I think that our Bournemouth PL game next week is live on Amazon Video with a prime account if that helps
Will anyone be cross posting the match with the JA606 thread? We seem to be getting a lot of things that died a dozen years ago, after all...
Yeah it's never sat well with me tbh. I totally get why they've followed the 'career paths' that they had but...I don't know...I'd like to think that if I was blessed with enough natural talent to be a professional footballer, I'd want to make something of it, even in a lower league. I also think that it reflects the general lack of ambition at the club. We've kept those two around for years to tick the HG box instead of booting them out and pushing hard to bring in HG options who'd actually be useful. Not ruthless enough imo across the board and the GK situation is symptomatic of that.
I think part of the reason I don’t blame either player is down to how hard it is to make it as a GK in pro football. Has to be the hardest position to succeed in. There’s a big financial risk for a GK to leave the comforts of a big Prem club, especially if the club is happy keeping you around, if you don’t establish yourself in the lower leagues almost immediately you can easily fade into obscurity. In Austin’s case now specifically, there’s not a single League One or Two side that could offer him a 5 year deal paying about £7.5k a week. I think in the last say 15-20 years, David Button and Lawrence Vigouroux are the only two keepers that come to mind to have had “successful” careers from our academy where they’ve earned more money moving away that they would’ve possibly done staying like Austin has. Edit: Tom Glover hasn’t done too badly so far either actually.
A win tonight is somewhat season shaping. It would allow Austin to be starting XI for the remaining EL games (professional disgrace if the teams could not take 4+ pts from those) , and similarly for the FA cup (R3 and beyond depending on the draws etc) . If he fronts up, then there is an opportunity to rotate in PL games with Forster before the business end of the season.
Can't see Ange doing that, I reckon Forster starts every game from now until Vicario's return/ new GK arrives. He just doesn't seem to have enough trust in Austin or Whiteman, hence adding Forster to the EL squad when we already had Vicario, Austin and Whiteman.
1. Necessity is the mother of invention. 2. The manager is a fool to tempt fate. As with the Bentancur ban, Ange has to use this as an opportunity to increase the squad rotation beyond what he may have planned for.
I've never understood rotating your keeper unless injury forces it. Why needlessly weaken a position? Fatigue isn't a problem for a GK.
Roma's therapist has quit the club, just 20 days after he was hired https://romapress.net/romas-new-psychologist-leaves-the-club-after-20-days/ Does this create a potential Spursy?
Do you believe that a senior GK *** going into a starting XI with nothing but training sessions in their legs, will perform no better than their equal who has had some competitive game time ?? If so, then you have answered your own question. *** I can ask that for any position
I don't think it makes nearly as much difference for a GK. But for the marginal difference it does make, give them those minutes against vastly inferior opposition. Starting Forster for zero reason against Mertens, Icardi and Osimhen was stupid imo. Managers have this 'thing' where the 2nd choice keeper 'gets' all cup games, no idea why. Like when Poch played Vorm in the SF against United and he let in their winner from a weak shot.
The manager has no control over what opposition will arise, and when. You can mitigate clearly by doing the rotation in home games against kindred opposition (the crowd will get behind you as/when you do it) , and any place where the opposition is notably lesser. No doubt Forster was intended to be starting XI for the final three EL group games, and whatever the cup draws allowed for between sept to feb. So all that changes should be ^ Forster ^ Austin, and in Vicario powers of physical recovery we pray.
Eh? We don't find out the morning of a game who we'll be playing. It is known well in advance with plenty of time to select the team. And if that opposition happens to boast one of the strongest attacking lines in Europe, why on earth would we not play our best goalkeeper?
It does seem harsh, but better use of Walker-Peters and possibly Madueke/Edwards may have seen us have a couple of decent squad options available from our academy players (certainly more plausible options than the keepers are).
The following academy players are playing top flight football this season in spite of Poch Kyle Walker Peters (Southampton) Noni Madueke (Chelsea) Milos Vejlkovic (Werder Breen) Marcus Edwards (Sporting) Cameron Carter Vickers (Celtic...pushing it a tad there) Given our long-standing issue with CG numbers, Poch can absolutely be held responsible for that issue as he was here long enough to stop it being an issue but didn't. Bringing through only Harry Winks and Oliver Skipp in five years is a definite failing
