Gavin Bazunu

[Saint Matty 76]

8 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Southampton head coach Russell Martin told BBC Radio Solent: 

"Their (winning) goal came out of nothing. It shouldn't go in and Gavin (Bazunu) should do better. He'll know that.

 

Feel like that has to be a mistranslation because that was the only goal I wouldn't blame him for

[The Kraken]

1 minute ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Feel like that has to be a mistranslation because that was the only goal I wouldn't blame him for

Same. The defending was shocking for that goal, ok Bazunu wasn’t brilliant but he certainly wouldn’t have been the first one I’d have blamed for it.

[Galway saint]

2 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Southampton head coach Russell Martin told BBC Radio Solent: 

"Their (winning) goal came out of nothing. It shouldn't go in and Gavin (Bazunu) should do better. He'll know that.

 

That’s unusual to single him out. The second was as bad in my view. Can’t make my mind up for the first. You shouldn’t be beaten from there from that angle unless its a wonder strike. Not sure it was but will give him the benefit of the doubt.

Think the club need to honest with itself that this isn’t working and it’s hasn’t worked for the best part of nearly two seasons now.

The rest of the regular season should be used to bed in Lumley and get him used to the way Martin wants to play ahead of the play offs. 

There is no point agonising over the defence and working on defensive drills when any half decent shot is going in. I accept the defence is at fault for the third and one of them should have blocked it but if I was a defender in that team I’d be looking at my keeper and saying he needs to do better when i’ve ran my legs off for 97 minutes and we’re down to ten men. 

If we can play that well and still lose that’s crushing for any side and we need to replace him as with a decent keeper we would have won that 

[Saint_clark]

The veil has lifted. Martin has defended him to the hilt for much worse mistakes than he's made today. Lose such a critical game though and he tries to deflect blame away from his poor management by throwing Bazunu under the bus. 

I really don't like Martin, his management style or him as a person.

[benali-shorts]

He has the agility of a dead prostitute. 

[maysie]

If you listen to the post match on Solent, he criticises Baz for 2 goals the first one I think and one other, not sure which one.

 

 

[saintant]

25 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Feel like that has to be a mistranslation because that was the only goal I wouldn't blame him for

Any keeper worth his salt should be comfortably stopping their first goal tonight. It was a real howler.

[The Kraken]

First goal. Poor quality photo but you can see that Bazunu hasn’t jumped, if anything he’s crouched down making himself smaller. Ok it was a great strike but I think the keeper has to do better.

Second goal, went through the defenders legs and not too far from the far post. I think a better keeper than Bazunu reacts quicker to it but in general I find it hard to totally blame him for this one given it went through the defender. Although it’s another one low down on his left side which we know he struggles with.

Third goal, I definitely blame Brooks, Rothwell and Smallbone for ball watching. But seeing this angle, Bazunu’s starting position is terrible, there’s only one place the ball can go from there where it’s a danger and Bazunu is nowhere near it.

 

 

Edited April 1 by The Kraken

[AlexLaw76]

Worst keeper in the league (again)

https://x.com/thestatssaint/status/1774888833345097977?s=46

[Lord Duckhunter]

34 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

The veil has lifted. Martin has defended him to the hilt for much worse mistakes than he's made today. Lose such a critical game though and he tries to deflect blame away from his poor management by throwing Bazunu under the bus. 

 

That’s a bit unfair. He tried to throw him under a bus earlier in the season, but Baz dived too late and missed it. 

[Miltonaggro]

Start of the season I felt that the best way for the Board to protect Bazunu, if they felt he was a genuine prospect would be to have him as number two to an experienced keeper as a mentor, and / or send him out on loan.  Like we did with Flowers and Burridge, a similar situation.  I would have got Kasper Schmeichel in at the start of September when he left Nice. For me, it's not just his shot stopping, it's positioning, lack of physical strength and presence, rather like having a youth keeper in goal. 

This is clearly Sport Republic protecting their investment, same with Sulemana and to an extent Edozie and Mara, making sure these youngsters are in the shop window, and given the reaction at the fans forum last year, Martin had been told who his first choice keeper would be on joining.  To be honest Lumley on a free looks no worse than £12m Baz, and if we miss out in the play offs and McCarthy goes I'd be straight in for Johanssen at Rotherham over the summer.  

[saintant]

17 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

First goal. Poor quality photo but you can see that Bazunu hasn’t jumped, if anything he’s crouched down making himself smaller. Ok it was a great strike but I think the keeper has to do better.

Second goal, went through the defenders legs and not too far from the far post. I think a better keeper than Bazunu reacts quicker to it but in general I find it hard to totally blame him for this one given it went through the defender. Although it’s another one low down on his left side which we know he struggles with.

Third goal, I definitely blame Brooks, Rothwell and Smallbone for ball watching. But seeing this angle, Bazunu’s starting position is terrible, there’s only one place the ball can go from there where it’s a danger and Bazunu is nowhere near it.

 

 

Yes, these photos for the third goal are quite damning. The route to the right side of the goal is blocked by a cluster of players so clearly he needs to be anticipating and moving left much earlier and quicker than he does.  Had he used his instincts and gambled he'd surely save the shot. He just seems to lack many of the basic requisites needed to play in goal including awareness, agility, smelling danger and the ability to push hard off one foot when diving. He's only really good with the ball at his feet.

[Patches O Houlihan]

2 hours ago, BILLYDO said:

I’ve held the position that we should persist with Gavin as he is a young keeper with the potential to be a really good asset. However, when ever he dives he doesn’t seem to get further than if he just fell over.  Shot stopping is too weak for him to be in a winning side. He needs to go out on loan for a season or two a la Lis. 

This is where I am too. I want him to come good, but there's just no sign of his traditional keeping skills improving right now.

[pimpin4rizeal]

7 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

The veil has lifted. Martin has defended him to the hilt for much worse mistakes than he's made today. Lose such a critical game though and he tries to deflect blame away from his poor management by throwing Bazunu under the bus. 

I really don't like Martin, his management style or him as a person.

Hopefully it’s more a case of russ starting to get fucked off with the soft goals we concede  with baz..  if he acts on it and puts lumley in now I’m all for it to be honest 

[chiknsmack]

Give De Gea £1m for ten games with a £15m bonus if we get promoted. "But he's no good with his feet and so wouldn't fit Martin's system". Ok, give Mourinho (or any of the other myriad unemployed managers) £2m for ten games and a £30m bonus if we get promoted.

Bazunu and his skillset are at their best when we dominate possession. We're more likely to dominate possession against inferior opposition. The important games in our future (the playoffs, and hopefully the battle to avoid relegation from the PL next year and the runs at Europe in the years after that) won't be against inferior opposition very often. Therefore, he's not the keeper we need.

He might end up being very, very good at some point in the future. It's unlikely to be (and shouldn't be) here.

[coalman]

10 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

This is where I am too. I want him to come good, but there's just no sign of his traditional keeping skills improving right now.

I felt he should've stopped at least 2 of the goals yesterday. His lateral movement seems more like he drops to the ground and sticks out a hand rather than dives sideways. It's rare he stops anything not hit directly at him.

Contrast that with the ground the Ipswich keeper made up to stop Bednarek's flicked header.

Throw in the two shocking handling errors on Friday and it ain't pretty.

We dropped 2 points on Friday because strikers. We dropped 3 last night because keeper.

[Galway saint]

11 minutes ago, coalman said:

I felt he should've stopped at least 2 of the goals yesterday. His lateral movement seems more like he drops to the ground and sticks out a hand rather than dives sideways. It's rare he stops anything not hit directly at him.

Contrast that with the ground the Ipswich keeper made up to stop Bednarek's flicked header.

Throw in the two shocking handling errors on Friday and it ain't pretty.

We dropped 2 points on Friday because strikers. We dropped 3 last night because keeper.

he’s ok if it’s close to him ( the save at preston was a good one) because he can rely on his reflexes but anything low to his left is a real problem. it’s been like that for a while now and doesn’t seem to be getting any better really. 

the position he took for the first was also odd as he seems to be crouching down rather than extending his frame.

 

[Badger]

11 hours ago, benali-shorts said:

He has the agility of a dead prostitute. 

The Jeremy Clarkson theory 

[Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan]

1 hour ago, Galway saint said:

he’s ok if it’s close to him ( the save at preston was a good one) because he can rely on his reflexes but anything low to his left is a real problem. it’s been like that for a while now and doesn’t seem to be getting any better really. 

the position he took for the first was also odd as he seems to be crouching down rather than extending his frame.

 

And if we can spot that, opposing teams can easily try and exploit it. We can't have a keeper with an obvious weakness and expect to succeed. When you get to a certain level it will be exposed, as we saw with Kelvin and his near post when we got promoted

[Turkish]

13 hours ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Feel like that has to be a mistranslation because that was the only goal I wouldn't blame him for

 

13 hours ago, The Kraken said:

Same. The defending was shocking for that goal, ok Bazunu wasn’t brilliant but he certainly wouldn’t have been the first one I’d have blamed for it.

Possibly due to the goal came from Baz lumping it straight though to their goalkeeper with 30 seconds left. They scored from that. 

[Miltonaggro]

I thought Lumley looked like a competent Championship keeper in his FA Cup games, and personally would start him against Blackburn.  Don't think that there is any additional risk in doing so, got a bit of character so would likely fight to keep his place down to the play offs.

[saintant]

34 minutes ago, Miltonaggro said:

I thought Lumley looked like a competent Championship keeper in his FA Cup games, and personally would start him against Blackburn.  Don't think that there is any additional risk in doing so, got a bit of character so would likely fight to keep his place down to the play offs.

Agree. He looked decent and was always very quick off his line as the sweeper keeper. Deserves a chance after more errors from Baz last night.

[Kenilworthy]

The Rotherham keeper has looked brilliant against us. But that might be the Jonathan Gould factor ie a keeper who only plays well against us. Bazunu is picked for ability to play it out from the back, but let's be frank, he isn't even that good at that. Time and again the dithering causes panic. There are a host of keepers who would be better shot stoppers at this level. The point about an experienced mentor is well made. When Burridge was signed he actually said that his mission was to make Flowers the number one keeper.

[Fan The Flames]

His long kick yesterday to their keeper gave it straight back to them allowing them to mount a final and crucial attack.

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

His long kick yesterday to their keeper gave it straight back to them allowing them to mount a final and crucial attack.

It's crazy isn't it, the one thing fans have been critical about is that he/we fart around in the back 4 and create nervousness...but the one moment he belts it up field and ''gets it away'' as so many call for, it actually costs us a goal. I wouldn't blame him for the long GK at the stage of the game, a lot should have happened to stop the ball getting back to us as easily as it did. We were so weak.

[Fan The Flames]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It's crazy isn't it, the one thing fans have been critical about is that he/we fart around in the back 4 and create nervousness...but the one moment he belts it up field and ''gets it away'' as so many call for, it actually costs us a goal. I wouldn't blame him for the long GK at the stage of the game, a lot should have happened to stop the ball getting back to us as easily as it did. We were so weak.

Whilst each bit of action can be over analysed and reduced to a point where you can point the finger, I do think at that moment you need to find a team mate and retain possession.

[SaintsBarry74]

Bazunu - Championship 2023/2024 shot stopping (xG), ranked 46 out of 46.

Bazunu - Premier League 2022/2023 shot stopping (xG), ranked 39 out of 39.

 

Consistently poor at shot-stopping, this has nothing to do with how good or poor the defense in front of him is. Statistically, any goalkeeper in the league would save more goals in the same situations as Bazunu. To put this in perspective, Rotherham's Viktor Johanson has let in 81 goals this season, which we all can agree is horrendous. Yet, his xG is only -1.1, so statistically, he's only let in one goal more than what's expected. There's a clear pattern here...

[Whitey Grandad]

7 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Bazunu - Championship 2023/2024 shot stopping (xG), ranked 46 out of 46.

Bazunu - Premier League 2022/2023 shot stopping (xG), ranked 39 out of 39.

 

Consistently poor at shot-stopping, this has nothing to do with how good or poor the defense in front of him is. Statistically, any goalkeeper in the league would save more goals in the same situations as Bazunu. To put this in perspective, Rotherham's Viktor Johanson has let in 81 goals this season, which we all can agree is horrendous. Yet, his xG is only -1.1, so statistically, he's only let in one goal more than what's expected. There's a clear pattern here...

You have just demonstrated that xG in this respect is rubbish.

[Whitey Grandad]

42 minutes ago, Fan The Flames said:

His long kick yesterday to their keeper gave it straight back to them allowing them to mount a final and crucial attack.

I thought he should have kicked that sooner. A draw was meaningless for us.

[Saint Matty 76]

10 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Bazunu - Championship 2023/2024 shot stopping (xG), ranked 46 out of 46.

Bazunu - Premier League 2022/2023 shot stopping (xG), ranked 39 out of 39.

 

Consistently poor at shot-stopping, this has nothing to do with how good or poor the defense in front of him is. Statistically, any goalkeeper in the league would save more goals in the same situations as Bazunu. To put this in perspective, Rotherham's Viktor Johanson has let in 81 goals this season, which we all can agree is horrendous. Yet, his xG is only -1.1, so statistically, he's only let in one goal more than what's expected. There's a clear pattern here...

It's bafflingly bad, never seen anything quite like it

The biggest worry is that SR, a data-driven business, are obviously seeing these numbers but choosing to ignore them in order to try and maintain some value of the asset they've clearly failed with

I agree with Whitey's comment above btw, the most baffling thing about it was that he held the ball for 30 seconds before eventually lumping it long? Were we happy with the draw or not? Did us no favours regardless

[Badger]

6 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

It's bafflingly bad, never seen anything quite like it

The biggest worry is that SR, a data-driven business, are obviously seeing these numbers but choosing to ignore them in order to try and maintain some value of the asset they've clearly failed with

I agree with Whitey's comment above btw, the most baffling thing about it was that he held the ball for 30 seconds before eventually lumping it long? Were we happy with the draw or not? Did us no favours regardless

As soon as he launched it, I wondered wtf is he doing, we spend all game tippy tappy keeping possession at the back, and the stupid sods only had to do it for about 40 seconds to have earnt a draw. Not the result we needed perhaps but commendable after going down to 10 men.

When the ball landed with their GK, it was the Peter Crouch v Everton moment (just keep it in the corner flag) relived again... 

[Badger]

19 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Bazunu is shit. He hasn't been good enough for the vast majority of the season. I would love it if we replaced him next year. 

amazing isn't it that no other club seem to have spotted his clear and obvious potential. Our scouting network really are on a different end of the spectrum to others.

[Badger]

19 hours ago, Hodgey said:

Our policy of signing City youth players has been a poor one. Edozie, Bazuna, Larios, Charles all at best average championship players. Yes we struck gold with Lavia - but he looks highly injury prone. 
When you think about it, buying expensive youngsters who have barely played professional football and asking them to succeed in high pressure environments straight away is silly. 

Would seem so to simple folk like you and I, who only pay to watch, but fortunately there are great opportunities for youngsters on Planet Semmens, and with Rasmus W involved. 

[Fan The Flames]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I thought he should have kicked that sooner. A draw was meaningless for us.

At that point not losing was more important. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, Fan The Flames said:

At that point not losing was more important. 

Why do you say that? One point at this state is irrelevant.

[saintant]

The numbers are pretty damning to be fair. Even with some leeway for data error it's hard to defend Baz.

[VectisSaint]

20 hours ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Feel like that has to be a mistranslation because that was the only goal I wouldn't blame him for

No, it was the one he most should have saved. His positioning was all wrong, much too far to his right, which made his (hopeless) dive to his left hopeless. Don't think many would have saved the first. The 2nd was definitely stoppable, but it wasn't as bad a blunder as #3, just that he can't dive.

[saintant]

7 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

No, it was the one he most should have saved. His positioning was all wrong, much too far to his right, which made his (hopeless) dive to his left hopeless. Don't think many would have saved the first. The 2nd was definitely stoppable, but it wasn't as bad a blunder as #3, just that he can't dive.

Have to disagree - I don't think many would have let in the first.

[Saint Matty 76]

18 minutes ago, VectisSaint said:

No, it was the one he most should have saved. His positioning was all wrong, much too far to his right, which made his (hopeless) dive to his left hopeless. Don't think many would have saved the first. The 2nd was definitely stoppable, but it wasn't as bad a blunder as #3, just that he can't dive.

Yeah I said this before seeing his starting position, which is definitely questionable

However, I still maintain it was probably the toughest save of the three

[Jack]

He doesn’t produce many genuine howlers, he just doesn’t ever really save anything. Most shots that come his way seem to go in, even if they’re not really in the corner. It’s concerning 

[James]

The fact we are even arguing whether Baz is or is not one of the worst GKs in the Championship makes the decision to sign him last season as our No.1 in the PL even more insane than it seemed at the time. 

[hypochondriac]

2 hours ago, Badger said:

amazing isn't it that no other club seem to have spotted his clear and obvious potential. Our scouting network really are on a different end of the spectrum to others.

He's really excellent at distribution which is clearly the main attribute we are looking for. Never mind that he never makes any save beyond those he should save (and misses many of them too.) 

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, Jack said:

He doesn’t produce many genuine howlers, he just doesn’t ever really save anything. Most shots that come his way seem to go in, even if they’re not really in the corner. It’s concerning 

Yes this exactly. He's not terribly bad every week making rickets so it's difficult to point to certain things and say with certainty that he's crap but he's mostly just average or below every single week. 

[Nordic Saint]

3 minutes ago, James said:

The fact we are even arguing whether Baz is or is not one of the worst GKs in the Championship makes the decision to sign him last season as our No.1 in the PL even more insane than it seemed at the time. 

 Let's be clear about this. He is not just one of the worst; he is THE WORST. No other club in the league has a goalkeeper anywhere near as bad.

 

[James]

4 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yes this exactly. He's not terribly bad every week making rickets so it's difficult to point to certain things and say with certainty that he's crap but he's mostly just average or below every single week. 

Every keeper makes the occasional ricket - Boruc certainly had a few in the locker but you could forgive those as he won us more points than he lost. Baz has made his fair share of rickets this season (Plymouth home, Watford away) but doesn’t counterbalance those with the ability to make saves of any consequence. 

[S-Clarke]

37 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Yes this exactly. He's not terribly bad every week making rickets so it's difficult to point to certain things and say with certainty that he's crap but he's mostly just average or below every single week. 

I guess all we want is to occasionally hear ''What a save from Bazunu'' other than ''hmm, could he have done better there?''. 

If he'd have saved that third goal last night I reckon it would have been punctuated by ''what a save from Bazunu'', as it would have needed certain quality to get to it. But he doesn't seem to offer anything in that regard which is probably as harsh as I can be, as I don't think he's absolutely horrific - just incapable of making those point/game winning saves you need from a GK.

The save the Ipswich keeper made at 2-1 illustrates it pretty well I think.

Edited April 2 by S-Clarke

[Weston Super Saint]

46 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

He's really excellent at distribution which is clearly the main attribute we are looking for. Never mind that he never makes any save beyond those he should save (and misses many of them too.) 

Then we should put Smallbone in goal - he's good at short passes too. He might even save a shot or two.

[Huffton]

I've tried to be patient with him as he's young and has a lot of potential, unfortunately though he just doesn't seem to be improving. Last night was the final straw for me, the 1st in particualr any semi competent keeper could have saved one handed yet he somehow managed to fall under it. Time to drop him now and give Lumley a go before the play offs.

[James]

1 minute ago, Huffton said:

I've tried to be patient with him as he's young and has a lot of potential, unfortunately though he just doesn't seem to be improving. Last night was the final straw for me, the 1st in particualr any semi competent keeper could have saved one handed yet he somehow managed to fall under it. Time to drop him now and give Lumley a go before the play offs.

Out of interest, what has he done to make you think he has loads of potential? Personally haven’t seen anything that suggests that.

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, James said:

Out of interest, what has he done to make you think he has loads of potential? Personally haven’t seen anything that suggests that.

Unlike other shit players we've had where we can frantically post "he clearly has talent, remember that *Insert one off moment or quality in their time here*"(see Ramirez Villa game, Maras pass against Leeds) We cant really do that with Baz can we. 

Edited April 2 by Turkish