The Weakest Link costs us again

[Rich@Eaststand]

I think Marcus has had his fair share of plaudits over the past few seasons. The worrying thing for me is that Marcus hasn't made just one mistake. He has looked iffy with a number of different areas of his game this season and doesn't look to of made too much of an improvement in sorting them.

I think that the lack of another quality goalkeeper at the club has made him relax (that's human nature) and maybe he needs a little shaking up and to have some pressure put on him.

The thing that really bugs me about the mistakes he has been making is that I know he can do better - Maybe what you are seeing on this thread is more frustration than anything else.

Unfortunately Marcus isn't the number one at a lower league club without expectations any more - he is an International keeper at a Premiership club. The nature of the beast is that if you don't shape up then you get moved on.

[RoyalBlue]

I wonder what it must be like being a keeper....

Get a clean sheet, no-one really praises you.
Be part of one of the best defensive records and you get little praise.
At most you can save a penalty or make an amazing save and people will chant your name for the next 30 seconds.

But god forbid you, like any other human being, make a mistake and you're suddenly in for abuse.

By its very nature goalkeeping gets you little thanks but plenty of abuse when things go wrong.

Tell me about it! Both my kids are keepers and we often have the discussion above!

A lot of youth football clubs seem to award 'Golden Boots' to the kid that scores the most goals in a season (across all age groups). However, none that I've come across have considered making an award to whichever of their keepers lets the least goals in.

Only bright note for keepers is that I recently heard one football pundit state that winning teams have to be built as much around a great keeper as a great goalscorer - and he wasn't a former keeper either!

It is true, make a mistake as a keeper, it usually ends up as a goal.

And what about the star striker who misses a golden opportunity to score? Lita excepted ( ) most fans quickly forget about that.

Whilst I do think Marcus was at fault for the Everton goal (I suspect he's acknowledged that too) had Sidwell scored instead of blasting over the bar then we would have still won.

Keepers do get the rough end of the stick.