I continually watch other teams wishing we had their keeper over Meslier. If WBA had Meslier in goal on Friday we’d have had 3 points
Which is the way Farke is setting us up to play as well as being the same thing we did under Bielsa. I know it was frustrating for many but I was calm about it as I can see what we are doing to retain possession as we build from the back. It doesn’t always work of course and sometimes it’s too close for comfort, but to me it’s better than kicking it up front only to be picked off by the opposition defence and attack us constantly.
Their keeper made one great save from Dan James but watching it again the shot wasn't quite heading for the top corner as it intially looked. Meslier also made a fantastic save when at short range he pushed a well struck goal bound effort onto the post. We need to move on from last season and judge him on what he does now and so far there haven't been any errors that I've seen. Maybe a change of goalkeeping coach plus having Darlow pushing him is having the desired effect.
Exactly. It's about trying to establish some form of control so you're not continually having to defend and trying to win the ball back. Yes it can get a little chess like at times but hopefully once we bring in another 2 or 3 quality additions we'll see the benefit of that ball retention.
He makes a good point to be fair. Not one of our players appealed for the handball (didn’t even hear much of a shout from the crowd) so guessing most people missed it at the time including the referee and linesman.
Just buy some better players or loan them in. It worked perfectly for Burnley last season we need to stop thinking negatively.
He made two great saves from James the second I thought was outstanding. Meslier is predictable, it might be what he’s been instructed to do or we might be playing to his weakness kicking it out. Meslier out ball is continually to Ayling, always high and to the line, if Ayling does reach it, then it’s often hard to control and he finds someone on him. It’s what he used to do a lot under Bielsa too Vs Birmingham 2 shots on target they score 1 Vs WBA 2 shots on target they score 1 Vs Cardif 2 shots on target they score 2 In three games this season we’ve restricted the opposition to 6 shots on target and we’ve conceded 4 times, surely we’re not facing the most lethal strikers each week. In three games Meslier has only saved two shots from going in. I’ve just lost all faith in his game, the one game I saw Darlow I did wonder if he’d be any better.
As I mentioned in my reply to Emu on Meslier, its a bit hard to judge him on the goals conceded against Birmingham, and WBA though. One was a penalty and the other he was wrong footed due to a deflection off the attackers hand. Can understand people not being happy with certain areas of his game, but to lay the blame for the goals we have conceded at Meslier seems harsh, when 50% of those goals, most other keepers would have conceded too.
Shot stopping is really hard to judge. So much is about distance and ball speed it’s often really hard to tell who would/should save what. I think Meslier makes some great saves, but also doesn't make some he should. Additionally, his positioning is often suspect, he doesn’t command his area that well and his distribution is poor. He’s been a work in progress for a long time, but without the progress. I’m with Aski in that you have to judge how saveable the chances were this year… it’s unfair to just do a shots/goal analysis and I’d not put the blame for the goals on him. But I’ve flagged his poor xga (expected goals against) figures for a while now. I think as a team we’ve witnessed sides seemingly getting hot against us in front of goal… so some of it is bad luck on ours, and his, part but some of it is poor positioning and inconsistent shot stopping. For all our missed chances and shocking defending, if we had a better keeper we’d have stayed up last season.
Good points milky but not sure I'd agree with the final comment, although suppose it depends on how much better of course. Don't suppose you know what Meslier's xga is so far this season and also our xg against for the 3 League games ? The naked eye test says we're defending much better overall and so the quality of the chances conceded are much lower. Might be interesting to see if the stats back that up compared to last season.
We've conceded 4 goals in 3 games in the league or 5 goals in 4 games inc Cup games. That's more than 1 a game. We've not played anyone decent yet. West Brom 9th last season. Birmingham 17th. Cardiff 21st. And Shrewsbury. 3 of those games at home too. Still conceded every game. We've conceded 6 goals in 3 games against Cardiff this calendar year btw. That's a team that scored 41 league goals all last season averaging less than 1 a game except when they play us. Meslier, Ayling, Struijk, Cooper, Firpo. Ship the ****ing lot out. They're all ****. They can't defend or save anything. Failed for two seasons. I don't want to see a third.
