Should We Buy A New Goalkeeper?

[Trent End Dave]

Sound move for me. Wasn’t convinced by Pantilimon and although I thought there was a marked improvement in him from crosses and in general after MON arrived I still thought his distribution was abysmal. Whilst it may not be a play out from the back mentality moving forward the players still need to have a vague idea of what area the keeper is going to put the ball and not sure even Pants knew where it was going.

[GaribaldiRED]

Playing out from the back is such an important part of a keepers role in the modern way of playing football so it would surprised me a lot if Pep has allowed Muric to move to a team that will not play out from the back.

[Paplane]

I'm glad the manager shares my opinion that we need a new keeper but I've got concerns.

He's 20 years old and has played just 7 senior games in his entire career. Only 2 of those were against top flight clubs in Fulham and Leicester but in the EFL cup so probably against weakened teams. His other games were against Oxford, Burton (x2), Shrewsbury in the EFL and DeGraafschap(??) in Holland.

If he starts for us against West Brom it will be the biggest game of his career by a mile.

Are we really gambling our entire season on this youngster? Is MoN prepared to gamble his job on him?

[the jock]

Are we really gambling our entire season on this youngster? Is MoN prepared to gamble his job on him?

i share this concern , but by all accounts he is meant to be excellent. 

again though i refuse to get carried away...remember the Portuguese last year and many before them. lets see him play 10 games first.

[Paplane]

Sound move for me. Wasn’t convinced by Pantilimon and although I thought there was a marked improvement in him from crosses and in general after MON arrived I still thought his distribution was abysmal. Whilst it may not be a play out from the back mentality moving forward the players still need to have a vague idea of what area the keeper is going to put the ball and not sure even Pants knew where it was going.

I think his game improved when AK was still here. IMO AK gave up on his ability to play out from the back and instead gave him instructions to pump it downfield. His confidence rose from that point, and so the other aspects of his game improved.

Fundamentally he's not a commanding goal keeper, despite his size. He'll never improve.

[Paplane]

Are we really gambling our entire season on this youngster? Is MoN prepared to gamble his job on him?

i share this concern , but by all accounts he is meant to be excellent. 

again though i refuse to get carried away...remember the Portuguese last year and many before them. lets see him play 10 games first.

I'd bench him against West Brom. The stadium will be buzzing, it's on TV, West Brom will be putting him under pressure for sure to test him out. And the following week - Leeds away. That's a real test for any keeper, never mind a novice.

A better debut game would be against Fleetwood. As MoN would say, 'let him have a look at it' for the first 2 games.

[wassy04]

I would assume if City are letting him come to us that we’ve agreed to play him as first choice so I would throw him in, don’t build it up too much. He can’t be worse than pantilimon surely.

The only reason pants looked better when MON joined is that we changed tactics and became more defensive. Just too many goals where he was at fault, not denying he made some great saves too but I guess that makes it more frustrating.

[woody]

Chris Woods.

If youre good enough youre old enough to play.

Hes been playing the odd game at Manchester City and the last time I looked they got bigger crowds than West Brom or Leeds.

Wassy, MON more defensive than KAranka?

[Username]

Sound move for me. Wasn’t convinced by Pantilimon and although I thought there was a marked improvement in him from crosses and in general after MON arrived I still thought his distribution was abysmal. Whilst it may not be a play out from the back mentality moving forward the players still need to have a vague idea of what area the keeper is going to put the ball and not sure even Pants knew where it was going.

I think his game improved when AK was still here. IMO AK gave up on his ability to play out from the back and instead gave him instructions to pump it downfield. His confidence rose from that point, and so the other aspects of his game improved.

Fundamentally he's not a commanding goal keeper, despite his size. He'll never improve.

Spot on.

[Salvatore Matrecano]

I dont know if there has been official word why Pants not in squad. There was a rumour (may be BS) pre match that he had turned up at training ground today and as soon as he found out he wasn’t playing he drove off.

In other new I thought Muric was poor, not just the goals, his command of the area was awful too. Not writing him off yet but needs a big improvement.

[wassy04]

Agreed, he looked ropey from every corner.

[Alf]

Awful game & pretty pointless us developing this kid if he's off next season anyway.