Gavin Bazunu

[Nordic Saint]

1 hour ago, S-Clarke said:

He was down at the arse end in the Belgium league too, when he was there for a tiny period.

I know some people hate stats and don't think they actually mean anything, but you can still ignore the stats and look at what's in front of you - and that tells me more than stats, the stats just back it up!

His save percentage this season is better than Alex McCarthy's:

Championship Goalkeeper Stats | FBref.com

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

5 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

He didn’t really do anything wrong on Tuesday.

The second goal was completely down to him, he rose like an anorexic Warwick Davies, I’ve seen 16 year olds with more physical presence in the 6 yard box. AM would have come & punched that away, no fucking bother. If you don’t think a keeper should be doing better with that, you’re off your friggin head. 
 

The thing is, it wouldn’t be so bad if that was all he was bad at, if he was a good shot stopper, who struggled to manage the 6 yard box from corners. But it’s not, he’s shit at pretty much every aspect of goalkeeping except passing it. That’s about as useful as a cricketer who can’t bowl, can’t bat, can’t catch,  but can throw the ball back to the wicket keeper well. 
 

Edited yesterday at 12:33 by Lord Duckhunter

[SaintsBarry74]

Championship - Goalkeepers - 5+ games played 25/26:

Gavin Bazunu - 28th out of 29 according to OPTA stats

Throughout his career, he’s consistently been the worst shot-stopper in every league he’s played in, an unheard-of level of underperformance at this level for GKs. Setting the Premier League’s worst-ever xG differential and nearly repeating the feat in the Championship before his injury. His 8 game stint in Belgium also ended with a third-last ranking.

[beatlesaint]

For a team who were/are looking at getting straight back up having a keeper with those stats is abysmal.

He makes me nervous every time the ball gets within distance of our goal, christ knows how the defence must feel with him behind them ! 

Edited yesterday at 15:17 by beatlesaint

[S-Clarke]

4 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

His save percentage this season is better than Alex McCarthy's:

Championship Goalkeeper Stats | FBref.com

 

Where does Alex McCarthy sit? It's not like we have Alison on our books being kept out.

We have a very poor selection of goalkeepers, and comparing one with the other is pretty irrelevant really.

[AlexLaw76]

58 minutes ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Championship - Goalkeepers - 5+ games played 25/26:

Gavin Bazunu - 28th out of 29 according to OPTA stats

Throughout his career, he’s consistently been the worst shot-stopper in every league he’s played in, an unheard-of level of underperformance at this level for GKs. Setting the Premier League’s worst-ever xG differential and nearly repeating the feat in the Championship before his injury. His 8 game stint in Belgium also ended with a third-last ranking.

Remarkable isn’t it. 
 

New deal inbound then

[Willo of Whiteley]

6 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

This is utter nonsense, and by the way he has never, ever put in that kind of a performance for us to praise anyway.

I’ll give you three points straight away for this season, Wrexham at home first game, denied their second goal with a good save, ten minutes later we scored twice.

I think people are massively mistaking the point. I don’t think anyone is arguing he is shit.
But Tuesday wasn’t the one to continue berating him about. 😂

[Crab Lungs]

10 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Just listening to the TSP

Baz was statistically the 2nd worst keeper in The league when we got promoted, and is currently the worst.

pretty damning to be fair, and anyone with eyes should recognise how bad he is.

If I could be bothered, I’d write chapter and verse on it. I was going to, I downloaded these the other day…

Johansson 

 

Bazunu

Then I realised it would be futile doing so. No matter if I disprove people, they will still be convinced he’s decent and will ‘improve’.

Bottom line is, he makes our defence shaky with his lack of command of the area, doesn’t save the things he should, his positioning is often terrible and when he does get a hand to things a lot of the time it’s either pushed into harms way or into our own net. 
 

He's insufferably crap. He will make the odd save which people on here will cling to until the end of time as evidence he is a good goalkeeper. Saves which, if we’re all objective and honest, most keepers would save anyway. 
 

It’s legitimately exhausting explaining it.

Edited yesterday at 17:48 by Crab Lungs

[S-Clarke]

10 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

If I could be bothered, I’d write chapter and verse on it. I was going to, I downloaded these the other day…

Johansson 

 

Bazunu

Then I realised it would be futile doing so. No matter if I disprove people, they will still be convinced he’s decent and will ‘improve’.

Bottom line is, he makes our defence shaky with his lack of command of the area, doesn’t save the things he should, his positioning is often terrible and when he does get a hand to things a lot of the time it’s either pushed into harms way or into our own net. 
 

He's insufferably crap. He will make the odd save which people on here will cling to until the end of time as evidence he is a good goalkeeper. Saves which, if we’re all objective and honest, most keepers would save anyway. 
 

It’s legitimately exhausting explaining it.

But, but, but...look at that pass accuracy.

I'm sure that's the only stat everyone looks at.

[OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint]

8 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

He was down at the arse end in the Belgium league too, when he was there for a tiny period.

I know some people hate stats and don't think they actually mean anything, but you can still ignore the stats and look at what's in front of you - and that tells me more than stats, the stats just back it up!

I'm one of those. It's a job creator for the industry, players become more negative to preserve their stats and xG is bollocks. Back in the 1970's, as part of my Statistics degree, there was a book "How to lie with Statistics". Made a lot of sense. But when Baz is constantly at the bottom of the stats rankings, maybe, just maybe, there might be something in it.

And in football eyes don't deceive. Just look and see how bad he is. Beadle (Brum goalie) pushes a couple of Scienza shots around the post; Baz lets identical shots in. And his lack of presence has to make the defence nervous. Against West Brom we go from in a comfortable position to hanging on all because of his lack of presence. 

Used to think his deficiencies were somewhat negated by his ball control but as someone noted, his long kicks have recently been going out of touch. But sadly, we don't have many options...  

[S-Clarke]

1 minute ago, OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint said:

I'm one of those. It's a job creator for the industry, players become more negative to preserve their stats and xG is bollocks. Back in the 1970's, as part of my Statistics degree, there was a book "How to lie with Statistics". Made a lot of sense. But when Baz is constantly at the bottom of the stats rankings, maybe, just maybe, there might be something in it.

And in football eyes don't deceive. Just look and see how bad he is. Beadle (Brum goalie) pushes a couple of Scienza shots around the post; Baz lets identical shots in. And his lack of presence has to make the defence nervous. Against West Brom we go from in a comfortable position to hanging on all because of his lack of presence. 

Used to think his deficiencies were somewhat negated by his ball control but as someone noted, his long kicks have recently been going out of touch. But sadly, we don't have many options...  

I'm not a huge stats follower myself, but they're useful to backup what you see with your own eyes - I think that's all everyone is doing in the case of Bazunu. 

[Crab Lungs]

It’s not just his stats as most of people with eyes can see he’s bad.

Though the stats are helpful in a way that backs up what we’re seeing. It’s not just how we interpret what we see, it’s backed up evidentially as well.

[Lord Duckhunter]

2 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

I’ll give you three points straight away for this season, Wrexham at home first game, denied their second goal with a good save, ten minutes later we scored twice.

Do you get 0 points for a 2-2 then? 

[SaintsBarry74]

4 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Where does Alex McCarthy sit? It's not like we have Alison on our books being kept out.

We have a very poor selection of goalkeepers, and comparing one with the other is pretty irrelevant really.

McCarthy was like 20th out of 29 I believe. 

Yes, our goalkeepers are shit.

[Willo of Whiteley]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Do you get 0 points for a 2-2 then? 

What a spannerish response.

For you simple folk, Wrexham were 1-0 up, Bazunu made a very good save - denying them a second, Saints then scored two goals and won the game 2-1.

Three points.

[SaintsBarry74]

9 hours ago, Nordic Saint said:

His save percentage this season is better than Alex McCarthy's:

Championship Goalkeeper Stats | FBref.com

 

Save percentage on its own is misleading because it doesn’t account for the quality of the shots faced.

Post-Shot Expected Goals (PsxG) is the metric that accounts for everything: shot placement, power, distance, angle, giving you the actual difficulty of the save.

Check your link and switch to the “Player Advanced Goalkeeping” - filter by PsxG - you'll find Bazunu is right at the bottom.

And if you sort only by save percentage, you’ll see both of our keepers sitting at the bottom as well.

[Badger]

5 hours ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Championship - Goalkeepers - 5+ games played 25/26:

Gavin Bazunu - 28th out of 29 according to OPTA stats

Throughout his career, he’s consistently been the worst shot-stopper in every league he’s played in, an unheard-of level of underperformance at this level for GKs. Setting the Premier League’s worst-ever xG differential and nearly repeating the feat in the Championship before his injury. His 8 game stint in Belgium also ended with a third-last ranking.

For a club that is meant to use and pride itself on stats and analysis it’s unbelievable they can’t see what is clear to everyone else and their dog: Bazunu is crap. 

[Mboto Gorge]

2 hours ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Do you get 0 points for a 2-2 then? 

That save in the Wrexham game is being put on a hall of fame style pedestal for Baz as a benchmark of his career, his golden moment. Like Bobby Moore v Brazil , or Ramirez and that Villa game. Comical stuff. Goalkeeper makes great save once in entire career and is carried away on team mates shoulders 

Edited yesterday at 21:10 by Mboto Gorge

[Mboto Gorge]

1 hour ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

What a spannerish response.

For you simple folk, Wrexham were 1-0 up, Bazunu made a very good save - denying them a second, Saints then scored two goals and won the game 2-1.

Three points.

You know he’s new impressive levels of shit when one good save he makes is dined out upon and brought up , half a season later .

[Sheaf Saint]

4 minutes ago, Mboto Gorge said:

That save in the Wrexham game is being put on a hall of fame style pedestal for Baz as a benchmark of his career, his golden moment. Like Bobby Moore v Brazil , or Ramirez and that Villa game. Comical stuff. Goalkeeper makes great save once in entire career and is carried away on team mates shoulders 

It wasn't even that 'great' a save. It was a scuffed shot that any competent keeper at this level should save comfortably, and he just barely managed to get enough contact to turn it onto the post.

[bugenhagen]

13 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

It wasn't even that 'great' a save. It was a scuffed shot that any competent keeper at this level should save comfortably, and he just barely managed to get enough contact to turn it onto the post.

But it was a brilliant save by Bazunu 😉

[The Kraken]

35 minutes ago, Mboto Gorge said:

That save in the Wrexham game is being put on a hall of fame style pedestal for Baz as a benchmark of his career, his golden moment. Like Bobby Moore v Brazil , or Ramirez and that Villa game. Comical stuff. Goalkeeper makes great save once in entire career and is carried away on team mates shoulders 

Sadly this is true. It was a good save, no doubt. It was also a save that you would hope a decent keeper would make. There are just far too many occasions when he doesn’t make a save that a better keeper would.

The likes of lighthouse and whoever can whinge at other posters and pompously pontificate about the chat that comes Baz’s way all they like, but this guy is just substandard for our level. He is a poor goalkeeper. He fails the eye test, he fails the stats test, he’s well below par.

[saintant]

56 minutes ago, Badger said:

For a club that is meant to use and pride itself on stats and analysis it’s unbelievable they can’t see what is clear to everyone else and their dog: Bazunu is crap. 

I think SR spent a lot of money on him and they continue to hope he'll come good which is clouding their judgement. Time they admitted to themselves we were stitched up by Man City, cut their losses and sort out the goalkeeping problem. They've given Bazunu a good run but he just doesn't have it at this level.

[Sheaf Saint]

18 minutes ago, saintant said:

I think SR spent a lot of money on him and they continue to hope he'll come good which is clouding their judgement. Time they admitted to themselves we were stitched up by Man City, cut their losses and sort out the goalkeeping problem. They've given Bazunu a good run but he just doesn't have it at this level.

A classic example of the sunken cost fallacy. 

[Matthew Le God]

12 hours ago, saintant said:

I think SR spent a lot of money on him and they continue to hope he'll come good which is clouding their judgement. Time they admitted to themselves we were stitched up by Man City, cut their losses and sort out the goalkeeping problem. They've given Bazunu a good run but he just doesn't have it at this level.

They also spent a lot of money on Sulemana, Onuachu etc but sold them at a loss.

[saintant]

3 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

They also spent a lot of money on Sulemana, Onuachu etc but sold them at a loss.

Not sure whether you're suggesting Bazunu is good enough so correct not to sell or illustrating the point that SR do sell players who haven't lived up to expectations. If the former I have no problem with that as the game is all about opinions. If the latter my point stands.

[manji]

On 07/12/2025 at 11:56, Miltonaggro said:

That, or they are simply attending matches and giving opinion about what they see on the park.  Everyone I know has been doing that every season I have supported Saints, including the season we finished runners up in the top flight. 

Remember it well and the amount of Saints fans who said we'll never win the league because Liverpool and Miles better than us was unreal

[pingpong]

17 hours ago, Crab Lungs said:

If I could be bothered, I’d write chapter and verse on it. I was going to, I downloaded these the other day…

Johansson 

 

Bazunu

Then I realised it would be futile doing so. No matter if I disprove people, they will still be convinced he’s decent and will ‘improve’.

Bottom line is, he makes our defence shaky with his lack of command of the area, doesn’t save the things he should, his positioning is often terrible and when he does get a hand to things a lot of the time it’s either pushed into harms way or into our own net. 
 

He's insufferably crap. He will make the odd save which people on here will cling to until the end of time as evidence he is a good goalkeeper. Saves which, if we’re all objective and honest, most keepers would save anyway. 
 

It’s legitimately exhausting explaining it.

Fire the graphics guy, showing a red bar at about 10 percent full for a stat of 60 percent is criminal.

Also why no distribution stats for Johansson? Suspicious data presentation all round.  

And why are we comparing with Johansson? Is he the benchmark for a 8th placed championship team, and who decides that?

In our promotion season he had very comparable stats to ederson at man city, why not do that comparison?

You have to look at quality of chances too - if we give oppo strikers 5 seconds to set themselves, have a fag and a poo before firing their shot, they have a better chance of scoring than a team that gives up fewer clear chances by actually defending their box effectively.

[Lord Duckhunter]

17 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

What a spannerish response.

For you simple folk, Wrexham were 1-0 up, Bazunu made a very good save - denying them a second, Saints then scored two goals and won the game 2-1.

Three points.

For you simple folk.
 

Had Baz let it in, they would have scored 2, making the final result 2-2 (as opposed to 2-1)

You claimed Baz’s save got us 3 points, but because we scored 2 goals we would have got  1 anyway
 

Therefore the most Baz’s save could have given us was 2 extra points. Unless of course Baz’s save was so miraculous the EPL gave us an extra bonus point. 

 

[USaintA]

"He rose like an anorexic Warwick Davies," is my most favourite description of Gavin Bazunu I've seen on here.

Although that is really doing a great disservice to the star of Willow to be fair.

[Sheaf Saint]

4 hours ago, pingpong said:

Fire the graphics guy, showing a red bar at about 10 percent full for a stat of 60 percent is criminal.

The red bar corresponds to his rank among the other GKs in the league, so although the save percentage is 60%, he's in the bottom 10% in that ranking

4 hours ago, pingpong said:

You have to look at quality of chances too - if we give oppo strikers 5 seconds to set themselves, have a fag and a poo before firing their shot, they have a better chance of scoring than a team that gives up fewer clear chances by actually defending their box effectively.

This is what PsXG is for (see this post by SaintsBarry74) so the goals prevented stat takes into account the quality of the chance. Again, Baz is right at the bottom of the rankings for this with -3.6, versus +3.48 for Johansson. Only Nathan Baxter at Watford and Josh Griffiths at WBA are even close to him on this metric.

[stevematthews635]

Bloody hell.  Anyone would think we are on a massive losing run based on the nonsense being spouted on this thread.

 

Hysterical wet blankets

[Crab Lungs]

20 hours ago, Mboto Gorge said:

That save in the Wrexham game is being put on a hall of fame style pedestal for Baz as a benchmark of his career, his golden moment. Like Bobby Moore v Brazil , or Ramirez and that Villa game. Comical stuff. Goalkeeper makes great save once in entire career and is carried away on team mates shoulders 

This is spot on. It’s harped on about like no other keeper could have done it.

It was a pivotal save but… other keepers make important saves too.  

[Crab Lungs]

1 hour ago, stevematthews635 said:

Bloody hell.  Anyone would think we are on a massive losing run based on the nonsense being spouted on this thread.

 

Hysterical wet blankets

Can you not see that people can both be mightily pleased with our form but concerned with our substandard goalkeeper at the same time? 
 

 

[Lord Duckhunter]

8 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

Can you not see that people can both be mightily pleased with our form but concerned with our substandard goalkeeper at the same time? 
 

 

Weird isn’t it. You can say Aribo has been shite, DD is not up to it, but get criticised for saying our shit keeper is shite. 

[Mboto Gorge]

6 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Weird isn’t it. You can say Aribo has been shite, DD is not up to it, but get criticised for saying our shit keeper is shite. 

The whole Bazunu thing is odd, like you say 99% of our fans are happy to say Aribo and Downs are shit and a waste of space, which they are to be honest, but it’s almost like Bazunu is seen like a fragile little boy or young son to some people on here who needs to be nurtured and supported rather than criticised for 3 and a half years of consistently and unquestionably sub standard goalkeeping performance. Even Lego was at it after he was appointed manager. Bazunu isn’t a kid, he should be treated like everyone else. He’s the most obviously consistently shit performer we’ve had over the last 3/4 years, probably worse than Stephens . Hes not getting better and probably won’t 

[Mboto Gorge]

26 minutes ago, Crab Lungs said:

This is spot on. It’s harped on about like no other keeper could have done it.

It was a pivotal save but… other keepers make important saves too.  

It’s like the kid with no talent in the play ground who randomly scores a worldly that he couldn’t repeat if he tried it the next 100 times and everyone is in stitches and celebrating with him, to be talked about for the rest of the school year. The key Link here - lack of talent - so when they do something good it’s so rare it gets talked about constantly for months afterwards. 

[Crab Lungs]

57 minutes ago, Mboto Gorge said:

It’s like the kid with no talent in the play ground who randomly scores a worldly that he couldn’t repeat if he tried it the next 100 times and everyone is in stitches and celebrating with him, to be talked about for the rest of the school year. The key Link here - lack of talent - so when they do something good it’s so rare it gets talked about constantly for months afterwards. 

We live in a world now where we regularly elevate and celebrate the wrong people. 

[Whitey Grandad]

22 hours ago, SaintsBarry74 said:

Save percentage on its own is misleading because it doesn’t account for the quality of the shots faced.

Post-Shot Expected Goals (PsxG) is the metric that accounts for everything: shot placement, power, distance, angle, giving you the actual difficulty of the save.

Check your link and switch to the “Player Advanced Goalkeeping” - filter by PsxG - you'll find Bazunu is right at the bottom.

And if you sort only by save percentage, you’ll see both of our keepers sitting at the bottom as well.

Those figures are generated by a computer game.

[trousers]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Those figures are generated by a computer game.

Is there any other way that we can tell how good our first choice keeper is in comparison to other teams' first choice? One assumes they're not all as good as eachother...?