Fraser Forster - Whats Happened?

At the start of last season Stekelenburg got alot of stick from Saints fans for not being able to save anything and us always conceding.

This season however Forster has performed worse so far and his confidence looks shot to pieces yet people will stand up for him to the hilt whilst continuing to say Stekelenburg was awful.

Stats show how bad Forster has been the first 18 games of this season vs the last 18 games he played at the end of last season. Something is going on with the guy.

So my question is why. Why has he suddenly lost the ability to pull off the high class saves, the one on ones and why oh why has his kicking become so woeful.

I loved the Forster of last season yet so far this season he just worries me constantly.

He's a very average keeper and always has been. Makes some incredible saves very occasionally (none this season) but is awful at every other aspect of goalkeeping. I'd hoped he'd improve these things under such a "brilliant goalkeeping coach" (none of our keepers have improved under him so not sure where his reputation has come from) but he hasn't. I'd sell him next summer for anything over what we paid for him

Liverpool need a goalkeeper apparently......

No competition for his place can't help after all we are hardly going to start Stuart Taylor or young Harry Lewis..... When Alex McCarthy gets back to full fitness then expect changes to be made.....just hope we don't suffer more costly errors until then. I suspect when Alex is back to full fitness Fraser's form will miraculously pick up

Anyone have am update of how long Alex is out for??

Seen lots of comments about Fraser's form.

His kicking is woeful at the moment and for me he seems very static and a bit low on confidence.

Dave Watson, goalkeeping coach and former goalkeeping coach of England, it's your job to put this right.

for such a big fella, very much rooted to his line

Dave Watson is at fault IMO. Not one of our keepers has improved under his watch. None command their area and sadly when you watch him on the pitch coaching he is more interested in pushing back his golden locks than coaching.

Stekelenburg has been improved in Everton and looks very different from last year in Southampton

As someone has eluded to above, for such a big keeper, his aerial confidence is zero. Whether this is a personal or team decision I don't know, but he seemed pretty flat-footed for Kane's goal and has looked a bit shakey for a while now.

Overrated IMO.

He's not any worse than he has been . His kickings always been erratic, and he seems flat footed at times . By and large (palace apart) he doesn't commit massive howlers, but then he never really makes worldy saves. He seems to stop shots by being a big lump rather than any goalkeeping skills. Our defensive record has been good with him and having seen some duds over the years , he's ok for me. However , I won't be particularly upset if we move him on

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Ha ha, great comment about his hair!

I always get there early, as my ticket is in The Chapel I watch the goalkeepers warm up straight away.

There seems to be no dialogue at all when they warm up. Same old up and down waving arms between touchlines and then a few sprints. Three goalkeepers take turns to go in goal, where Dave Watson kicks the ball as hard as he can against them. Each time he brushes his fringe away! Just watch!

Very very poor goalkeeper. Apart from good shotstopping does nothing right. Even his shotstopping tonight was not good

Doesn t command his area

Doesn t come out to claim crosses or through balls

Kicking is atrocious

1st goal could not have stopped it but was still rooted to his line, should at least try and save it.

2nd goal should have come off his line to punch it like lloris did numerous times during the game

3rd goal should have come more to block the angle

4th goal did not get down quick enough to make the save

Puel tonight said Spurs were efficient. I wonder if he thought this was in part due to Forster's performance

What's happened is England goalkeeping coach Dave Watson. He's turning a very good goalkeeper into a mediocre second division goalie like himself. He even managed to mess up Joe Hart's career, and as for his impact on our younger goalies... well none of them are ever going to play in the Premier League by the time he's finished with them. Get rid of Watson and Forster will be fine again.

Something isn't right there currently. Mental issue? A liability at the moment.

I'd love to see exactly what the keepers do in training every day. Not a single one has improved under Watson

He has an appearance of disinterest and lethargy.

Tonights scapegoat is....

He had a shocker and hasn't been great for a while. As someone said above he should have done better for all the goals, particularly the last two which I would expect any top flight keeper to have dealt with.

Anyone know how long mckay is out for?

He's out of form. That's it.

He does this 'rooted-to-the-spot -couldn't-possibly-save-that thing to every shot he faces. His performances reveal that without a decent midfield defence in front of him his paucity as a keeper show up. And they are. To think of the credit he took for all those clean sheets. I would have bought David Marshall. Excellent keeper.

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He does this 'rooted-to-the-spot -couldn't-possibly-save-that thing to every shot he faces. His performances reveal that without a decent midfield defence in front of him his paucity as a keeper show up. And they are. To think of the credit he took for all those clean sheets. I would have bought David Marshall. Excellent keeper.

 

 

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He deserved credit. His influence on he defence was there for all to see. Sadly there's a chance recent mistakes might affect the confidence he usually transmits.

I was told about a month ago that that he doesn't rate the manager at all. I reckon he's not happy and this is coming through in his performances.

For me, he is slow off his line, not great with the ball at his feet and poor on crosses.

Our defence have worked miracles to stop Forster facing too many shots.

Forster has become a stopper only because he struggles to gather the ball cleanly anymore.

Dont get me started on his coming out, closing down and kicking.

A shocking keeper that is getting worse every time.

Lloris showed Forster how to deal with crosses last night. In a totally different league. Spurs are lucky to have him.

Does not command his box and never has.

Does not command his box and never has.

This.

Even last night David Prutton (co commentating for NBC) spoke about the imposing figure of Forster, "the opposition must be truly intimidated at the mere sight of him in the tunnel".

Yet this mass of intimidation is frankly a dosile lump. He intimidates no one. Come off your line FFS! Wipe people out, command like a big bastard you are!!

The opposition have worked out that as long as you don't hammer the ball straight at him it'll go in. It doesn't even have to find the corner, just placed far enough away from Forster that he has to move or twist his lumbering frame with a modicum of agility. Then he's screwed.

He's not a terrible keeper by any means, but is massively overrated by our supporters. No better than bang average. He has size and presence, but the rest of his skills are nothing special in the slightest.

I doubt we'd have done much worse in the last few years with Boruc between the sticks.

He's an average Premier League keeper. He's not Loris, de Gea or Courtois but he is better than any keeper Liverpool has!

We are a upper mid-table sort of team so we will have some average Premier League players. If we had eleven exceptional Premier League players we would be in the top 4.

He's not "shocking" or "atrocious".

And the utter bellends who started sarcastically cheering kicks last night need to grow up. ****ing babies.

I've had a look back at some of the goals we have conceded and in a good number of case's he has just flapped an arm at the ball as if he is waving to someone in the stands.

He's an average Premier League keeper. He's not Loris, de Gea or Courtois but he is better than any keeper Liverpool has!

 

We are a upper mid-table sort of team so we will have some average Premier League players. If we had eleven exceptional Premier League players we would be in the top 4.

 

He's not "shocking" or "atrocious".

 

And the utter bellends who started sarcastically cheering kicks last night need to grow up. ****ing babies.

This

Forster is a bang average goalkeeper, wish McCarthy was fit to replace him currently. He should have come of his line to challenge for some of the Spurs goals last night and when he does make a save he does look pretty unconventional with his technique.

I question some of the coaching we do at saints though. Stekelenburg went from a World Cup finalist 'keeper, to invisible between the sticks on his loan to us, then back to being very solid for Everton after he left us. Gazzaniga was a good prospect, then looked shaky as sin when playing for us... wonder how he's doing at Real Vallecano this year.

I was told about a month ago that that he doesn't rate the manager at all. I reckon he's not happy and this is coming through in his performances.

 

For me, he is slow off his line, not great with the ball at his feet and poor on crosses.

Though as this hasn't changed since last season or the year before I'm not sure what relevance the manager has to this.

Stekelenburg has been improved in Everton and looks very different from last year in Southampton

Started very well at Everton with some excellent saves, then went backwards (shockingly at the exact same time Everton stopped defending and left him exposed, stop me if you've heard that before), has occasional spells of looking decent but still not significantly better or worse than Forster.

Interesting that our fans rate Stek's performances much higher than Everton fans. He has been average at best for them from what those fans I speak to have been saying.

Do agree that Forster has been average this season. But overreaction on here is pretty impressive.

Oh, and FWIW one of the reasons Forster looks "bad on crosses" is because he makes most of them so very simple people don't even remember he's caught them. Lloris is short and has to leap and fight for everything, so looks more spectacular - Forster just stands there and catches it.

He could do with coming off his line to claim a few more which aren't immediately in his vicinity, but aside from his spotty kicking (precisely one of which gave us any problem at all) and absolute lack of effort to get down for the 4th long after it mattered yesterday I thought he was fine.

Oh, and FWIW one of the reasons Forster looks "bad on crosses" is because he makes most of them so very simple people don't even remember he's caught them. Lloris is short and has to leap and fight for everything, so looks more spectacular - Forster just stands there and catches it.

 

He could do with coming off his line to claim a few more which aren't immediately in his vicinity, but aside from his spotty kicking (precisely one of which gave us any problem at all) and absolute lack of effort to get down for the 4th long after it mattered yesterday I thought he was fine.

He looks bad on crosses because he doesn't come out for them enough. I do question his bravery.

Though as this hasn't changed since last season or the year before I'm not sure what relevance the manager has to this.

You could be right, I'm just sharing what I've been told.

I've never rated FF as a top, top 'keeper - however when he has been part of the impressive defences we've had over the last couple of seasons, its difficult to be overly critical.

In my opinion he has too many flaws to be a top half Prem first choice goal keeper:

- doesn't command his 6 yard area

- kicking distribution is poor (note I'm not including passing to our CB's)

- he isn't vocal enough (I've been to enough games where it goes absolutely quiet for a spell and you can't hear him at all)

His shot stopping is good and he does come off his line to close down reasonably well.

Perhaps Kelvin is teaching him about coming out of his box... (ie not)

his shot stopping is good and he does come off his line to close down reasonably well.

More or less agree bar this last point!

Forster is a bang average goalkeeper, wish McCarthy was fit to replace him currently. He should have come of his line to challenge for some of the Spurs goals last night and when he does make a save he does look pretty unconventional with his technique.

 

I question some of the coaching we do at saints though. Stekelenburg went from a World Cup finalist 'keeper, to invisible between the sticks on his loan to us, then back to being very solid for Everton after he left us. Gazzaniga was a good prospect, then looked shaky as sin when playing for us... wonder how he's doing at Real Vallecano this year.

Too summarise, he was the same type of goalkeeper when he first started playing, i.e nervous etc, but he then grew in confidence and saved them in quite a few games and was getting positive feedback from the fans about how he had improved with games but in a recent game the ball got played backed to him and it hit a divot as he went to kick it and air shotted it and it went in. Needless to say his confidence has gone back but they are winter break now but if they persist with keeping him in goal I expect him to revert to his mid nov early december form and improve over the following months.

Main issue for Rayo seems to be tactics of the coach judging by their forum.

Too summarise, he was the same type of goalkeeper when he first started playing, i.e nervous etc, but he then grew in confidence and saved them in quite a few games and was getting positive feedback from the fans about how he had improved with games but in a recent game the ball got played backed to him and it hit a divot as he went to kick it and air shotted it and it went in. Needless to say his confidence has gone back but they are winter break now but if they persist with keeping him in goal I expect him to revert to his mid nov early december form and improve over the following months.

 

Main issue for Rayo seems to be tactics of the coach judging by their forum.

Cheers for the update, tried having a google of him(not an extensive one mind) a couple of days ago but couldn't find out much other than he made 7 league apps or so for them on wikipedia.

More or less agree bar this last point!

Was trying to give a bit of balance. These are the least crap qualities, hence the use of "good" and "reasonably" :-)

So many of the goals we concede seem to fall into the "can't really blame Forster for that, it would have had to be a great save to stop it", but eventually surely he has to save something? Otherwise we must be the unluckiest team in the world in that every one of our opponents shots on goal is unstoppable.

When he came back last season, for me the big difference he made to our team was how much better the defence seemed to play, perhaps because of more confidence or because he does a good job of talking and organising them. He also has the odd game where his sheer size means he gets in the way of several goal bound shots (Arsenal away, QPR away spring to mind?) - of course that is an asset in itself, but for someone of his size he is not commanding at all in the air, and stays rooted to his line most of the time. I never thought his kicking was that bad, but it has been deteriorating and now he has a few dodgy kicks every game.

Perhaps Kelvin is teaching him about coming out of his box... (ie not)

I've always dreaded Kelvin becoming a GK coach. The guy had nothing to his game but natural ability and a personality.

I would like to see Alex McCarthy given a run in goal. He can't be far off being fit again. Has loads of clean sheets in our cup run and would have pushed Forster more had he not got injured. Lets face it, we aren't going to give Taylor a run. Forster needs dropping ASAP. To get a bit of fight back in him if anything.

Forster won't be dropped and we all know that.

He was one of the best keepers in the prem recently. He's out of form, it happens.

I think some of the posts in this thread are on the hysterical side and could only follow a heavy defeat.

I do, however, agree, that FF has not recently been the rock that very nearly became England's

Number 1. His kicking has been very poor and he sometimes appears static.

I am not an ITK but I have heard from a source close to his family that FF is not fit and should not really be playing.

If that is correct then I think the current situation is one of pragmatism by the club. We currently have no viable alternatives.

Having said that, I don't think his performances have been bad. Just not up to his normal standard.

He does this 'rooted-to-the-spot -couldn't-possibly-save-that thing to every shot he faces. His performances reveal that without a decent midfield defence in front of him his paucity as a keeper show up. And they are. To think of the credit he took for all those clean sheets. I would have bought David Marshall. Excellent keeper.

 

 

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Karl Darlow. But that ship has sailed. Agree with all the above points though.

He's far from a complete disaster but he's rooted to his line, can't kick and doesn't inspire a shred of confidence among the defenders. I can't think of many matches (apart from the 0-0 away at Arsenal last year) where you really felt that he'd 'saved us a point or three'.

Everything else is very 'meh'. Shotstopping, distribution, one-on-ones etc. Nothing terrible but nothing to write home about. All in all he's a just a bang average keeper.

Still, Gomes, Valdes, Randolph, Fabianski, there's a lot of average keepers out there at clubs at our level. Mind you... Schmeichel, Pickford, Foster... there are a few others who would be an improvement.

Boruc in his prime was the best keeper we've had in the Premier League by far.