Finney Is Back
Paul Stewart
I suspect a really good wage offer would change his mind. Fact we haven't even tried concerns me.Ter Stegen wants to stay in Catalonia apparently hence the rumours of a move to Girona
I suspect a really good wage offer would change his mind. Fact we haven't even tried concerns me.Ter Stegen wants to stay in Catalonia apparently hence the rumours of a move to Girona
I suspect a really good wage offer would change his mind. Fact we haven't even tried concerns me.
Perhaps stumping up the extra cash for Raya might’ve proved the better decision after all…
Difficult to write this, because I want to support our players as much as possible, but the keeper issue is now impossible to ignore. I was at the Lane for the first time this season against West Ham and Dortmund this week, and felt really sad to see that Vic has stopped greeting supporters after coming our for the second half - in the North Stand where I was sitting. Not even clapping to those of us behind the goal to say hello, I feel that's an extremely bad sign - a lack of confidence and a lack of perceived support, by him, which feed into each other. I'm not sure if he interacts with the supporters in the South Stand during the warm-up, could not see that, but my guess is that the vibe is very different to, say, a year ago. The booing when he was on the ball looking for a pass did not help of course.
Not getting to the ball for the West Ham corner in injury time was not unexpected, it is just that opposition teams have not singled him out as much for physical pressure in the last four months or so - or that our defenders have done better to protect him. But it continues to eat away at him, and at our defence. And then he keeps trying to compensate for this by shouting and gesturing wildly throughout the game. In short, I feel that the goalkeeper does not provide enough support for the defenders (much more than the other way around). A good PL goalkeeper would have come for the ball today, for the first Burnley goal, in the six-yard box. And because VDV and Romero know he will not come for these balls, they are forced to defend too close to our goal, which is not playing to their strengths.
Much of this is old news, and it was long compensated for by excellent shot stopping. Bilbao was emblematic of this: flapping to force VDV to save on the line acrobatically, before bailing us out by getting to the Shaw header in injury time. But how many points has he won for us this season? I really struggle to think of games where he did. Monaco away comes to mind - and that may well be an important point on Wednesday. Perhaps there are more, but I cannot remember them. I believe that Kinsky can become pretty good, and maybe he deserves a chance now, but I think it's unlikely that Frank or his successor will gamble on him long-term. So this summer, getting a more commanding goalkeeper, with a more commanding presence in the box, would be at the very top of my list. I think that might solve many of our defensive problems.
Difficult to write this, because I want to support our players as much as possible, but the keeper issue is now impossible to ignore. I was at the Lane for the first time this season against West Ham and Dortmund this week, and felt really sad to see that Vic has stopped greeting supporters after coming our for the second half - in the North Stand where I was sitting. Not even clapping to those of us behind the goal to say hello, I feel that's an extremely bad sign - a lack of confidence and a lack of perceived support, by him, which feed into each other. I'm not sure if he interacts with the supporters in the South Stand during the warm-up, could not see that, but my guess is that the vibe is very different to, say, a year ago. The booing when he was on the ball looking for a pass did not help of course.
Not getting to the ball for the West Ham corner in injury time was not unexpected, it is just that opposition teams have not singled him out as much for physical pressure in the last four months or so - or that our defenders have done better to protect him. But it continues to eat away at him, and at our defence. And then he keeps trying to compensate for this by shouting and gesturing wildly throughout the game. In short, I feel that the goalkeeper does not provide enough support for the defenders (much more than the other way around). A good PL goalkeeper would have come for the ball today, for the first Burnley goal, in the six-yard box. And because VDV and Romero know he will not come for these balls, they are forced to defend too close to our goal, which is not playing to their strengths.
Much of this is old news, and it was long compensated for by excellent shot stopping. Bilbao was emblematic of this: flapping to force VDV to save on the line acrobatically, before bailing us out by getting to the Shaw header in injury time. But how many points has he won for us this season? I really struggle to think of games where he did. Monaco away comes to mind - and that may well be an important point on Wednesday. Perhaps there are more, but I cannot remember them. I believe that Kinsky can become pretty good, and maybe he deserves a chance now, but I think it's unlikely that Frank or his successor will gamble on him long-term. So this summer, getting a more commanding goalkeeper, with a more commanding presence in the box, would be at the very top of my list. I think that might solve many of our defensive problems.
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