Simple questions on Nick Pope - good enough, yes or no ? A promising tyro, or a lower league flapper ? How much longer can we afford to leave him in the team? Should we waste scarce resources bringing another keeper in, given that we are *apparently* over spent on the player budget. As a Charlton fan pointed out to me yesterday on Twitter, Pope is 23 but then again Jack Butland at Stoke is 22. Pope has certainly received dogs abuse from our moronic element on social media since his cock up v Huddersfield. That will do the boy's confidence the world of good.
I think that as soon as Henderson is fit he should replace Pope.I don't agree with rubbishing Pope but I honestly don't believe he has the right temperament to be a regular Championship keeper. Dillon Phillips is doing well at Cheltenham, I really rate him.
Keep him till hendo is back, we don't want to ruin another young lads confidence in Mitov. The best option at the start of the season was to get in an older experienced goalkeeper and then send off Pope for a season in league 1. The lad still has 15 years left of his career so could still be a very good goalie, but with such low confidence and the failure to cut out errors he makes quite frequently, it's most likely league 1 he will be at.
Popey is a very good keeper, however, as Charlton are his parent Club he seems desperate to impress rather than play his natural game. Towards the end of my career I used to play in goal, if a outfield player makes an error then there are normally people around to help him out.. if the keeper makes an error then there is a 80% chance that it will result in a goal, as a keeper (sometimes) you try too hard to be safe resulting in an error. When the Pope is on loan he does not have the same pressure and just plays his natural game.... which is very very good. When Hendo is fit Pope needs to go to a top L1 club where there is more pressure on him than the York's of this world.
Pope's problem is with low shots, even ones that aren't hit too hard. I think that's where he makes all his mistakes. I wonder also about his relationship with his team-mates. When he made that excellent reflex save against Rotherham no-one came to congratulate him. They don't seem to pay too much attention when he's organising the wall. And in one of last year's programs The Harriotts were moaning that he had no banter, and they had to go out the room and talk to Joe Gomez. What I used to like about him in the U-21's was his bellowing and organising his defenders, and if he's not able to do this any more he won't be able to fulfil his potential at Charlton.
No one was talking to him during one of the Player of the Year Awards. So I spent about 40 minutes just having a conversation with the bloke. He's the nicest footballer (along with Matt Hollands) that I have ever met. Honest lad, and brought me a drink. I think we should stick with our keeper, he's made some outstanding saves, and given he's VERY young, he can only work and improve the things that he's lacking in. Keepers keep playing into their 40s, proof in the Premier League. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Pope will be an outstanding keeper for us, hopefully for many many many years, unless we sell him.
Keep him in goal Tell me one keeper that does not make a mistake, poor goal Tuesday, but 2 great saves Saturday which help us keep a point
We all understand that goalies make mistakes LB, but the fact is he is making the same mistakes every time, and he is making mistakes nearly every game. He was even at it in the first two pre season games. Hopefully the new goalkeeping coach can work some magic and sort him out.
you must have been sat at the same table as me as i think he's only ever been to one and i was on his table then. some years back as the last two he wasnt there
You were probably. Danny Hollands, Nick Pope. They had these two old women who were literally drooling over him? I was the man with the two women (one of them, thebitchthatihate).
i cant remember the other player, may have been waggy. i had my missus there - red haired. not the wag off twitter.... lol but yes, agree with you. pope's been far one of the nicest footballers i've met. follows me on twitter, asks how the boy is doing, remembered my name when i've seen him at welling
The worst thing for Pope's development would be to draft in short term tat like Marko & Etheridge to replace him.
Dropping him for Etheridge was an insult, a real slap in the face, I expect his loyalty to Charlton must have been severely affected, as well as his confidence.
he deserves his chance. all of this "he'll play in the prem" stuff, has got to start somewhere. tuesday he wasnt at his best, but neither were 8 out 11 from the rest of the team. the program said he had been working closely with diarra and building up a relationship with him. and then diarra is rested. not popes fault.
I still have nightmares about Etheridge's performance at Watford last season (5-0), it would have been more effective to have put a dog turd between the sticks that day. It is an interesting reflection on the drooling, Kagool clad element of our support that they can't wait to dig out Pope, yet are still on their knees to the bloke who trousered over 4 million quid for Gomez and Wiggins this summer.
There seems to be more of them coming. Next to me, there's a kid, banded up in his best chav gear, hoodie up, hunched back, missing two teeth, going on about "how much he loves coming to Charlton" but spent the entire match, looking at his bloody mobile phone! If you're going to do that, you're probably better off staying at home.
I think Pope will play regardless, can't see Duchatelet signing a goalkeeper when he won't stump up the cash to sign a winger
If a striker misses one great chance, costing us a goal, but then converts another, no-one will call for him to be dropped. If a keeper makes one great save, but then makes a howler to concede a goal, people will call for him to be dropped. Such is the lot of a goalkeeper. Until Henderson comes back Pope is our best option.
Don't forget he had two almost complete seasons in League football before playing in our first team and was very successful. He cannot have suddenly become a bad keeper overnight. Keep him in unless and until Henderson forces him out by playing and training better. We have more urgent problems elsewhere.
