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**** me that’s a bit harsh blaming FF for that, I expected a lot softer having read the above comments !!

 

It was a good shot but right at him. As usual he didn't set his feet and ended up reaching for it instead of getting a hand on it.

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Heck of a hit and on it's own you wouldn't really have too many complaints. Problem is it's far from an isolated incident and he did have a chance of saving it had he reacted a bit quicker.

 

2 long range shots conceded in 45 minutes isn't exactly an upturn in form.

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Looks like Schalke had done their homework on FF. He needs to go to dance classes to improve his footwork.

 

Other observations from the second half, it looked like Romeu was playing sweeper, our midfield looked a bit lightweight and Hesketh looked off the pace, Clasie looks more like TinTin than JWP does, Gallagher made a nuisance of himself and made a good shooting opportunity on his own, and the general lack of experience is not a criticism.

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Not harsh to blame FF for the second goal.

 

What is incredibly frustrating is its professionally and publicly renowned that FF footwork needs alot of work (openly criticised for the lack of power stepping) and yet Dave Watson has not done anything to support this.

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We were attempting to have the smallest midfield in top league football in the second half, with Reed, J-WP, Sims and Clasie making Japan's World Cup players look like giants. I only caught the last half an hour of a truly awful feed that seemed to feature a team of ghosts morphing around the screen. However, it was good to see something of our third goal, but bad to witness the Totem Pole that is Frazer Forster rooted to the spot, flapping his arms at a shot from well outside the box, but well inside the span of his arms. I'm sure that would have been bread and butter for McCarthy, or indeed any other half decent PL goalkeeper.

Although there is not too much riding on pre-season matches, there is some satisfaction from drawing 3-3 against Germany's second top team last season, despite the aforementioned midget midfield and static goalkeeper playing for half of the match.

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We were attempting to have the smallest midfield in top league football in the second half, with Reed, J-WP, Sims and Clasie making Japan's World Cup players look like giants. I only caught the last half an hour of a truly awful feed that seemed to feature a team of ghosts morphing around the screen. However, it was good to see something of our third goal, but bad to witness the Totem Pole that is Frazer Forster rooted to the spot, flapping his arms at a shot from well outside the box, but well inside the span of his arms. I'm sure that would have been bread and butter for McCarthy, or indeed any other half decent PL goalkeeper.

Although there is not too much riding on pre-season matches, there is some satisfaction from drawing 3-3 against Germany's second top team last season, despite the aforementioned midget midfield and static goalkeeper playing for half of the match.

 

Sims and Reed were playing as wingbacks.

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I never said it was or I would. I wish I could steal a living like them both.

 

All I said is that they’re both not good enough for the PL or the money they earn. That’s the club (les reeds) fault.

 

I’ve watched 25 mins of this game and see no reason to change that opinion either. Both need to be sold

 

You said they were sh it and they are not, just not as good as you want them to be

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The first goal against FF looked like a perfect shot, not sure anyone would have had it. The second definitely looks like hid fault, very slow to react. In fact a defender (forget which one) could have headed it away but let it go assuming it was a save

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Car drives past you standing away from the side of the road at 70mph, you see it, coming, passing you, going, your brain tells you it’s going fast from the back and foreground. Stand in the middle of the road and all sense of speed of the approaching car is lost 50-60-70mph it all looks the same. Many players of Tennis, Cricket, Baseball and Goal Keepers have an ability to slow down the approaching object and react to hit or catch it, Once the ability to process and read that information drops by a few percent in top sportsmen then their career invariably dwindles, it’s not something you get back, some more agile players might be able to compensate with premption.

Theres a photo of Ibrahimovic scoring in the EFL Cup Final the ball is straight at FF who has a scared expression on his face the ball seemingly goes through him, be a shame if this processing ability has deserted him.

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Yeh watched it again and nope can't blame him for that, it had dip, swerve and lots of speed, just a very good shot, doesn't need to be right in the corner when it has all those characteristics.

 

He does step slightly to his right initially, so you could possibly fault him there but there are also defender in the line of the ball so he is likely unsighted as well, one of whom turns his back on it yet no one seems to have questioned that.

 

Just as a comparison, Januzaj's shot against Engalnd was a much more savable shot IMO and people seemed to give Pickford the benefit of the doubt.

 

People's Forster bias are clearly showing, McCarthy IMO would have got beaten by that shot and he wouldn't have got any stick for it.

 

And the first one, anyone criticising him for that is retarded and knows nothing about football.

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Forster should have saved their third. It was hit from almost 30yds to the centre of the goal and into the roof of the net. How tall is Forster for goodness sake? We’re not talking Jordan Pickford. But he was 5yds off his line and didn’t move his feet.

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You said they were sh it and they are not, just not as good as you want them to be

 

It’s not as good as I want them to be, it’s as good as they need to be. Compared to the level required to be a premier league player, they are ****. Imo of course.

 

Long runs around a bit, is quick and fairly strong, so he’d do a job for most bottom half Pl teams who want/need that sort of player, but not many would be sniffing around Stephens.

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It’s not as good as I want them to be, it’s as good as they need to be. Compared to the level required to be a premier league player, they are ****. Imo of course.

 

Long runs around a bit, is quick and fairly strong, so he’d do a job for most bottom half Pl teams who want/need that sort of player, but not many would be sniffing around Stephens.

 

I completely agree with you about Stephens. I really want him to do well but i cant every see him being up to it. He's a nice player, in that he's nice on the ball, can bring it down and play it when he's got time, but his positioning, reading of the game, heading and tackling are terrible. Some saints fans seem to rate him because to be fair he is okay on the ball, but when your job is to defend and that's one of your weaknesses it becomes a problem. He'll be 25 in 6 months so unless he drastically improves everything he's never going to be good enough to be anything more than a squad player for a premier league teams.

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Bloody hell, forgot how awful FF is/was

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's incredible when you think about really. He was absolutely the best keeper in the league for a long period with us.

 

Can't quite pinpoint where it started to wrong for him? England call up?

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Yeh watched it again and nope can't blame him for that, it had dip, swerve and lots of speed, just a very good shot, doesn't need to be right in the corner when it has all those characteristics.

 

He does step slightly to his right initially, so you could possibly fault him there but there are also defender in the line of the ball so he is likely unsighted as well, one of whom turns his back on it yet no one seems to have questioned that.

 

Just as a comparison, Januzaj's shot against Engalnd was a much more savable shot IMO and people seemed to give Pickford the benefit of the doubt.

 

People's Forster bias are clearly showing, McCarthy IMO would have got beaten by that shot and he wouldn't have got any stick for it.

 

And the first one, anyone criticising him for that is retarded and knows nothing about football.

 

Or the UEFA qualified goalkeeping coach, working in professional football. Helmet.

Edited by Monk
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It's incredible when you think about really. He was absolutely the best keeper in the league for a long period with us.

 

Can't quite pinpoint where it started to wrong for him? England call up?

 

Some from the inside believe it coincides with working with Dave Watson.

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It's incredible when you think about really. He was absolutely the best keeper in the league for a long period with us.

 

Can't quite pinpoint where it started to wrong for him? England call up?

 

That long period was when the guys in front of him were top drawer

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Some from the inside believe it coincides with working with Dave Watson.

 

Being beaten by low shots from distances was certainly a trait of Kelvin, how much influence he has on our 'keeper training I don't know.

 

Davis still not fit? Didnt feature today.

 

Personally I'd hope he was working on a move to another club.

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Redmond centrally is very intriguing. Played well today and looks more comfortable there. Big season ahead potentially?

 

Agree, everyone gets a clean slate now under Hughes. He looks more effective in this role, if he comes good let's hope he forgets about the pr*cks that gave him grief most weeks.

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It's incredible when you think about really. He was absolutely the best keeper in the league for a long period with us.

 

Can't quite pinpoint where it started to wrong for him? England call up?

 

I don’t know how many times it has to be said... he’s always been rubbish. Utterly rubbish. Difference is now he’s just utterly rubbish and he realises it himself - and is now often more exposed as he no longer has one of the leagues meanest defences and holding midfielders to protect him.

 

Many of the games we were barely conceding a couple of shots on target. The moment we got weaker in the area and he was challenged to do something, he got exposed for how limited he is.

 

He’s never, ever possessed the basic fundamentals of goalkeeping.

 

It’s never been a case of loss of form or niggling injury like some of the weirdos like to point to on here - he’s always been turd. Even when he had that immense core in front of him he was fumbling and bumbling around when he had to do something.

 

Blah blah arsenal away blah blah... yes, every once in a while a Sunday league goalkeeper has a worldie of a game... that doesn’t make him a consistently good goalkeeper by any stretch but for some on here they wistfully recall fleeting moments of reactionary saves from a couple of performances and justify in their heads that he was once a good goalkeeper.

 

Now, normally you can make most players look good with a highlights package on YouTube. I implore you to look at his and tell me how many of those clips were good saves; probably about 40% - the rest are either routine or the ball just hits him cos he’s big.

 

Utter waste of 100k a week.

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I don’t know how many times it has to be said... he’s always been rubbish. Utterly rubbish. Difference is now he’s just utterly rubbish and he realises it himself - and is now often more exposed as he no longer has one of the leagues meanest defences and holding midfielders to protect him.

 

Many of the games we were barely conceding a couple of shots on target. The moment we got weaker in the area and he was challenged to do something, he got exposed for how limited he is.

 

He’s never, ever possessed the basic fundamentals of goalkeeping.

 

It’s never been a case of loss of form or niggling injury like some of the weirdos like to point to on here - he’s always been turd. Even when he had that immense core in front of him he was fumbling and bumbling around when he had to do something.

 

Blah blah arsenal away blah blah... yes, every once in a while a Sunday league goalkeeper has a worldie of a game... that doesn’t make him a consistently good goalkeeper by any stretch but for some on here they wistfully recall fleeting moments of reactionary saves from a couple of performances and justify in their heads that he was once a good goalkeeper.

 

Now, normally you can make most players look good with a highlights package on YouTube. I implore you to look at his and tell me how many of those clips were good saves; probably about 40% - the rest are either routine or the ball just hits him cos he’s big.

 

Utter waste of 100k a week.

 

You took a lot of flak but you called it early pal. Good work :toppa:

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Only saw the second half: thought Gallagher looked pretty good (showed more than Gabbiadini, anyway), and Yan Valery looked a very useful player. I liked what I saw of the style of play Hughes seems to be inculcating: get the ball forward with speed if you can, instead of the endless sideways passing that doomed any chance of attack for us last season.

 

Man, how did Forster not save that last shot? Ok, it had some swerve, but it was within easy reach for him, and came from a long way out; if you can't read and react to a bit of swerve like that, you aren't a PL keeper.

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It was an improvement on his performance against Brentford, last pre-season.

 

He's clearly not got the reactions needed for the top level keeper, even if he did have them at some point in the past, so really needs to be moved on.

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It was an improvement on his performance against Brentford, last pre-season.

 

He's clearly not got the reactions needed for the top level keeper, even if he did have them at some point in the past, so really needs to be moved on.

 

 

Moved on where? The problem is we gave him a long and lucrative contract and hid stock has dropped off a cliff. Any team who might take a punt on him probably can't afford his wages. I reckon the best we can hope for is a loan with us picking up a fair chunk of his wages.

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