Match Day Thread Southampton vs Tottenham 19/12/15 ko 3pm

No TinTin you are missing my point - I didn't even mention the other keeper. I like Gazza and I'm glad he's getting a chance.

This is my point:

How can people say he is their number 1 after one game?

You in particular posted a message suggesting that having Davis/Gazza as back up would be poor and that we needed to sign a keeper. One game later he is good enough.

I'm not questioning Gazza in anyway shape or form. I am questioning you and other fans who can suddenly take one performance and make total judgement on one game. That's how it is coming over to me, loud and clear.

I suspect he'll be for the scrap heap if he has a bad game.

 

No one is 'championing him'. He has a great game against Crystal Palace. That's what people are saying. No one has championed him. No one has called him a saviour.

No one expected Gazzaniga to play and get chances. We were all basing our views on Gazzaniga on the last time he got a chance. He's come back into the side and had a great game, of course people's opinion of him is going to be higher now. We've already seen what's happened to Rodriguez, the same thing happened to Forster. Whoever ends up number one at the end of this season might become our long term number one if Forster has more problems with his knee. Stekelenburg has shown recently that he's not good enough for that. It wouldn't have been ideal if Forster got injured again right after coming back and Gazzaniga had had no game time would it. Stekelenburg's ageing and not improving. Gazzaniga is a really athletic keeper and improving. If he can sort his concentration and decision making out he could be a top keeper.

 

He had a great game and Stekelenburg has been woeful recently. Particularly against Liverpool. Stekelenburg has been off form and apparently injured. Gazzaniga has had a great game, young and improving. That certainly makes him number one on merit for the time being. He deserves a run in the team as number one.

 

Jeez TinTin - are you ignoring my point on purpose?

You said we needed a new keeper. You said that asking if we'd be happy with Davis/Gazza as back up, which massively suggested to me you didn't want him as that. My point is I find it incredible that people change their view so quickly after one game. Yes, he was excellent and I was delighted (I've always rated him anyway - hence I said we didn't need to sign a keeper) and I hope he carries on like this, but I find it bizarre that one performance changes people's views.

Let's flip it - let's say he's crap tomorrow and has a howler and costs us the game. Is he still our number one? Is it a case of he must not play the next game? That is the reaction that should come if the same logic is applied.

I can't recall one post from you or any other poster from before the Palace game calling for Gazza to play.

 

I don't disgree with the points on the Liverpool game or Gazza's performance against Palace and I certainly agree he is right to be picked tomorrow. Why didn't you call for Gazza to play after the Liverpool game? The only time you mentioned him was questioning having him and Davis as back up.

 

I'm not knocking Gazza, as he is a promising keeper.
Against Palace, he performed well and saved every shot he was able to lay a hand on. He was in no way responsible for the Palace goal, but the other saves he made were, IMO, routine. I would have expected any other, Premier League keeper to have made those saves, and had just one of those shots eluded Gazza, I reckon he would have been crucified for it.
I'm all for giving him the chance to prove himself, and the only way to do that is to play him and back him.
My early opinion of him, when Nigel threw him in at the deep end, was that he wasn't a good judge of a ball hit through the middle, never knowing whether to come out or stay on his line and leave it for the defenders. There was one such incident last week, when VVD wanted him to come and collect the ball, but he didn't and we conceded a needless corner.
Time will tell if he has remedied that.

 

Calling for Gazzaniga to play would have been as pointless as someone calling for Ramirez to start. It was incredibly unlikely to happen and almost pointless discussing. One assumed Stekelenburg would continue as keeper. Had I met Koeman personally I'd have told him to pick Gazzaniga over Stekelenburg after the Liverpool game.

 

The final save was a brilliant save. I remember the commentator on stream raving on about it. He thought it was the save of the season. I certainly wouldn't go that far, but it was a very good save. Stekelenburg would have definitely let more than one in imo with the same shots to deal with. Even an in form Stekelenburg simply does not have the athleticism and reflexes of Gazzaniga.

A problem we've always have is the defence being all over the place in front of Gazzaniga. It would be nice to give him a run in the side so he can play behind a defence that looks settled and comfortable. We've got nothing to lose really by giving him a run after his Palace performance, the team's woeful form, Stekelenburg's woeful form.

 

Brilliant. You just didn't think to mention it here eh? You did however suggest we wouldn't be happy with Gazza as back up, but you seem to ignore that point over and over. YoU wanted to sign another keeper.

 

We will never know for sure, but I bet Stek would play if fit. Ronald was probably pleased to see Gazza have a good game, but he has never put him ahead of Maarten and I doubt he would after one game. However, as I said, we will never know.

 

What I want to see happen next is Cedric get a bang on the head after 5 minutes and Maya come on at RB and have an absolute stormer.....

.... I wonder how many would pick him at RB the following week?

 

Well that would give Gazzaniga a lot of motivation wouldn't it? I highly doubt he would have dropped Gazzaniga even if Stekelenburg was fit.

 

Great example . Yoshida is a centre back, not a right back. He'll never be a capable first choice right back at this level.

 

I bet he wouldn't. Not after the way Gazzaniga played and how Stekelenburg has played recently. Number 2 keepers rarely get a chance to become number 1. Gazzaniga isn't a 33 year old keeper that is a known quantity and looking past it. He's 23 and improving. Gazzaniga had a great game and deserves to continue in the side.

In his position I'd be aggressively forcing a transfer out the club in January if I was dropped after that performance and Stekelenburg's recent form (particularly as Stekelenburg is a loanee and Fulham's keeper). I'd be very surprised if Gazzaniga wouldn't have kept his place even if Stekelenburg was available tomorrow.

 

Oh boy.

*FLT shakes head*

I think the politest thing I can say here is that you are a very literal person.

Before I move on, which I will now, please answer my question:

Did you not want to buy a new keeper just a few days before the Palace game?

 

Yeah. I thought he had a decent game. One pretty nice save, one play where he did a poor job of commanding his area, and everything else was fairly routine plays that to his credit, he handled routinely. He bears no blame for the goal.

Seeing as how it was just one game, and not what I would deem eye-openingly spectacular, I have to go with my general impression on his previous play. I did not think he was that great last year. I also trust Koeman to some degree in this matter and feel like if Gazzaniga had been showing massive improvement in training that he would be starting, seeing as how Stek is on loan and Gazzaniga is one for the future.

I'd say I agree with the general consensus in that Gazzaniga is showing he has some good reflexes and can be a good shot stopper, but his concentration/decision-making/command is his weak point. Some of it may not even be his fault, as he hasn't had a chance to get on the same page as the back four. They don't know how he likes to play, and they seem nervous and less sure around him because of it. But either way, I think that the only way to improve that is to get some games in, which he hasn't. Which is why I'm not unhappy to see him get a chance, but also not particularly confident.

The only place I differ from the general viewpoint is that most seem to think his distribution is fantastic and I think it is actually pretty bad.

 

It takes more than one decent game to change a manager's mind. If Koeman thought he was that good, would we have taken the loan in the first place, or been starting him each week over Gazzaniga?

Not saying Gazzaniga SHOULDN'T start. Just that rightly or wrongly, I would have expected him to be dropped back to the bench were Stekelenberg healthy.

 

I wonder what Dave Watson thinks.

 

Depends what week you met him. You may have told him to sign a new keeper:

http://www.not606.com/threads/what-would-be-acceptable-in-transfer-window.317616/

 

Blimey, FLT. Dogs and bones, mate. I wholly agree with you, and there is worrying evidence of opinion swings based on little evidence all over the place not just on this forum. It's one of the things that worry me about referendums. Strictly Come Dancing highlights the danger of relying on public opinion. The thought of those same voters taking a decision on our future in the EU is a tad worrying.

I digress, so excuse me. My point is a reasoned approach to these things isn't universal.

On the question of goalkeepers, my own view is that Gazza scares the hell out of me and it's going to take a decent run to change this view. Stek is bordering on awful. The Liverpool result was poor, but the Villa result could have been catastrophic had Villa possessed a couple of decent players. Stek's decision making was a joke.

So we're a bit stuffed, as they say. SKD is a great servant, but is not a Premier League keeper, so let's give our number 2 a decent run and see how he goes. Buying a keeper in January is dependent on how this works out and the prospect of the return of our number one.