Good idea. Unfortunately, with Carroll's turning speed he has time to perform long division in his head before he can get a shot off. And he's a Geordie so his long division is loooooonnnnggggg......
I don't quite get the bigging up of Joe Hart after this game - ok, some of the saves he made were special, but if he'd done a better job of dealing with long-range shots and crosses, commanding his area, and generally dealing with danger, he wouldn't have had to make the saves at all.
He made a couple of world class saves so his performance is obviously going to be viewed as good. He wasn't at fault for any of the goals really, 2 penalties and a good finish by Bellamy.
WTF! Don't agree with that. He's been the stand out keeper in league (along with Krul to an extent) this season. He's dealt with crosses well and pushes long range shots away from danger the vast majority of the time. He would walk into the utd team in a heartbeat!
I'd agree, mostly. He's a good shot stopper and rightly gets the plaudits for that, but as you say, better to not have to make those saves. The Skrtel shot, for example, came from his poor punch. He reminds me a bit of Oliver Kahn, in that he gets a bit of luck too (like when he throws himself at a shot and it skids off the underside of his knackers and wide.) His distribution is nowhere near Pepe's, but he's the better of the two this season.
Hart's the best in the league at the moment, but that's more due to the failings of other keepers. Utd and Arsenal are still trying to develop their keepers whilst Reina and Cech have had pretty shocking seasons by their standards. I think the quality of goalkeeping amongst the top clubs hasn't been this bad since the days of Howard, Lehman, Dudek and Cudicini back in 2004.
I think the comment Reina has had a shocking season is way off the mark. Peter the great at his best made as many mistakes in a season, but the team bailed him out. vDS? Great keeper even in the season he made a few howlers he overall had a great season. You cannot say a keeper has a shocking season over 2 or 3 mistakes, that is when the team has to bail you out with goals, the fact we are not scoring meant the mistakes cost us points, all keepers make 2 3 fkups in a season, show me one who doesn't The goal that went under Reina, anyone who has played in goal knows you cannot account for that kind of thing, the ball dipping like fk just before it gets to you, no time to adjust and as it was an early shot from hehind players reina had no time to get his body behind it, so the generalised coments without breaking down what happened is less than useless information. To add to the above I think myself the premiership is the hardest league for keepers to perform in. The new balls go all over the place too now, the football has changed so much since the days of so called great keepers. Even the very best of them from years gone by would find it more difficult with the balls they use now. Ronaldo would not be scoring so much free kicks with an older ball type I reckon as well, footbal gets harder and harder for keepers every year, and Hart has made at least two shockers this season, Reina has made about the same, Harts probably didn't cost city points where Pepe's did, the team not chippin in when the keeper makes those rare mistakes cost the team