Will our keepers cost us promotion?

[Hoop Blah]

I can't believe the level of negativity around Bond. Sure he's let in a couple of goals that you'd love him to do better with (the Wednesday goal an obvious howler) but it's not like he's made a load of errors. The fact he hasn't pulled off a load of worldy saves really shouldn't be something to criticise him for as it probably owes as much to his positioning and influence on the back four as it does anything else.

I would agree though that, at the moment, the keepers are looking the weakest link in the side but for me that's because the rest of the team are performing so well as opposed to Bond being poor and that we were lucky to have some good keepers over the last 10 or so years.

As and when Bond consistently lets us down then this conversation might be worth having but as it is I'd say it's looking to create problems that aren't yet there.

[Oilroyal]

I think we ended up with the Bond and Al Habsi pairing by default.

Myhill was always Clarke's main target. As late as the Thai trip it became clear that Myhill would not be leaving WBA in this summer window. Bond was snapped up early on and was (IMO) intended as a number 2 to Myhill.

Weeks before the Thai trip Al Habsi was invited in and ended up travelling with the group to Thailand and in fairness to him he gave a good showing. With the Myhill deal off Clarke decided to go with the 2 keepers and offered Al Habsi a contract and (IMO) he did this with a view of buying in January if our keeper situation became questionable. On current form I believe we will buy a keeper in January.

Clarke is a good manager and is doing a good job in keeping Bond protected from fans and the local media while he treads water until Jan, hence his refusal is speak negatively about mistakes between the sticks. Mistakes that we all see as obvious and know as our weakest link in an otherwise a very strong championship squad.

I'll ride this until January as Clarke has done a good job of smartening up all other areas on the field and I'm sure our keeper situation will improve or I believe Clarke will address it.

[Hoop Blah]

How many points do they have to gift away and fail to save for us before they make a huge difference to our season? To date Bond has given some away and has yet to be acknowledged as saving any for us.

As for Al-Habsi - on everything I've seen from him whilst he has been with us and played for our opponents, he will definitely cost us more points than he saves.

Bond has cost us points at Wednesday, via one mistake. If you want to be picky about it Sa has cost us more through the missed penalty and his red card that was the key factor in the loss to Derby.

Where else are you placing the blame for our loss of points on Bond?

[WoodleyRoyal]

Ffs give the lad a chance this is his first full season as a number 1. He's going to take time to settle. Young players make mistakes unfortunately when your a keeper a mistake can quite often lead to a goal. Outfield players make mistakes all the time, but can get away with it. He can and will only get better by playing games

[RoyalBlue]

How many points do they have to gift away and fail to save for us before they make a huge difference to our season? To date Bond has given some away and has yet to be acknowledged as saving any for us.

As for Al-Habsi - on everything I've seen from him whilst he has been with us and played for our opponents, he will definitely cost us more points than he saves.

Bond has cost us points at Wednesday, via one mistake. If you want to be picky about it Sa has cost us more through the missed penalty and his red card that was the key factor in the loss to Derby.

Where else are you placing the blame for our loss of points on Bond?

Despite Clarke's denial (and no manager is going to publically criticise a young keeper) IMO, and that of many others, he could and should have stopped that Derby effort. What points has he gained us through saves? Sa is in credit with the goals he has scored/assisted.

The percentage of shots on target saved is pretty damning too. Either all of our opponents have had red hot finishers in their team or Bond is currently not performing to the level required of a good keeper in a successful team.

Ffs give the lad a chance this is his first full season as a number 1. He's going to take time to settle. Young players make mistakes unfortunately when your a keeper a mistake can quite often lead to a goal. Outfield players make mistakes all the time, but can get away with it. He can and will only get better by playing games

True, it's not his fault that he has been put in that position. (although it is his fault that he is so poor at kicking, particularly with his left foot - inexcusable in a youngster nowadays, particularly when they have had the benefit of working their way up through a professional set up)

But can we afford to use our first team to given him the opportunity to develop? And, if he is out of his depth and losing confidence he could get a lot worse by playing games in the first team at this level.

[Ian Royal]

Bond's a good punt, but he doesn't inspire confidence. With a young keeper like that you really need an older more experienced and reliable keeper backing him up. Al-Habsi is anything but. On the other hand Al-Habsi was free and probably not our first choice.

We'll survive. Neither are bad enough to make a huge difference to our season. We've got enough in the rest of the team that if it fully clicks the odd howler and soft goal won't be disastrous. If we don't click we won't near enough promotion anyway.

How many points do they have to gift away and fail to save for us before they make a huge difference to our season? To date Bond has given some away and has yet to be acknowledged as saving any for us.

As for Al-Habsi - on everything I've seen from him whilst he has been with us and played for our opponents, he will definitely cost us more points than he saves.

Quite a few seeing as most keepers make mistakes in a season that end up costly.

So far Bond has dropped the ball and conceded a goal that's dropped two points against Wednesday. Absolutely, you can argue he's done that. Although if the rest of the team had put away a second chance it wouldn't have mattered. But then the lack of goal line tech may have cost us a point against Brum, as did Sa's penalty, as did Hector's slip. Sa arguably cost us at least a point against Derby by getting sent off.

We've got the potential to score lots of goals, which means we can absorb the odd slip between the sticks. I for one am not going to pile on the pressure and look for mistakes. Bond hasn't looked inspiring so far, but really he's only made one costly error.

Al-Habsi, well we all knew what we were getting when we signed him didn't we. Even there, I would say the goals against Everton weren't in the same league as Federici's dives over the ball against Chelsea or Stoke. Or his fumble through his legs against Arsenal.

Every game, there will be potentially costly mistakes from multiple players and I just don't see how it helps anyone to begin a witch hunt at this stage. It's only going to make matters worse. Particularly with a young, relatively inexperienced keeper between the posts.

And I'd remind you that with our defence performing the way it is, the keeper's aren't exactly getting much chance to pull off game winning saves.

[RoyalX]

Bond isn't the finished article yet, but he's obviously a highly rated young keeper. If we stick with him now I believe we will reap the benefits later. I think we can afford to do that this year given the quality in the rest of the squad.

[maffff]

The point is, although he may be 'ok' and he is learning, he is inexperienced and doesn't yet inspire confidence. He could get there and be bloody good but it looks like he could do with being nurtured a bit rather than being thrown in at the deep end.

It's a position where mistakes are more likely to be picked up on and if he isn't inspiring confidence in us, then no matter what soundbites the club make the defence will be thinking the same privately.

A keeper Al-Habsi and former keeper in Beasant can share experience and help in his development, but having someone like Myhill around could only push him on and make him all the better for it. Federici and McCarthy seemed to push each other on and Federici no doubt played a part in supporting Alex's development....

[Vision]

It's a position where mistakes are more likely to be picked up on and if he isn't inspiring confidence in us, then no matter what soundbites the club make the defence will be thinking the same privately.

I agree but I'd suggest that the current defence looks far less jittery on the field in front of Bond than for the last two seasons. The simple truth is that only two sides have a better defensive record than us and despite fielding a more attacking system in recent weeks the defence doesn't appear to have too many problems with Bond. Of course this may be due to the presence of McShane/Ferdinand and it may all go tits up but for now it seems that some people are just looking for something to comment on.

A few weeks ago it was our lack of creativity, then not having a "20 goal a season man ", then it was "no real width". All of these things were going to cost us dear and now it's a goalkeeper whose major crime is that he hasn't had to make too many saves. That could just as easily be put down to his superior positioning (have we forgotten Feds near post issues or Mccarthy's dithering over crosses already), or his organisational skills but instead it seems it's because he's not good enough.

The jury is out of course, as it should be on most players after only 8 games to be honest, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary hand wringing going on with regard to a young player who's currently marshalling the most solid looking rearguard we've had in some time.

[WoodleyRoyal]

It's a position where mistakes are more likely to be picked up on and if he isn't inspiring confidence in us, then no matter what soundbites the club make the defence will be thinking the same privately.

I agree but I'd suggest that the current defence looks far less jittery on the field in front of Bond than for the last two seasons. The simple truth is that only two sides have a better defensive record than us and despite fielding a more attacking system in recent weeks the defence doesn't appear to have too many problems with Bond. Of course this may be due to the presence of McShane/Ferdinand and it may all go tits up but for now it seems that some people are just looking for something to comment on.

A few weeks ago it was our lack of creativity, then not having a "20 goal a season man ", then it was "no real width". All of these things were going to cost us dear and now it's a goalkeeper whose major crime is that he hasn't had to make too many saves. That could just as easily be put down to his superior positioning (have we forgotten Feds near post issues or Mccarthy's dithering over crosses already), or his organisational skills but instead it seems it's because he's not good enough.

The jury is out of course, as it should be on most players after only 8 games to be honest, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary hand wringing going on with regard to a young player who's currently marshalling the most solid looking rearguard we've had in some time.

Once again vision you are proving why you are one of the best posters on here

[Schmeichel the dog]

It's a position where mistakes are more likely to be picked up on and if he isn't inspiring confidence in us, then no matter what soundbites the club make the defence will be thinking the same privately.

I agree but I'd suggest that the current defence looks far less jittery on the field in front of Bond than for the last two seasons. The simple truth is that only two sides have a better defensive record than us and despite fielding a more attacking system in recent weeks the defence doesn't appear to have too many problems with Bond. Of course this may be due to the presence of McShane/Ferdinand and it may all go tits up but for now it seems that some people are just looking for something to comment on.

A few weeks ago it was our lack of creativity, then not having a "20 goal a season man ", then it was "no real width". All of these things were going to cost us dear and now it's a goalkeeper whose major crime is that he hasn't had to make too many saves. That could just as easily be put down to his superior positioning (have we forgotten Feds near post issues or Mccarthy's dithering over crosses already), or his organisational skills but instead it seems it's because he's not good enough.

The jury is out of course, as it should be on most players after only 8 games to be honest, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary hand wringing going on with regard to a young player who's currently marshalling the most solid looking rearguard we've had in some time.

Once again vision you are proving why you are one of the best posters on here

+1

[Oilroyal]

It's a position where mistakes are more likely to be picked up on and if he isn't inspiring confidence in us, then no matter what soundbites the club make the defence will be thinking the same privately.

I agree but I'd suggest that the current defence looks far less jittery on the field in front of Bond than for the last two seasons. The simple truth is that only two sides have a better defensive record than us and despite fielding a more attacking system in recent weeks the defence doesn't appear to have too many problems with Bond. Of course this may be due to the presence of McShane/Ferdinand and it may all go tits up but for now it seems that some people are just looking for something to comment on.

A few weeks ago it was our lack of creativity, then not having a "20 goal a season man ", then it was "no real width". All of these things were going to cost us dear and now it's a goalkeeper whose major crime is that he hasn't had to make too many saves. That could just as easily be put down to his superior positioning (have we forgotten Feds near post issues or Mccarthy's dithering over crosses already), or his organisational skills but instead it seems it's because he's not good enough.

The jury is out of course, as it should be on most players after only 8 games to be honest, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary hand wringing going on with regard to a young player who's currently marshalling the most solid looking rearguard we've had in some time.

Once again vision you are proving why you are one of the best posters on here

Have to agree with this point of view. Enough said.

[maffff]

I agree but I'd suggest that the current defence looks far less jittery on the field in front of Bond than for the last two seasons.

Of course this may be due to the presence of McShane/Ferdinand.

Good post - just pulling these bits out - I'd say the defence is better / more balanced than we had last year. I thought Pearce leaving would strengthen us overall and I'm happy to see that without him in the side (and without players having to compensate for his limitations), plus a midfield that seems to be providing more linkages/cover the team looks more balanced as a whole. Clarke has built from the back..

No matter where we are we'll never have a 'perfect team' and can always improve. At the moment that's the area that will get focus. Fans want the best....

[Snowball]

James McKeown

[Extended-Phenotype]

Might have been said but we have been kinda spoilt regarding keepers over the years and maybe taking great keeping for granted - don't think Bond is particularly bad, just has a high benchmark to be measured against.

[Sanguine]

Might have been said but we have been kinda spoilt regarding keepers over the years and maybe taking great keeping for granted - don't think Bond is particularly bad, just has a high benchmark to be measured against.

As usual, a footballing 'greed with EP.

In the couple of games I've watched him at least, he hasn't looked 'dodgy' at all. And he must have something about him for the U21 coaches to poach him from Wales.

[JamieY26]

Last season we had a good keeper and a shocking defence. This season we have a solid defence and a pretty standard keeper that is young an developing.... I know which situation I prefer!

It is also worth pointing out that we have been spoilt for keepers for years! Welcome back to reality really.

[Maguire]

Federici dropped his fair share of clangers and copped his fair share of abuse on this portal over the years.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Federici dropped his fair share of clangers and copped his fair share of abuse on this portal over the years.

Name one

[lewesroyal]

All keepers make errors. Bond's drop against Wednesday was obvious, Al-Habsi has been doing it for years and was a head in hands signing for me.
Bond will be good, and is currently OK. The other goals that have gone past him he couldn't really have done much more.