Pearson opted to retain Mark Schwarzer in goal at Old Trafford after handing the Australian his debut in the FA Cup please log in to view this image at Tottenham the week before, and he admitted it was a difficult decision as Ben Hamer had been performing well in Kasper Schmeichel's absence. "It's never an easy decision but he has got big-game experience," said Pearson. "It is nice to have those sorts of selection problems." Sorry Nigel, one of your poorer decisions ... by definition then, Anfield was not a "big game experience" ...??? The Ericksen free kick aside (although expertly executed by a fine player) Hamer has been really impressive and the defence was starting to look like it had confidence in the keeper .. he comes for crosses and dominates his area ... the defending on Saturday (second and third goals epitomising) was back to the ping-pong nervousness that had been growing with Kasper between the sticks before his enforced absence ... Hamer has four clean sheets ffs ...
Ben Hamer should never have been dropped, but we all new it was going to happen when NP signed Schwarzer. Just like the other ones that get dropped without justification, because they are not Pearson's favourites. I really believe we can beat Palace on Saturday which is a must win game for us! But I am afraid that he will again start with Vardy and King! which to my mind his committing premiership suicide.
The funny thing is, after listening to Radio Leicester after the Stoke game, Hamer got slaughtered for his poor distribution. Hamer gets dropped, nobody says a word after we beat Tottenham, but after defeat to Man U, Pearson's a "clown" (as one fan said) for dropping Hamer. Similar things have been said about Albrighton, who now seems to be regarded by the fans as the answer to all our woes despite looking distinctly average in earlier showings. Fans always have their own opinions and, after a defeat, they're always different from the manager's. Personally, I think our squad is much of a muchness - we're clearly struggling to attract players that are a "step up" (see the Lennon situation) and will do until we have some stability in the Prem. The important thing is to survive this season. We have a good chance to make up some ground on Sat but the manager's job is only made harder when he doesn't have the fans behind him. I understand fans like to sound off to relieve their frustrations, but we're hardly adrift and I strongly believe there are three sides (Burnley, Hull and QPR) that are worse than us. After the Palace game, we've got an awful three match run, but after that we have some very winnable games, right up to the last day. It's time to hold our nerve and be strong, because one thing that would guarantee failure this season would be for the fans to put pressure on the board to act because of "poor selections", when there's much more to it than that.
I remember Hamer getting slated by everyone for good reason as well - people have really short memories.
I agree with every single word. (I think you can add Villa) to the list. I could understand the moans and groans more if we were 10 points a drift and getting thumped each week. For me, Man Utd was a "free" game, as will Man City, Arsenal and Chelsea. But as you say, we have quite a few winnable games soon and hopefully we will pick up enough points to go clear from the bottom 3. It's going to tough and there will be one or two more twists, but the club need EVERY fan behind them, as the name of the game this season was to survive. 4th from bottom at the end of the season will (in my eyes) be a successful season. Let's do this together.
Some good points written but Hamer still comes out as our best keeper if you really analyse the performances ... Kasper has looked shakey all season and Schwarzer had a bit of a rick for the second at Old Trafford ... by contrast Haner has put in some excellent performances ... Stoke and Hull away earned us 6 points ... and I thought he was great at Anfield where he stopped everything but 2 penalties ... citing his poor distribution is rather spurious ... I'm not looking for my keeper to make 'that' telling pass ... Kasper's distribution is excellent but his flapping at high balls is not ... of the two Hamer has been the better keeper by some distance this season IMHO... Giving Schwarzer a game in the Cup made perfect sense ... but I for one did not equate that to Ben Hamer being dropped ... just that a rotation in the cup to give some of the squad a game was sensible management.
Those 'winnable' games will be the ones against Stoke at home? Oh no, we lost that one. What about the home game against West Brom? We lost that one as well. Maybe it's the home games against Burnley and Sunderland? What? We only drew those? We don't have 'free' games. We have to try and pinch points away from home because our home form is not good enough to guarantee us 3 points a time. And that means trying to get a settled side that can defend. It's difficult to have much confidence about beating Palace on Saturday. They have a side that plays with a lot of confidence and conviction at the moment. For me Hamer was giving the rest of the defence a bit of confidence and hence we weren't getting beaten by much. I think we were lucky against Man Utd because they took their foot off the gas in the second half and maybe made Schwarzer's contribtion look better than it was. It was reasonable to give Schwarzer the nod for the cup game, but I'd have put Hamer back between the sticks for the league games because he has earned it. And he should stay there until injured or makes mistakes.
... very much my thinking ... as I mentioned in an earlier post, the defending on Saturday started to resemble the ping-pong defending against West Brom, Liverppol and QPR where the defence appeared to have little confidence in the keeper in regard to balls being played into our box ... Palace outmuscled us at their place and we conceded from 2 set-pieces ... I suspect they will look to do similar on Saturday and that is why I favour Hamer ... he showed away at Stoke and Hull that he won't panic under an aerial bombardment ... to beat Palace I feel we need to have them chasing our football ... hence I'd like to see us go for optimum creativity like I've posted on the 'Team' thread ... will be gob smacked if we do mind...
... looks like Schwarzer will be in goal on Saturday ... I sincerely hope the 'defensive discussions' mentioned are productive ... we cant afford to be at home Mr Cock-Up like we were against West Brom and QPR ... http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/M...icester-City/story-25970699-detail/story.html
Southampton and Swansea have both won at Old Trafford this season. Manchester United away might have been the type of 'bonus game' people were discussing a couple of years ago, but they're not all that any more. We might have come back from 2 down in our last big away match (Liverpool) but you can't expect that to happen very often. We need to show a bit more defensive solidity away from home.
I said at the beginning of the season that we would get results in games we didn't expect (Arsenal at home, Man U at home, Liverpool away, Stoke away) and lose points in games we expected to win (West Brom, Burnley and Sunderland at home). It's simply not that clear cut. I agree that we don't have "free" games, but there are games we are more likely to get points in, one of which is Palace on Sat. There's no reason to lack confidence. The only team in the bottom half to beat us at home was West Brom, who got lucky with an own goal. That said, I will add the caveat that I think Palace are the best of the teams that might go down (the bottom eight), but we're still very capable of beating them at home. Regarding Hamer, all I will say is that I've seen every game this season and I've seen nothing to make me think he's undroppable, while Schwarzer has been a top keeper for years. Either way, we didn't lose at Old Trafford because Pearson choose the wrong keeper, nor did we lose because their first goal was offside (which didn't help). We lost because they were on form, and they'd have beat us even at our best (which we weren't by the way).
To be fair, Swansea won before United brought all their big names in (the line-up in that match was weaker than the one we scored five against), and Southampton are looking like a top five side this year, so it's still a rough ask to win at Old Trafford. Hell, winning away anywhere in the Prem is tough - just ask QPR!
I realize this thread is about which keeper should or shouldn't be playing but which ever it is they are not our problem. I personally am not bothered which one plays. I too have seen every game (even though on internet) and Spurs aside cant fault Hamer and will feel he has been somewhat harshly treated if he doesn't play but a bigger debate will start next week when Huth is available and maybe even Upson. We have attacking wing backs who sometimes forget to defend and also I'm worried that as club captain Morgan wont be dropped as while there is no question he gives 100% and will put his face in front of a ball, we may now have better centre backs.
I predict we will play 5-3-2 with 3 CBs. If we have Schlupp on one side and De Laet on the other, we might get something from the game.
I think our 3 keepers are much the same in terms of quality, and I fully expect that one of them will leave in the summer when Kasper's fit again- it will probably be him. However, I think it hinders the defence to keep changing them without good reason to. Hamer communicates well with his defence. I don't know if Schwarzer does but he hasn't had the time to that Hamer has, so it just seems so frustrating to replace a keeper who's only conceded one goal from open play since Boxing Day.
