), 1-0 (1-0 FT) - A free-kick into the box was turned goalwards by Zach Clough. Camp got his body behind it but only fumbled it up into his own goal. Suspicions of a hand-ball from Clough, but Camp should have saved. - Lee Camp, Middlesbrough (h), 1-2 (3-3 FT) - The ball went through into the box and should have been easily Camp’s to claim. Too slow off his line when he did get there it was after the striker who he brought down. Grant Leadbitter converted the penalty. - Jason Steele, Aston Villa (h), 0-1 (0-3 FT) - A ball across the box that should have been relatively simple for Steele to deal with. He didn’t and Lewis Grabban was there to tap in and haunt his former side. - Jason Steele, QPR (a), red card 0-0 (1-0 FT) - This one didn’t lead directly to a goal, but it ultimately cost them the game. Quite what Steele was thinking when he rushed out of his box like he did is unknown. He misjudged the flight of the ball and knowing he was beaten he handled the ball to take it out of the path of the striker. Straight red card. - Lee Camp, Preston (h), 0-1 (0-2 FT) - A free-kick is floated into the box, Camp is indecisive - he comes for it, then he stops coming for it, ultimately leaving himself in no man’s land as Sean Maguire heads home. - Lee Camp, Sheffield Wednesday (h), 0-1 (1-3 FT) - The ball rolls back to Camp from a Cattermole tackle and he’s instructed he can pick it up by the referee. Hurried, he choses not to and kicks the ball out straight to an opposition player. Wednesday break and eventually score through a volley from Lucas Joao. - Lee Camp, Reading (a), 1-0 (2-2 FT) - A weak shot at Camp who dives down low but spills at. As he tries to claim it second time of asking he brings down the striker leading to a penalty which is converted.
Thanks I think Bri! That is frustrating and wholly uneccessary,like a lot of the poor decisions at our club. Never mind nowt we can do now. Remember you posting about this earlier and seeing it in so many games since aaagh!
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." But as statistics go, they're as damning as anything I've ever seen with regard to our club.
Painful to read because it's such a basic issue although it's what I'd thought all along. A major part of why people are right to say that it's not Coleman's (or Grayson's) fault that we're going down. You can't polish a turd and our keepers wish they were good enough to be classed as turds.
The key was funding a keeper who wasn't turd. Avoiding a £1.5m outlay has probably cost Short another 20m or so. We only needed to reinvest all the vito money or better yet kept hold of him. He couldn't run a bath. ****ing yank radgie.
Or fund the purchase of a different outfield body so you could loan a decent keeper at the start of the season. Perhaps even have made it part of one of the terms of one of your other sales/loans.
****ing hell. I knew it was bad, but that is ridiculous. Even getting 3 points from each of the last three games, by not throwing games away would still have us right in the mix. Not all the keepers fault, but defensively we have been truly awful. Just imagine if we’d kept John Egan, rather than John O’Shea.
Not just Egan either, there have been many others, not adequately addressing the central defensive positions have been the key to our demise imo, even when we had capable keepers, the problems were their for all to see, Big Sam demonstrated what a side looked like without JoS and Catts, yet they were still preferred by three subsequent managers, the fact that we now have keepers to match, points only one way, and its not up.
These are the worst goalkeepers I've ever seen at Sunderland. Bring back Kelvin Davis all is forgiven.
And to think that some bright soul thought that £2mil (+his wages) was a good deal for Manone!!!!!!! Lets HOPE that whoever made that decision has learned from it. Personally I'm NOT holding my breath.
It’s beyond the points shown here, the team would have played with more confidence and less fear without being under major threat all season. We’ve scored goals all season, we all know defending and lapses is what’s done for us, we are going down but we deserve it but no way on earth in terms of ability are we a relegation side. The failings have come in several other areas, not that any of it matters we simply need to start right now getting it back together for next season. We need to be looking at players like Will Grigg, we need physicality and we need a goalkeeper. JOS and Cattermole must leave the club.
Wholeheartedly agree about Oshea and Cattermole. If we are to rid the club of its losing mentality we need to root out the common denominators. I'd be offering Cattermole a free pass to anyone who'll take him. Oshea once again is out of contract and it would be appalling if he's offered a new one
My thoughts exactly. It’s not so much about the players themselves as exactly what you say, clearing out anything that’s been throughout the rot. The fact they are both well past it is a factor of course.
I really hope O’Shea is not kept on the basis of “he has the experience to bring on and help the youngsters”-because despite all he achieved at Man U - I can’t see where that has in any way helped our defensive qualities in the recent years . As a caveat, in his defence maybe, some of the players alongside him were probably beyond help.
Not replacing O'Shea and Cattermole with better versions and shipping the old ones out is a massive failure and has been for about five years.
Oh we've blown points from all over the pitch, but the Keepers position has proved most costly in my opinion. I've broke down my assessment of the squad on another thread so fully agree we were riddled with other problems which effected our season massively.
In fairness to Catts, he signed his last extension before needing that knee op, nobody could have anticipated how much that injury would **** his career. He's been like a 36 year old since he came back and I think that surprised everyone just how bad he's been on his return. He doesn't look fit to play any tier atm. O'Shea? No excuse, we've had chance to get rid of him in the past and kept keeping him on.
Yeah, but how often did the heroics of Mignolet, Pickford, Mannone and that big lanky **** get you points/keep you up? This is just serious goalkeeping karma lads I just feel sorry for the doctors when these lads have kids... "you sure you've got it? Like 100%? I'm seriously about to let go, you won't drop it right? Right... Show me how you're going to hold it... No not like that! Remember when you broke all those practice melons... That will literally be your baby. Do you have some kind of inner ear problem?! Ok, I'm giving you it now... Don't worry about the helmet and body armour, we dress all newborns like that... Honest".
