It wasn’t just his fault, but to be beaten at your near post from that far out, without even reacting to the shot is poor. He had his weight on the wrong foot.
He’s alright, I think he got well overhyped on the back of being the best of a bad bunch last season. I don’t think he’s anything special, but he does have good catching technique and he’s got a lot of time to improve.
That rabbit in the headlights, inability to move or react to an incoming shot was the alarm call in the early season friendlies during Walter's tenure. Once last season got up and running that disappeared and he was rightfully our player of the season. The hesitancy seems to have returned. He's like a golfer with the yips. Perhaps some time with a sports psychologist might help.
It’s probably mostly mental. We know he’s a good shot-stopper at close distances and can command his box well. I do wonder if the change of personnel in defence has affected him. Keepers are a lot more confident and assured when they trust the guys in front of them. A shaky defence can make a good keeper look average and an average keeper look ****e. Also, I think this ‘keeper should never be beaten at their near post’ thing is a bit of a cliche. Can’t remember who it was but a former pro keeper talked about it on a podcast before and said it’s nowhere near as simple as that. EDIT: it was Asmir Begović, who actually still plays
for me its not the goals perse but his all around perfomance, now does a mistake matter if it doesnt lead to a goal? thats a question but he's making a fair few sloppy mistakes, spills, bad parries, bad distribrution every player goes through patches of bad form though class is permanent as they say...
I always feel with City that every game has some serious weight to it and I’m sick of it. Like this feels like a must win just by the nature of how it maps out the rest of the season, I’d love it if we could calmly go about our business and be sat like 12th but na, never dull in ull.
Kasper Schmeichel said something similar recently too. Basically that you don't want to be beaten anywhere in the goal, and if you focus on the near post you'll just be leaving somewhere else open.
Some keepers will be naturally better at near post shots too How fast can they get a leg or arm down I wonder if taller keepers are at a disadvantage there in anyway
You say that about personnel, but on Saturday he had Hughes and Egan as centre halves and Coyle at right back, that he had last season from January. The only difference is Giles over McCloughlin, and we can't be pinning this on Giles surely.
