Gavin Bazunu

[Dan Johnson]

He looks low on confidence, as does everyone else. I think we've probably persisted enough and we all realise that he's not going to be the keeper we'd have hoped at this stage of his career. I suspect when he's in his 30s and he's more experienced he'll be a top keeper but right now he looks too Shakey. However, will continue to support him until we have an alternative in.

I hope with Ramsdale not getting any games at Newcastle, that his Loan can be cancelled and we can tempt him back in January 

Edited Thursday at 08:55 by Dan Johnson

[Mboto Gorge]

24 minutes ago, Dan Johnson said:

He looks low on confidence, as does everyone else. I think we've probably persisted enough and we all realise that he's not going to be the keeper we'd have hoped at this stage of his career. I suspect when he's in his 30s and he's more experienced he'll be a top keeper but right now he looks too Shakey. However, will continue to support him until we have an alternative in.

I hope with Ramsdale not getting any games at Newcastle, that his Loan can be cancelled and we can tempt him back in January 

Can I ask what current attributes/ potential he’s currently showing that makes you suspect he’s going to a top keeper in his 30s? Because I see nothing other than he’s ok with his feet, which means he’d probably be better playing outfield. With his hands however, he’s shit, with no signs of improvement to date since we signed him. And let’s not even start on his positioning and awareness. 

[Galway saint]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Anyone know when Man City will be activating their buy back agreement?

when he’s in his thirties as apparently that’s when he will come good ( according to some) 

[OldNick]

A terrible judgement error picking him. A real conundrum for the manager as he cant go ack to the less flappable Macca.

I nearly smashed the TV up when he held onto the ball for more than 8 secs. I was shouting kick it !!!

Let alone letting go of the weak shot my Chair than was simple. Yes he did save the header but the defence nervy enough let alone with him behind them. He also kicked into touch somethng gets pointed at Macca.

[Saint NL]

10 minutes ago, OldNick said:

I nearly smashed the TV up when he held onto the ball for more than 8 secs. I was shouting kick it !!!

It's hard to blame him for forgetting that rule, it's not been enforced since the first week of the season 😂

 

[OldNick]

Just now, Saint NL said:

It's hard to blame him for forgetting that rule, it's not been enforced since the first week of the season 😂

 

Well when the ref has his hand in the air counting it down from 5, thats a bit of a clue. No excuse for not knowing the rules, and the reason its not happening is that all the other keepers release the ball 

[Saint_lambden]

Both GKs (can extend to all 3 if you include Long) are shite. Eckert is more keen to build from the back though which Bazunu is better at so I suspect he'll stick with him. 

Either way, it has to be addressed in January as well as getting in a striker. 

[Bakovnetski]

27 minutes ago, Saint_lambden said:

Both GKs (can extend to all 3 if you include Long) are shite. Eckert is more keen to build from the back though which Bazunu is better at so I suspect he'll stick with him. 

Either way, it has to be addressed in January as well as getting in a striker. 

Maybe we can turn him into a striker. He is good with his feet, can dive late well enough to get free kicks and penalties, doesn't have a stupid haircut and finds space in the box that no-one else does. What's not to like?

[Smirking_Saint]

Both GKs are shite, I was wrong that we can carry them into next season, but a lot of that is because of how frail defensively we are which means both of our naff GKs have to face too many shots 

Baz is getting hammered for last night, and he did flap at it, but lets not let Stephens and THb off the hook, that run should be tracked, we shouldn’t be asking a keeper to come out for that really

Its just indicative of how bad we are this year, nobody takes responsibility anywhere

[Lord Duckhunter]

15 minutes ago, Smirking_Saint said:

Baz is getting hammered for last night, and he did flap at it, but lets not let Stephens and THb off the hook, that run should be tracked, we shouldn’t be asking a keeper to come out for that really

Course we fucking should, I’d expect a keeper to have a better starting position, and read  the game better. Even if those 2 things failed him, he should have made more of an effort. Absolutely no blame attached anywhere else, “track the run” my arse, the line was high enough for the keeper to just collect the ball. 

 

[AlexLaw76]

The defence were pushing up a little, as they should ,and in a a good line. Sometimes a good run is a good run. 

Baz is a clown.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

Both GKs (can extend to all 3 if you include Long) are shite. Eckert is more keen to build from the back though which Bazunu is better at so I suspect he'll stick with him. 

Either way, it has to be addressed in January as well as getting in a striker. 

Didn't see any building from the back last night. What I did see was feeble attempts to do so when the movement was poor, the passing far too slow and the result each time a hoof upfield which may as well have come from Bazunu in the first place.  That was a lesson in how not to play out from the back and why we shouldn't be doing it very often.

[BotleySaint]

I had no idea Ramsdale was warming the bench at Newcastle. Forgot he existed altogether actually 😆 I wonder if we can get him back early.. surely he'd prefer to play games.

[The Kraken]

8 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

just to be clear so I understand for the goal cos blackmore has me confused.

Their dude got to the ball just before baznu and knocked it round before scoring.

Blackmore was advocating he should of cleaned him out but that would of been a pen.

Are we saying we expected Baz to get to the ball before the attacker ? 

Blackmore was whanging on about this during last night’s comms. He said Bazunu should’ve done one of two things:

1: stay on his line and be in position to make a save.

2: come out with dominance and strength, take the ball and take out the striker/defenders while doing so if you have to.

Baz isn’t strong enough to take out man and ball, so it was a non-starter of an idea really. Blackmore had a bee in his bonnet about it though, he must have said it about 5 separate times.

[CamSaint]

1 hour ago, BotleySaint said:

I had no idea Ramsdale was warming the bench at Newcastle. Forgot he existed altogether actually 😆 I wonder if we can get him back early.. surely he'd prefer to play games.

I'm not sure we could afford to take on his wages again at this level, especially if the objective is to also strengthen elsewhere (striker?🤞).

[spyinthesky]

2 hours ago, BotleySaint said:

I had no idea Ramsdale was warming the bench at Newcastle. Forgot he existed altogether actually 😆 I wonder if we can get him back early.. surely he'd prefer to play games.

He played for Newcastle in their recent Carabao Cup game and did well.

[skintsaint]

6 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I’d expect a keeper to have a better starting position,

That was the issue with the goal. With my crudely marked lines Baz is too deep for where the ball is on the pitch, he should be at least on that blue line. The ball arrives roughly where that cross is, if in a decent position he easily claims that, or at worse punches it clear.

[Toadhall Saint]

6 minutes ago, skintsaint said:

That was the issue with the goal. With my crudely marked lines Baz is too deep for where the ball is on the pitch, he should be at least on that blue line. The ball arrives roughly where that cross is, if in a decent position he easily claims that, or at worse punches it clear.

He is always the same - he looks like he doesn’t want to get chipped from the halfway line. Possible but not likely. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 hours ago, The Kraken said:

Baz isn’t strong enough to take out man and ball, so it was a non-starter of an idea really. Blackmore had a bee in his bonnet about it though, he must have said it about 5 separate times.

To be fair to Blackmore, he’d have cleaned the bloke right out had it been him making contact instead of Baz….

Edited Thursday at 17:36 by Lord Duckhunter

[sledger]

easily summed up his challenge,it was pathetic,its no wonder our fragile defence have the jitters with either of these clowns behind them.

[aintforever]

11 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

just to be clear so I understand for the goal cos blackmore has me confused.

Their dude got to the ball just before baznu and knocked it round before scoring.

Blackmore was advocating he should of cleaned him out but that would of been a pen.

Are we saying we expected Baz to get to the ball before the attacker ? 

I agree with Blackmore, Bazunu looked to me like he stopped at the last moment to try and catch the ball low down, once he had committed he should have just steamed out and punched it.

[Lord Duckhunter]

It wasn’t just the goal. The fumble towards the end was pathetic and the conceded corner was totally unprofessional. He then made a meal of a routine save, personally, I thought he should have caught it, instead of giving away another corner. But, either way, it wasn’t a difficult save for a professional keeper, good one for The Ghost though…

Edited Thursday at 18:17 by Lord Duckhunter

[Mboto Gorge]

Guarantee he’s still in goal at the weekend too. 

[you muppets]

a cardboard cut out would do a better job than this hologram bazunu

[Mboto Gorge]

1 minute ago, you muppets said:

a cardboard cut out would do a better job than this hologram bazunu

Might rename him Arnold Rimmer 

[stknowle]

10 hours ago, Smirking_Saint said:

 

Baz is getting hammered for last night, and he did flap at it, but lets not let Stephens and THb off the hook, that run should be tracked, we shouldn’t be asking a keeper to come out for that really

Its just indicative of how bad we are this year, nobody takes responsibility anywhere

Agree re CB’s but having rewatched it he was even worse than I thought in real time last night. Regardless of any poor starting position considerations, he makes his mind up to come for the ball then just stands there when he ‘gets there’ expecting it to plop into his open palms when there is an attacker right on top of him. He either wasn’t aware that there was an attacker right on top of him, which means he was shit, or he was too scared to smash straight through him making sure he cleared ball and man. Which, again, means he was shit. 

I don’t care what anyone says, he is the WORST gk I have ever seen represent us. Just fucking awful.

Edited Thursday at 21:21 by stknowle

[Gloucester Saint]

52 minutes ago, Mboto Gorge said:

Rasmus will guarantee he’s still in goal at the weekend too with his remote controlled clone in the technical area

[SaintsBarry74]

Quick stats recap:

• 22/23 (Premier League): worst keeper in the league (set a new negative xG record)
  23/24 (Championship): worst in the league until he got injured
• 24/25 (Belgium): 2nd worst in the league, only played 6 games
• 25/26 (Championship): currently 34th out of 37 on, dropping fast - 2nd worst on save%

And the funniest part? McCarthy isn’t far ahead of Baz on these charts.

The state of our goalkeeping is genuinely unbelievable - you couldn’t make this up.

[Osvaldorama]

25 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Quick stats recap:

• 22/23 (Premier League): worst keeper in the league (set a new negative xG record)
  23/24 (Championship): worst in the league until he got injured
• 24/25 (Belgium): 2nd worst in the league, only played 6 games
• 25/26 (Championship): currently 34th out of 37 on, dropping fast - 2nd worst on save%

And the funniest part? McCarthy isn’t far ahead of Baz on these charts.

The state of our goalkeeping is genuinely unbelievable - you couldn’t make this up.

I thought Sport Republic used data and stats as part of their approach. 

Why do they ignore it in the most vital positions? Truly baffling 

[BotleySaint]

I am still not sure what he did to justify getting his place back. Must have been a directive from above to the manager. Frustrating.

[Stud mark of doom]

20 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

I thought Sport Republic used data and stats as part of their approach. 

Why do they ignore it in the most vital positions? Truly baffling 

I can only assume their metric is whose sell on value might increase the most if played - nothing to do with us winning games. 

[Whitey Grandad]

2 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

I thought Sport Republic used data and stats as part of their approach. 

Why do they ignore it in the most vital positions? Truly baffling 

Because these stats are crap?

[Whitey Grandad]

8 hours ago, skintsaint said:

That was the issue with the goal. With my crudely marked lines Baz is too deep for where the ball is on the pitch, he should be at least on that blue line. The ball arrives roughly where that cross is, if in a decent position he easily claims that, or at worse punches it clear.

Whatever you might think of his position,  just take a look at our horrendously porous defence. All ball watching and no marking. 

[SaintsBarry74]

7 hours ago, Stud mark of doom said:

I can only assume their metric is whose sell on value might increase the most if played - nothing to do with us winning games. 

The issue with Baz is that they're decreasing his value by playing him.

He's basically an outfielder in goal.

[SW11_Saint]

2-1 up on Mac in league wins so far… Hopefully 3 on Sat 😉

[SW11_Saint]

7 hours ago, BotleySaint said:

I am still not sure what he did to justify getting his place back. Must have been a directive from above to the manager. Frustrating.

Eckert said it was ’instinct’. His call. 

[Galway saint]

5 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Whatever you might think of his position,  just take a look at our horrendously porous defence. All ball watching and no marking. 

I can’t see that was anything other than a total fuck up by the keeper and from there the team went into panic mode. Whether or not the defence should have done better doesn’t alter that. 

The guy had been poor again this season and was dropped yet suddenly reappeared. Why ? 

It spoke volumes when he began this season again as No. 1 that the philosophy of the club had not changed and we were still in a downward spiral.

I said before that we won’t have turned a corner until the club move this guy on and I suspect we are more likely to offer him a new contract than do that so looks like we haven’t hit rock bottom just yet.

I do however think the resigning of Romeu shows some much needed pragmatism so some brownie points for that decision  

 

 

[AlexLaw76]

6 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Whatever you might think of his position,  just take a look at our horrendously porous defence. All ball watching and no marking. 

No marking? They are in a good line, pushed just forward of the 18 yard line, looking to play the offside (which works 9/10). Sometimes, a good run is a good run.

A point, a players in the middle of the park, which could have been Chair - their best player -  seems to have plenty of space to pick such a pass over our defence. That is the result of 5 at the back. Although a good line, spare players in defence and light further up.

[Dan Johnson]

22 hours ago, Mboto Gorge said:

Can I ask what current attributes/ potential he’s currently showing that makes you suspect he’s going to a top keeper in his 30s? Because I see nothing other than he’s ok with his feet, which means he’d probably be better playing outfield. With his hands however, he’s shit, with no signs of improvement to date since we signed him. And let’s not even start on his positioning and awareness. 

He's occasionally made some world class saves for us and he seems to be a good reactionary keeper, that save against Wrexham earlier this season was top draw.

His worst attributes seem to be his positional sense (thinking back to some examples, like the 3rd goal we conceded against Huddlesfield in the champ last time around) and decision making, Wednesday nights goal for example. 

Both of those things I think will improve with age and experience.

At 23 he probably questions his own ability at times, which seems to result in a lack of confidence\over compensation of decisions and results in those poor decision like Wednesday night. I think as you get older, just in life in general, you start to understand what you're good at, you become more self confident and self assured and I think we'll see that reflected in his performances when he gets into his early 30s.

David James used to be called "Calamity James" because of similar mistakes in his 20s, his best years were probably from 34 onwards where he was easily one of the best keepers in the country by that point.

Edited 16 hours ago by Dan Johnson

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, Dan Johnson said:

He's occasionally made some world class saves for us and he seems to be a good reactionary keeper, that save against Wrexham earlier this season was top draw.

His worst attributes seem to be his positional sense (thinking back to some examples, like the 3rd goal we conceded against Huddlesfield in the champ last time around) and decision making, Wednesday nights goal for example. 

Both of those things I think will improve with age and experience.

At 23 he probably questions his own ability at times, which seems to result in a lack of confidence\over compensation of decisions and results in those poor decision like Wednesday night. I think as you get older, just in life in general, you start to understand what you're good at, you become more self confident and self assured and I think we'll see that reflected in his performances when he gets into his early 30s.

David James used to be called "Calamity James" because of similar mistakes in his 20s, his best years were probably from 34 onwards where he was easily one of the best keepers in the country by that point.

Has he? When? I genuinely cant think of any. He's been here for three years now and the only save i can remember him ever making which has won us points was against Wrexham. Most games there are goals or shots where you look at and think he could/should have done better.

The only attribute he seems to have is that he's good with his feet. He's a very poor shot stopper, doesn't command the area, crap from crosses, his positioning is woeful and doesn't appear to communicate very well either.

Throwing him in as a premier league goalkeeper when he'd never played above league one level was just absurd, persisting with him is criminal. 

[Toadhall Saint]

1 hour ago, Dan Johnson said:

He's occasionally made some world class saves for us and he seems to be a good reactionary keeper, that save against Wrexham earlier this season was top draw.

His worst attributes seem to be his positional sense (thinking back to some examples, like the 3rd goal we conceded against Huddlesfield in the champ last time around) and decision making, Wednesday nights goal for example. 

Both of those things I think will improve with age and experience.

At 23 he probably questions his own ability at times, which seems to result in a lack of confidence\over compensation of decisions and results in those poor decision like Wednesday night. I think as you get older, just in life in general, you start to understand what you're good at, you become more self confident and self assured and I think we'll see that reflected in his performances when he gets into his early 30s.

David James used to be called "Calamity James" because of similar mistakes in his 20s, his best years were probably from 34 onwards where he was easily one of the best keepers in the country by that point.

We can’t wait or put up with his goalkeeping ineptitude until he is in his 30s ye gods it’s like giving other teams a goal headstart and for a team that finds it difficult to score that is not an option.

[Dan Johnson]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

Throwing him in as a premier league goalkeeper when he'd never played above league one level was just absurd, persisting with him is criminal. 

 

42 minutes ago, Toadhall Saint said:

We can’t wait or put up with his goalkeeping ineptitude until he is in his 30s ye gods it’s like giving other teams a goal headstart and for a team that finds it difficult to score that is not an option.

I agree, which is why my original post mentioned we've persisted with him enough now and its time to look into alternatives, but we have to support him until we have an alternative in house because I dont think there's much difference between McCarthy and Bazunu, I hope that we get Ramsdale back in January as he's not playing.
 

[S-Clarke]

2 hours ago, Dan Johnson said:

He's occasionally made some world class saves for us and he seems to be a good reactionary keeper, that save against Wrexham earlier this season was top draw.

His worst attributes seem to be his positional sense (thinking back to some examples, like the 3rd goal we conceded against Huddlesfield in the champ last time around) and decision making, Wednesday nights goal for example. 

Both of those things I think will improve with age and experience.

At 23 he probably questions his own ability at times, which seems to result in a lack of confidence\over compensation of decisions and results in those poor decision like Wednesday night. I think as you get older, just in life in general, you start to understand what you're good at, you become more self confident and self assured and I think we'll see that reflected in his performances when he gets into his early 30s.

David James used to be called "Calamity James" because of similar mistakes in his 20s, his best years were probably from 34 onwards where he was easily one of the best keepers in the country by that point.

I don't see really buy this one. All I see in goal is someone who used to be an outfield player and has bene shoehorned into a position he's not truly suited for.

He's not tall enough, powerful or strong enough. That wont change with ages, this is how he will always be.

Calamity James got that name because he often had slips of concentration, a lack of experience in certain areas, dropping easy claims etc - his rep was more down to a lack of experience as opposed to fundamental physical flaws.

Bazunu has fundamental physical flaws and he really shouldn't be a goalkeeper. I don't know why we keep persisting with someone who sits at the bottom of the pile no matter what league we are in. 

McCarthy is pretty pants these days, but he's still someone I feel much safer with in goal.

The most memorable things he's done for us is a goal at PNE, and an assist header against Real Madrid in the U21's - that probably says it all.

Edited 14 hours ago by S-Clarke

[Dan Johnson]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

He's not tall enough, powerful or strong enough. That wont change with ages, this is how he will always be.

 

He's 6.2ft, one of our best ever keepers Antti Niemi, was 6.1ft, So I dont think his heights an issue, although I agree that physically he could probably do with bulking out a bit, getting stronger and more powerful, so arguably that could come with age and muscle maturity which tends to peak between 25-35.

Ultimately whether I'm right or wrong about whether he becomes a good keeper later in his career is largely irrelevant, as we've got him at 23 and that's what matters to us as Saints fans at the moment and like I said, we've persisted with him enough to the point it's probably best for his career and our sanity that we look for a replacement and he moves on to a fresh challenge.

I do hope we get Ramsdale back in, if we put together a good run between now and when the transfer window re-opens he maybe tempted back by the challenge of getting us promoted, if we're still languishing at the bottom of the table I'd say that's probably not going to happen and we'd need to get someone else in.  

For what it's worth, I dont feel comfortable with either Baz or McCarthy in goal, maybe we can get them to run into each other really fast at the training ground in the hope they merge into 1 better all round combined keeper

[Mboto Gorge]

5 minutes ago, Dan Johnson said:

He's 6.2ft, one of our best ever keepers Antti Niemi, was 6.1ft, So I dont think his heights an issue, although I agree that physically he could probably do with bulking out a bit, getting stronger and more powerful, so arguably that could come with age and muscle maturity which tends to peak between 25-35.

Ultimately whether I'm right or wrong about whether he becomes a good keeper later in his career is largely irrelevant, as we've got him at 23 and that's what matters to us as Saints fans at the moment and like I said, we've persisted with him enough to the point it's probably best for his career and our sanity that we look for a replacement and he moves on to a fresh challenge.

I do hope we get Ramsdale back in, if we put together a good run between now and when the transfer window re-opens he maybe tempted back by the challenge of getting us promoted, if we're still languishing at the bottom of the table I'd say that's probably not going to happen and we'd need to get someone else in.  

For what it's worth, I dont feel comfortable with either Baz or McCarthy in goal, maybe we can get them to run into each other really fast at the training ground in the hope they merge into 1 better all round combined keeper

He really doesn’t look 6ft 2, looks 6ft at the tallest, but then maybe the fact he’s physically not very strong makes him also look smaller and shorter than he actually is. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

6 hours ago, Dan Johnson said:

He's occasionally made some world class saves for us

What!!!! 
 

Occasionally, as in never? 

 

I’ve occasionally banged a super model…

 

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

Playing him Weds was a bad mistake imo. Now he has to play Sat despite doing enough to be dropped, because giving him one game and then binning him, will destroy any confidence he had. You just can’t do that to him, so he’ll start Sat. 
 

Far better to have got through to a new appointment with the present number 1  and then let the new guy decide. 

[malcolm waldron]

On 06/11/2025 at 08:55, Dan Johnson said:

He looks low on confidence, as does everyone else. I think we've probably persisted enough and we all realise that he's not going to be the keeper we'd have hoped at this stage of his career. I suspect when he's in his 30s and he's more experienced he'll be a top keeper but right now he looks too Shakey. However, will continue to support him until we have an alternative in.

I hope with Ramsdale not getting any games at Newcastle, that his Loan can be cancelled and we can tempt him back in January 

He looks low on height to me too.

[bogwoppit]

After reviewing hours of match-day footage of Bazunu, I can confirm he’s crap. When he leaves Southampton, may end up in the championship but most likely div 1 or 2. However, there are rumours that both him and McCarthorse will be fighting for the Saints number 1 position for the next 20 years. 
The other rumour is that Paul Jones will come in as the specialised goalkeeper kicking coach to help take Baz to the next level.

 

[saint francis]

Starts again tomorrow.  Poor decision IMO but as usual hoped to be proved wrong.