Can't believe that MOTD didn't reshow the goals, especially ours. We got short coverage, apart from ref incident. And we could have done without seeing Gazza's terrible clearance again...lucky not to give away another goal. I think we are in for an 'exciting' few weeks. Lovely attempt from Davis...what a goal that would have been...good that he tried it. A real curate's egg of a match.
Haven't watched the game, only highlights. I guess it's a good point, all thing considerd. Two talking points of interest to me; 1) Gazza - Been claiming he's not good enough, and as a response he's taken a turn for worse I know a lot of people here have a soft spot for him, but his just not good enough for this league at the moment. Maybe one day, i don't know, but not now. 2) Hooivled - classic defensive blunder. But i can't be too harsh on Hooivled because as far as i can tell, he played the rest of the game superbly. But this amuses me - Pochettino gives Yoshida and Hoivelled a run out in the fist team, and it seems as if those two are in a some kind of competition - who will make the biggest mistake
Watched the match on Sky choice......firstly didn't see the so called tackle by Spider that seemed to cause the problem. Saints seemed a bit disjointed in the first half although did have good spells. How many more goals are we going to give the opposition before the axe has to fall. Jos's mistake could and probably did cost us all three points. Gazza was certainly doing his best to lose the game. Personally for me he is not even of the grade to be third choice goalkeeper. Even Cropper would not make the mistakes he has made over the last few games. I guess though that is another talking point. Davis was in his element yesterday and certainly for me was MOTM. Second half we should have buried them and deserved to from our play, Gazza's error aside. Nice to see Rodder's really playing with confidence. We actually did to Newcastle what AV did to us the other week, outpaced the centre backs on a breakaway. Was it Davis or Lala that broke with him? I thought it was Davis......Another who has come into his own this year!! He really had a superb game, his best for Saints? Really pleased to see another youngster get a few minutes.......Ok didn't quite make the impact of another youngster he reminded me of but what a prospect. oh the youngster he reminded me of..... one Alan Shearer!! What I have seen of him he does remind me of him........Most definitely one for the future.
The only way he's going to improve is if he plays. And from the highlights, he only made one serious blunder. I don't remember any serious errors vs City last week, though perhaps I've blotted them out. The next few games are make or break for Gazza, let's hope it's make.
Once Boruc returns (or we bring in an experienced head), we really need to send Gazza on loan to a lower division side. He needs six months of playing every game in order to gain confidence, because while he only made a couple glaring errors -- the fumbled ball that Chambers blocked on the line in addition to the scuffed volley -- there were a number of times where he made the wrong decision in potentially costly spots. Needs a long stretch of play without the eyes of the world on him.
I agree Gazza needs to play. That's why I'd have sent him out on loan. I'm not convinced he'll ever be good enough to play in the Premier League but I think a season in a lower division would be good for him. Doing not very much for months and then getting thrown into the first team probably doesn't do him any favours. Yesterday also showed again that Hooiveld isn't good enough to play regularly in the Premier League. For now he's okay as backup but he really makes too many mistakes. I missed the game but it's a good result, particularly with the number of players we have out at the moment.
Don't think it's fair the criticism Gazza is getting ... yes, he's made a few silly mistakes, but how easy is it to be thrust back into action after a year, a whole year, of doing ****-all? I think he's done alright under the circumstances, how many has he been at fault for? and as 3rd choice GK, probably didn't expect to play much, if at all this season.
Even if we ignore the mistakes (which is hard, one every game is awful) he's just generally not very good. His command of his area is clearly poor, he's got clearly lacking organisational skills, his positioning is dodgy and he's not even that good a shot stopper. I just don't see any way he's got a long term future as a starter.
I didn't see your highlights but find your comments an interesting read about Gazza. I was always an admirer (if that's the right word) albeit at league two level of Gazza at Priestfield brought in by Hessy for absolutely nothing. An Argentinian playing somewhere in Spain at the time I think. Sorry no research done, just trying to remember off the top of my head. He should have come into the Gills side a lot sooner imho than he actually did but eventually made it due to an injury to our then number 1. Gazza always appeared a bit of a young clown, meant in the nicest of ways. However, at your level does that become a liability or does his good attributes outweigh his bad? Might seem odd but I'm thinking a Grobbelar style character here (taking away the bad stuff and don't want to go down that line). I noted a comment where Gazza had been kept out of it for a while and suddenly there he is...your third choice is it thrown in the deep end. Yeah that's what he is paid to do. Hopefully the weaker side of his character will mature, I'm thinking more here mental agility rather than physical capability, if you say its both then you have a problem. Be interested in your thoughts...
Far too early to make those sort of sweeping judgements imo. As for the mistakes, all keepers make them, just ask Man City. They dropped Joe Hart for making too many, then yesterday Pantillimon stands like a tree while Walcott's shot flies past him. Gazza's been thrown in at the deep end through absolute neccessity and after a year on the sidelines. He'll either learn fast or he'll sink, taking several points out of our campaign with him. It does nobody any good to write him off before he's even had the chance to prove he can learn from his mistakes.
Trouble is at the level he is playing we cannot afford for a goalkeeper to make so many errors........the reality is he will make the back four jittery....they will play without confidence, which in my view is already beginning to happen. Any goalkeeper at any level has to play with a certain confidence, no matter his ability. He has to believe in himself. Practise will help as will playing matches. Constantly making wrong decisions will not help the confidence only make it worse. The more wrong decisions the worse it will get. The doubt in his mind will never get better in my view, it will always be there. His natural ability has taken a knock by what happened in his early games with us. The error that was made yesterday was pure panic, you can argue perhaps that he shouldn't have been put in that position, but goalkeepers have to deal with this all the time in particular. The opposition game plan will include knowing how to panic goalkeepers and what in particular will spook them, have no fear. Sadly he will have to be replaced at the first opportunity.
All keepers do make them, but with Gazza you (or at least, I and others) always feel as if they're coming rather than being surprised when they do. I know a lot of people were being very hard on Boruc, and in terms of mistakes he's not as bad as Gazzaniga - and he's significantly better in almost every other facet of goalkeeping. Of course, he could hit dramatic improvements over the next couple of years, it's not impossible. I just strongly don't think it will.
