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Matz Willy Els Sels
- Thread starter donny
- Start date
Statto
Free Kick Specialist
I agree, but the only reason why he's currently getting games for Belgium is that their first choice is not available. Sels has 8 caps and Kaminski is the backup and he has 1.
He is plenty good enough for us and probably one of the better PL keepers. He is average or better at all aspects of the role really, there don't appear to be any particular weaknesses to target such as Turner or Henderson's kicking.
Prime Navas would be the best keeper we've ever had and the older Navas we did get wasn't too far off, he made the odd mistake but single handedly kept us in a lot of games, or kept the score down. Sels perhaps isn't quite that level but also not quite as old or expensive. Samba would have been fine in the PL and probably about the same as Sels as they performed similarly in the French league.
The issue would be now that we need to ideally shift off the other two, though Turner would be OK backup, he clearly moved here for more of a chance which he won't get with Sels here unless he gets injured.
PynchonForest
John Robertson
Agreed. Courtois is arguably the best keeper on the planet, but I think Sels has shown enough to be their number two. Very happy with his overall game. I think we'll know post season if Turner is willing to accept a backup role. Vlachadimos is gone, for sure.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
Turner alluded to not being happy with the two spot in that ESPN interview iirc - something about having a decision to make in the summer if that's the case. He'll be off I think...
Mr. Blonde
Jack Burkitt
Doesn't surprise me at all given I think he probably left Arsenal thinking he'd be the first choice keeper here
I actually thought Turner looked decent his first four or five games, but IIRC he pulled a howler and looked nervous as hell ever after
Robertson
Geoff Thomas
His lack of ability is wildly exaggerated IMO. He had a bad run with us for a bit, no doubt.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
He lost his shit - good reflexes and command of his box, but just dreadful with his feet and lost his head at one point. I still haven't forgiven him for the spurs giveaway followed by awful flap but, as he proved at Arsenal, he'd be a decent back up if happy with that.
PynchonForest
John Robertson
Sels is better, and if he doesn't want to be number two, then MLS here I come will be his cry. I think we can filch 6 to 7 million from some sucker in that league for him.
Statto
Free Kick Specialist
Thing is, where would he go? His kicking is a major weakness so I can't see another PL team looking at him, and his general keeping is probably too good to be at a Championship club. Other top divisions may be too far too with his kicking and I can't see him wanting to go back to MLS so soon.
Matt is 30 this year so we're not talking about a weakness in a young player.
Prem reserve is probably about his level. In a sense it's weird that the USMNT keepers are all in a similar situation, considering the strength of the position in the past.
Although I'm pretty sure at the time there was talk that Vlachodimos was coming in to be #1 which was only a few weeks after Turner signed so presumably that deal had been thought of when we were bringing in Turner, so it might not have been definitely the case that Turner was brought in to be #1
Baronvon
Jack Burkitt
I seem to remember it was the Brentford game in which Turner looked a bit iffy. Looked a good signing prior to that in some very difficult games.
Lost his place after a bad (albeit meaningless) mistake against Liverpool and I don't think his confidence ever had chance to recover. The Arsenal game pretty much summed up his luck. A very solid and commanding performance for 95% of the match...only to be made to look a dick on the first goal. Confidence then reset back to zero and all his previous good work in the game forgotten.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
I hear Greece is nice, if not then MLS I expect. It's all about retaining the USMNT jersey for him (two word trigger alert!).
Baronvon
Jack Burkitt
I seem to remember Cooper going on record saying that, after the Turner signing was confirmed, he was still hoping to bring in Dean Henderson. I suspect Turner was aware of this when signing but told he'd get his chance.
So when Vlachodimos showed up, an experienced international goalkeeper with significant pedigree, I naturally assumed it was to ultimately be number one.
On paper it seemed like a solid plan - only trouble being that, on the actual pitch, he turned out to he the most ineffective goalkeeper I've ever seen.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
Vlachedemos looked like the kid at school who wanted to play in goal but was scared of getting hit by the ball. A truly uniquely shit goalkeeper - it's not often you see keepers diving out of the way.
Mr. Blonde
Jack Burkitt
Literally the worst goalkeeper I've ever seen play for Forest
Statto
Free Kick Specialist
I really wonder how Vlachodimos managed to play so many games for Benfica including CL and for Greece.
Every time the ball hits the net he's somehow nowhere near it.
Every time the ball hits the net he's somehow nowhere near it.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
Same, and I've seen some shit. I absolutely hated Paul Smith, but at least you could see he was trying but just not good enough. This twat just stands around looking interested until it's time to do his job and tosses it off when it is.
Baronvon
Jack Burkitt
It's legitimately surreal how bad he was. No obvious howlers as such, but every shot on target outside of his immediate range was a goal.
It got to the stage where I was surprised when he managed to save pea roller efforts right at him.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
I gave an ironic standing ovation when he unconvincingly gathered a pea roller for us (against Newcastle maybe?) - the worry is everyone around me got the joke.
Statto
Free Kick Specialist
I wouldn't go that far.
He probably isn't worse than Rune Pedersen, Barry Roche, Marco Pascolo, Paul Smith, Costel Pantilimon, Aro Muric, Luke Steele, Darren Ward for example.
Perhaps a bit harsh including Smith in there given he was a big reason why we got promotion from L1 but we were in L1 at the time and he was terrible once we'd gone up. And Roche played a while at Morecambe but was terrible for us.
None of them played for us in the PL either, and they looked bad at a lower level...
When we last got relegated Beasant and Crossley shared the shirt in D1 under Platt then he brought in Ward I think who never really seemed convincing enough and then Kinnear got in Gerrard who was a decent enough keeper but couldn't stop us ending up relegated. It's only recently with Samba and Sels that we have had decent keepers again. Navas would count if he wasn't just a short term loan.
Mr. Blonde
Jack Burkitt
He's worse than all of those for me, and you can add Stephen Henderson to the list of shit keepers Vlach is worse than
Statto
Free Kick Specialist
Forgot the traffic cone, jeez he was so awful he got replaced by Jordan Smith and Mad Vlad in the same season.
Even so, we're still talking about keepers who played for us in the CH and L1 as opposed to in the PL. I think he would look OK down there lol
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
He even looks a bit like Dorus, though stretched out. What a keeper he was - Sels is good but he doesn't look quite as agile as the really top ones to me. I'm happy with him though, very after sat.
Gyros Peter
Sauce salad?
He'd still be diving out of the way of the ball. Unforgivable.
Statto
Free Kick Specialist
Navas is without doubt the best keeper I have seen play for us. None of the others are anywhere near.
You could see why, even though he wasn't quite as quick/agile as before, he had won basically everything which could be won (except the fact he is costa rican), and how much his experience showed on the pitch.
Looking for a different option longer term and not going back in was the right move though.