Gavin Bazunu

[leeham_69]

8 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

If he isn't unsighted then he's facing world class shots that no keeper in the world would stop. Apparently he doesn't let in easy chances. 

Think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding here. He wasn’t “unsighted for the goal”, he is “legally blind”.

[tdmickey3]

Everything he does shows slow reaction, slow thinking and a mad panicked scramble, add that to his crisp wrists.

He is very very poor.

[sledger]

two points,if AM had played the last two games we probably would have had two clean sheets,also how poor must george long be that he cant even challenge these two clowns.

[Whitey Grandad]

3 hours ago, Jack said:

Ridiculously, we have one sitting on the bench 

Surely you can't mean McCarthy? The same McCarthy who in his five appearances recently conceded 8 goals? Some of those were world-class balls ups.

[Whitey Grandad]

3 hours ago, sledger said:

two points,if AM had played the last two games we probably would have had two clean sheets,also how poor must george long be that he cant even challenge these two clowns.

Not with McCarthy in goal we wouldn't.  What a ridiculous suggestion. 

[SouSaint]

3 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Surely you can't mean McCarthy? The same McCarthy who in his five appearances recently conceded 8 goals? Some of those were world-class balls ups.

Which of them stay out of the net with Bazunu in goal? 

 

[JohnnyShearer2.0]

7 hours ago, sledger said:

two points,if AM had played the last two games we probably would have had two clean sheets,also how poor must george long be that he cant even challenge these two clowns.

Disagree. 

McCarthy has it in him to be equally shit. Plenty of times he's gifted goals as well.

[Weston Super Saint]

If the Northam changed the Gary O'Neil song for Bazunu, would the board be as quick to get rid of him?  We live in hope.

[SWLondon Saint]

20 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Not only does Baz face an unbelievable amount of unstoppable shots, but he also has his saves exaggerated beyond belief. Routine saves are suddenly “pretty decent” and decent saves suddenly become “world class”. Had AM still been in nets, we’d have had 2 clean sheets this week, no doubt in my mind. 

It is possible for 2 things to be true at the same time - I don't think AM would have stopped the shot vs Sheff Wed either, it came through legs and he seems to be slower getting down to the sides this season, the Blackburn 1st goal was a shocker.

Having said that I also think Baz is not good enough. I hate the way Baz flings himself at everything and seems panicky - that spilled cross he followed up with a decent save stemmed from him not communicating, making a clear call and getting Wood out the way then catching it. We should have cut our losses on him some time ago and got someone better than him or AM for this season.

[Jack]

7 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Surely you can't mean McCarthy? The same McCarthy who in his five appearances recently conceded 8 goals? Some of those were world-class balls ups.

Which goals would you directly blame on McCarthy? Other than the one at Liverpool, I’m struggling. He’s not to blame for us being defensively all over the place this season. 
 

He’s far more commanding, will come for a cross, and I’m sure he’d have done far better with the 2 shockers that Bazunu had in the last week. It’s baffling to me that some people don’t think he’s a better keeper than Bazunu. 

[Ekelund24]

On 09/11/2025 at 09:08, Sheaf Saint said:

The goal wasn't a howler, by any means. I'm more pissed off with the outfield players who just stood off and allowed Amass to breeze through our midfield and get a shot away completely unchallenged. But Baz was incredibly slow to react, as he always is. Quite simply, a more competent keeper saves that nine times out of ten. Whereas with Baz there's never any question that shots like that will go in, every fucking time.

But the bigger howler for me, that he got away with, was when he punched a cross that even a mediocre keeper could easily have caught, got no height or distance at all on the punch and it fell nicely to an oppo player in the box. This meant he then had to tip over the resulting shot, and once again he did that party trick of his to make a straightforward save look more challenging than it really was.

I think Bannan fairly blocked off Jander which gave Amass the space to drive forward to take the shot. I don't think it helps  Bazunu that when he dives down low it looks slow

 

[Mboto Gorge]

16 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Surely you can't mean McCarthy? The same McCarthy who in his five appearances recently conceded 8 goals? Some of those were world-class balls ups.

Being that you refuse to hear any criticism against Bazunu, Could you explain what attributes he has has that make him better than McCarthy? I’ll start - his kicking. Anything else?

 

I’m starting to think you’re either a personal friend or related to him. Because anyone with eyes who doesn’t have a personal connection to him, can see he’s the worst goalkeeper to ever have played for Saints, particularly for the number of games he’s played. 

Edited Monday at 18:50 by Mboto Gorge

[23rdSaint]

[Willo of Whiteley]

I don’t think Bazunu is the worst keeper to play for Saints, but as I’ve said before picking between him and McCarthy is like being given the option of stepping on cow shit or dog shit.

There is no decent option. Both should be doing better in their own right.

AM gets beaten at his near post on every shot and has no real authority or leadership presence at the back, which is surprising for someone of his age.

GB makes a couple of good saves occasionally but my god he screws up some very basic saves, he isn’t overly commanding in his area, very much like 50p wrists when he goes to punch the ball clear it could fall to anyone.
An example is Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday, he made a cracking save over the bar, but only because he came out, scuff-punched the cross on an opposition player who then hit the ball at him.

Ive also said on both of them before, id rather have a wheelie bin in goal than either of them. 

[Midfield_General]

They’re both embarrassingly shit.

Spors had a chance to fix it in the summer, and even spent the time going into the market to buy a goalkeeper, but rather than trying to upgrade he instead wasted a squad place on Long, who was obviously somehow even worse than both of them. It was a ridiculous decision then, and it’s coming home to roost now as we just rotate between them, watching them both drop clangers every few games because neither is good enough. 

It was a major fuck up by Spors, to add to his growing collection along with promising to upgrade the spine and then signing Quarshie and Downs, and appointing Still. Three cataclysmic errors which currently look like they are going to cost us any chance we could have had of promotion. 

He needs to pull something amazing out of the bag with the next managerial appointment, otherwise he's proved conclusively that he's not up to the job as far as I'm concerned. 

Edited yesterday at 09:46 by Midfield_General

[Saint86]

4 hours ago, 23rdSaint said:

Macca really is terrible for us as a side. Back to back wins since he's been dropped.

[HKsaint]

My wish this Christmas is to sell him to Pompey. 

[Saint86]

We need to resolve the keeper situation on Jan 1st.

[Verbal]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

We need to resolve the keeper situation on Jan 1st.

So that's a New Year's resolution then - broken by 2 Jan, as per. 

[AlexLaw76]

No idea where the data is drawn from? But hard to disagree

 

[Saint86]

2 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

No idea where the data is drawn from? But hard to disagree

 

If this is true, it really does highlight that they're both poor keepers and it suggests to me that we should be playing bazunu frankly. If we're only conceding about -0.25 goals per game more with him in the side (vs macca) then its really not as bad as i was expecting - I was honestly expecting that to be far worse... i.e. 1+... Against that, we're able to actually play a higher line and operate with a sweeper keeper, are far better in possession, and have access to his kicking for fast counters. Its horses for courses, if we're going to go for Dyche style football and park the bus, then play macca as he'll fair better with the shots, but anything else and i think it does call for bazunu (Macca for example never makes that Wrexham 1-1 save first game of the season, and he's awful with his feet and passing the ball around the back - see newcastle away first game last season etc).

Either way, 1st jan we need to have a new keeper through the doors.

Edited yesterday at 09:56 by Saint86

[Scummer]

One interesting thing we did on Saturday, which I don't think I have seen before. We had a corner and pushed all ten outfield players up, with Bazunu on the half way line in case it was cleared. Not sure whether it is a good or bad tactic, but we'd never have tried that with McCarthy in goal

[Chez]

11 minutes ago, Scummer said:

One interesting thing we did on Saturday, which I don't think I have seen before. We had a corner and pushed all ten outfield players up, with Bazunu on the half way line in case it was cleared. Not sure whether it is a good or bad tactic, but we'd never have tried that with McCarthy in goal

I'd like to see us push two or three up when we are defending corners. I wonder if that would give our keeper a little more room to come claim a deeper cross. More room for attackers of course.  

[DT]

18 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

I don’t think Bazunu is the worst keeper to play for Saints, but as I’ve said before picking between him and McCarthy is like being given the option of stepping on cow shit or dog shit.

There is no decent option. Both should be doing better in their own right.

AM gets beaten at his near post on every shot and has no real authority or leadership presence at the back, which is surprising for someone of his age.

GB makes a couple of good saves occasionally but my god he screws up some very basic saves, he isn’t overly commanding in his area, very much like 50p wrists when he goes to punch the ball clear it could fall to anyone.
An example is Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday, he made a cracking save over the bar, but only because he came out, scuff-punched the cross on an opposition player who then hit the ball at him.

Ive also said on both of them before, id rather have a wheelie bin in goal than either of them. 

I know you'll hate this, but I agree with every word you've said here. 😉

Edited yesterday at 14:29 by DT

[Willo of Whiteley]

13 minutes ago, DT said:

I know you'll hate this, but I agree with every word you've said here. 😉

I must admit I’ve done the same for you in the past 😅

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

4 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Either way, 1st jan we need to have a new keeper through the doors.

The only way that happens is if someone buys Ramsdale in Jan. Only loaning him in the summer ruled out bringing anyone other than a third choice in, he was never coming back so should have tried harder to sell.

And he’s now said he already wants to make the Newcastle move permanent 

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aaron-ramsdale-makes-newcastle-united-32833060.amp

[Jack]

15 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Macca really is terrible for us as a side. Back to back wins since he's been dropped.

Back to back wins despite Bazunu being back in the side. You really can’t give Bazunu any praise for those wins, he made them harder work than they needed to be 

[saintant]

8 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

No idea where the data is drawn from? But hard to disagree

 

Also hard to disagree with what I see with my own eyes every time he plays.

[saintant]

5 hours ago, Saint86 said:

If this is true, it really does highlight that they're both poor keepers and it suggests to me that we should be playing bazunu frankly. If we're only conceding about -0.25 goals per game more with him in the side (vs macca) then its really not as bad as i was expecting - I was honestly expecting that to be far worse... i.e. 1+... Against that, we're able to actually play a higher line and operate with a sweeper keeper, are far better in possession, and have access to his kicking for fast counters. Its horses for courses, if we're going to go for Dyche style football and park the bus, then play macca as he'll fair better with the shots, but anything else and i think it does call for bazunu (Macca for example never makes that Wrexham 1-1 save first game of the season, and he's awful with his feet and passing the ball around the back - see newcastle away first game last season etc).

Either way, 1st jan we need to have a new keeper through the doors.

I've seen zero evidence of this.

[Sheaf Saint]

5 hours ago, Saint86 said:

Macca for example never makes that Wrexham 1-1 save first game of the season

Except he did. A couple of weeks later at Norwich...

https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxk9a9OQRgBPYSLuWXbpfBEVd8z-S3dXwk?si=yvIiWA6Z28taiZfR

There is no version of reality in which Bazunu is a better shot stopper than McCarthy.

[tdmickey3]

10 minutes ago, saintant said:

I've seen zero evidence of this.

Yep, he does nothing of the sort, but does smash it up the park when panicked

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Yep, he does nothing of the sort, but does smash it up the park when panicked

Agree. I know he joined in the playing from the back under Russboy but when he tries it now it all looks rushed and ends up in one of our defenders panicking and launching it long so achieves nothing.