When our goalkeeper often promotes debate , it is worth a look at the goals from the championship yesterday , some absolute howlers from the men between the sticks . Prestons , Middlesboro & Sheffield utd"s keepers were responsible for three of the biggest gaffes you will see all season & these lads are playing at a higher level than us , just shows that when debating the merits of our keeper that keepers from a higher level are not infallible , worth a look .
One of the premier league keepers nearly cost a goal because of a howler yesterday. Davies gets some very unfair criticism from a small minority.
All keepers are capable of howlers, nature of the position. However you can normally forgive a one in a season howler if on balance they overwhelmingly save you more points than they cost you. I’m a big fan of Davies. Think he’s a great shot stopper and saved us a lot of points in his time. He hasn’t improved on his weaknesses though - and his inability to dominate the area and claim crosses, or look comfortable under the high ball, does cost us a number of goals. If he can improve there he has the makings of a very steady championship keeper. He’s 26 so still relatively young for a keeper & can still improve.
Howlers are a one off and can be forgiven once or twice a season. Like Davies against Wednesday. It's the routine stuff they are judged on and in my opinion Davies is found wanting at dead ball situations and distribution. Still time to improve but no way is he as good as some make out.
He was rightly criticised last season because he was making silly errors on a frequent basis. Don't think Davies has made many obvious mistakes this season but as pointed out by others, still very weak on crosses and decision-making on corners. Kicking appears to have improved this season though.
You don't get promoted with a poor goalkeeper, they are the difference in close games. We'll see if Davies is good enough in the coming months, last season he wasn't good enough as again he could have saved us the couple of points needed to stay up. I'm expecting to go up with our squad and changes would need to be made if we dont.
GK ing is difficult. It's easy to be hero or villain in equal measure. I happen to think Davies is OK but...looking at the goals conceded yesterday - beaten at near post direct from corner(?), then flapped at corner getting no where near it. It's fair to mention these things because the idea is to get better. Is Davies getting better at dominating the area? I'll give him the near poster as a 'one of things'. Surely, working on the 'in the air' skills in training should show results in performances.
The thing is , if he had all the attributes that fans say he lacks, then he would be premier class & would not be here anyway , I cannot understand why some fans cannot grasp that we are in the third division & have third division players & thats why players all over the pitch make mistakes , maybe we have been fed a diet of too much top class football on the tv & fans expect our players to play to the same level , unfortunately that is not going to happen.
I don't think Davies would be premier league class if he improved on crosses into the box.... He may become a decent championship keeper if he did though.
I agree with that. We are third division with third division players. I'm just hoping we buy second division players in January so they have half a season to gel rather than a mammoth rebuilding in August again when the third division players are dispensed with.
We've already been promoted once with Davies so I'm not too worried currently. Not averse to us going out and finding someone better though if they're available.
Agree with this. I would add that our first season back in the championship Davies did well in my opinion; the reason was probably because he had championship players in front of him. Last season the whole team was pi55 poor yet the amount of blame apportioned to Davies for our relegation seems entirely disproportionate. Just my opinion of course.
A certain reds fan that's shall not be named was on Davis' case big time yesterday. People who were there will know who I mean. There was one occasion when he received an awful bouncing back pass and even got the blame for that.
We have a couple sat near us at Oakwell. You can hear them every time the ball goes near him - they do my nut in.
Yes & then hopefully promotion comes along , you then step up , adapt & hopefully become established at the next level , however we are currently third division with third division players , that is our current level .
Preston Keeper Rudd - that was possibly the worse mistake I've seen at that level ever. I fell off the sofa laughing, had to watch it about 5 times just for the laughs.