Gavin Bazunu

[John Boy Saint]

I accidently happened to be having a civilised conversation with one of our fishy friends yesterday, and Bazunu came up I commented that maybe he needs to be taken out of the firing line for a game or two. I said sometimes his is a bit flappy, to which he said "yes he was with us but got away with it where you can't in the Premier League". I mentioned a worse trait is when the ball is fired into the corridor of uncertainty and he has dived to cut it out after it has passed him and got away with it, or the poor defender covering behind inadvertently pops it into our own net. "Yup - did exactly the same with us so many times........surprised you lot down the road couldn't feel the air disappearing as we all took a sharp intake of breath".

[Saint_clark]

1 hour ago, John Boy Saint said:

I accidently happened to be having a civilised conversation with one of our fishy friends yesterday, and Bazunu came up I commented that maybe he needs to be taken out of the firing line for a game or two. I said sometimes his is a bit flappy, to which he said "yes he was with us but got away with it where you can't in the Premier League". I mentioned a worse trait is when the ball is fired into the corridor of uncertainty and he has dived to cut it out after it has passed him and got away with it, or the poor defender covering behind inadvertently pops it into our own net. "Yup - did exactly the same with us so many times........surprised you lot down the road couldn't feel the air disappearing as we all took a sharp intake of breath".

Proof if it were needed that we did zero scouting and just relied on Joe Shields. Given how quickly he moved on I'm honestly starting to wonder if he came here just to mug us off and give city a bunch of money for players they didn't want anyway.

I will die on this hill - he's got no positive attributes to his game, shows no potential and will never be good enough for the premier league. We've been well and truly ripped off. 

[trousers]

7 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

Proof if it were needed that we did zero scouting

I'm not sure I would label the anecdotal feedback of one supporter "proof" per se. I remember there were plenty of Pompey fans that were waxing lyrical about him and sorry to see him go (wasn't Bazunu their player of the season or did I imagine that...?)

I'm not writing this to defend Bazunu - he has obvious flaws - but its a fair leap of logic to equate one piece of fan feedback to us doing "zero scouting" on him.

All that said, you could well be right (that Shields brought him in without any second opinion/peer review), I'm just saying that we don't have any tangible proof of that, just anecdotal 'evidence'.

[Turkish]

🤦‍♂️

[S-Clarke]

These stats totally backup what we are seeing - he doesn't seem to ever make any saves, any shot on target is a goal. That's why we don't keep clean sheets. 

I looked at him the other night and he looked like a midget in the middle of that goal, zero presence. 

[tdmickey3]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

🤦‍♂️

Guess you do like a stat despite belittling others for posting them........ 

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

Guess you do like a stat despite belittling others for posting them........ 

as I’ve always said stats tell some of the story not all of it. In this case it backs up what you can see going on on the pitch. I remember when few statsmen were knocking one our because a few random stats told us Vestergaard was one of the best defenders in the league, this an example of how stats can also be completely wrong 

[qwertyell]

11 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

I looked at him the other night and he looked like a midget in the middle of that goal, zero presence. 

He's apparently 6' 2".

The smallest 6' 2" I've ever seen. Must've been wearing platform shoes on height measuring day.

This is one of my main concerns with him - he can't get to the corners. He's small and has a feeble leap/dive. Shots don't even have to be that close to the corners and he still gets nowhere near.

Those that talk about him having potential and just needing more experience are, I think, missing the bigger issue: he doesn't have the fundamental tools to be a top goalkeeper, IMHO.

[Turkish]

9 minutes ago, qwertyell said:

He's apparently 6' 2".

The smallest 6' 2" I've ever seen. Must've been wearing platform shoes on height measuring day.

This is one of my main concerns with him - he can't get to the corners. He's small and has a feeble leap/dive. Shots don't even have to be that close to the corners and he still gets nowhere near.

Those that talk about him having potential and just needing more experience are, I think, missing the bigger issue: he doesn't have the fundamental tools to be a top goalkeeper, IMHO.

Is it a bit emperors new clothes the stuff about him having potential? He’s a young keeper who’s already and international and comes from Man City so therefore he must be great? I’ve not been impressed at all. Plenty of others have said that it’s difficult to think of many saves this season where he’s done well to get it. Been plenty of others where you think he should have got to it. 
 

Leno cost £5m less and is top of the table .

[notnowcato]

But xG up the other end of the pitch is bollox, ok then.  I get it... "does this stat fit with my subjective view?  Because it's me that's important here."  

[egg]

3 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

But xG up the other end of the pitch is bollox, ok then.  I get it... "does this stat fit with my subjective view?  Because it's me that's important here."  

Eh? What's a made up semi-stat got to do with Bazunu not saving very much and having minimal presence? 

[Luke SkyWalker-Peters]

7 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Is it a bit emperors new clothes the stuff about him having potential? He’s a young keeper who’s already and international and comes from Man City so therefore he must be great? I’ve not been impressed at all. Plenty of others have said that it’s difficult to think of many saves this season where he’s done well to get it. Been plenty of others where you think he should have got to it. 
 

Leno cost £5m less and is top of the table .

More so his age and performances. By all accounts he was one of the best, if not the best, GKs in League One last season. He was in the PFA League One team of the year. He has also been very good for Ireland.

The jump in shooting quality from League One to Premier League is obviously large. Personally, I think the rest of his game has been good (distribution, cross collection etc). He just doesn't look accustomed to this quality yet and his positioning and footwork have been poor at times. He also doesn't have the anticipation yet and sometimes goes to ground when he shouldn't.

I have been an advocate for him to be benched since October, but it really isn't his fault. He should have been eased into the first XI better, behind an experienced keeper. We shouldn't be relying on a 20 year old keeper to save us from relegation - that's not fair to him. I assume that McCarthy's injury has scuppered the club's plans as he surely would have taken over if available.

[notnowcato]

14 minutes ago, egg said:

Eh? What's a made up semi-stat got to do with Bazunu not saving very much and having minimal presence? 

I'm assuming you missed the PSxG stat that is the centre of the Statsbomb posting.  

[LuckyNumber7]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

🤦‍♂️

Based on that , maybe we should put in a bid for the Cremonese keeper. They're bottom of the league and still without a win.

Nevermind just looked him up and he was on loan from Inter, now been loaned to Auxerre. Just shows it really wouldn't have been difficult to do better than Bazunu though.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

14 minutes ago, Luke SkyWalker-Peters said:

More so his age and performances. By all accounts he was one of the best, if not the best, GKs in League One last season. He was in the PFA League One team of the year. He has also been very good for Ireland.

The jump in shooting quality from League One to Premier League is obviously large. Personally, I think the rest of his game has been good (distribution, cross collection etc). He just doesn't look accustomed to this quality yet and his positioning and footwork have been poor at times. He also doesn't have the anticipation yet and sometimes goes to ground when he shouldn't.

I have been an advocate for him to be benched since October, but it really isn't his fault. He should have been eased into the first XI better, behind an experienced keeper. We shouldn't be relying on a 20 year old keeper to save us from relegation - that's not fair to him. I assume that McCarthy's injury has scuppered the club's plans as he surely would have taken over if available.

I thought Jones said that McCarthy had sprained his ankle. Must have been a hell of a sprain to keep him out this long. 

[egg]

10 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

I'm assuming you missed the PSxG stat that is the centre of the Statsbomb posting.  

I watch football mate, and I see a keeper in Bazunu who has great potential; who's been pushed in at the deep end; has minimal presence; makes unforced errors; and doesn't save stuff that a decent keeper should. Where do I find those stats in the table please?

[Dman]

28 minutes ago, notnowcato said:

I'm assuming you missed the PSxG stat that is the centre of the Statsbomb posting.  

I’ve no fucking clue what bollox ‘PSxG’ means, but I’m guessing it means out of 100 shots, he should have saves 23 of them. 
 

He’s conceded 32 of 77 shots, which kinda proves, he’s fucking rubbish. 

[Dman]

Would Willy be any worse? I’m not sure he would, really don’t see what Bazunu brings to the table. 

We play with a mid/deep back line, so we don’t need a ‘sweeper keeper’ like we did under Ralph. 
 

Willy’s experience might help our CB’s pick up their man as well. 

[Turkish]

3 minutes ago, Dman said:

I’ve no fucking clue what bollox ‘PSxG’ means, but I’m guessing it means out of 100 shots, he should have saves 23 of them. 
 

He’s conceded 32 of 77 shots, which kinda proves, he’s fucking rubbish. 

Yep, thats the only numbers that matter. Compared to Leno who cost £5m less who has faced 31 more shots and let in 8 less. Whoever is basing our decisions on data seems to have fucked up their formulas. 

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, trousers said:

I'm not sure I would label the anecdotal feedback of one supporter "proof" per se. I remember there were plenty of Pompey fans that were waxing lyrical about him and sorry to see him go (wasn't Bazunu their player of the season or did I imagine that...?)

I'm not writing this to defend Bazunu - he has obvious flaws - but its a fair leap of logic to equate one piece of fan feedback to us doing "zero scouting" on him.

All that said, you could well be right (that Shields brought him in without any second opinion/peer review), I'm just saying that we don't have any tangible proof of that, just anecdotal 'evidence'.

He may well of been their player of the season but in league one it's irrelevant, wasnt Kelvin Davis named in team of the season in either League one or the championship with us? 

[Turkish]

23 minutes ago, Dman said:

Would Willy be any worse? I’m not sure he would, really don’t see what Bazunu brings to the table. 

We play with a mid/deep back line, so we don’t need a ‘sweeper keeper’ like we did under Ralph. 
 

Willy’s experience might help our CB’s pick up their man as well. 

Jones said about Celeta-Carr that he's defender, he needs to defend and stop trying to be a footballer. He's right. Same could be said for Bazunu. We need a custodian that can occasionally make the odd save, not one that thinks they are a sweeper. Bit like all this bollocks about how good Elyanoussi is without the ball, he's meant to be an attacking player FFS, it's more important for him to be good on the ball. Too much bollocks at this club, we need a glovesman that can save shots, defenders that can defend and an attacking players that can create and take chances, lets stop trying to be too smart and worry about the basics first shall we?

Edited 26 January, 2023 by Turkish

[notnowcato]

1 hour ago, egg said:

I watch football mate, and I see a keeper in Bazunu who has great potential; who's been pushed in at the deep end; has minimal presence; makes unforced errors; and doesn't save stuff that a decent keeper should. Where do I find those stats in the table please?

Jeez you not using the xPIATDE stat or the xUE stat, this is 2023 you know. 
 

Please apply as much sarcasm as you can to the above as my xS is off the fucking charts. 

[notnowcato]

50 minutes ago, Dman said:

I’ve no fucking clue what bollox ‘PSxG’ means, but I’m guessing it means out of 100 shots, he should have saves 23 of them. 
 

He’s conceded 32 of 77 shots, which kinda proves, he’s fucking rubbish. 

With zero context I’d have to agree with you. 

[SambaMaverick]

51 minutes ago, Dman said:

I’ve no fucking clue what bollox ‘PSxG’ means, but I’m guessing it means out of 100 shots, he should have saves 23 of them. 
 

He’s conceded 32 of 77 shots, which kinda proves, he’s fucking rubbish. 

It means that with the quality and location of shots he's faced this season, he should have conceded only 23 goals, but he's actually let in 32. It doesn't factor in our defending, just whether or not an average keeper should be saving a shot.

[notnowcato]

45 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Yep, thats the only numbers that matter. Compared to Leno who cost £5m less who has faced 31 more shots and let in 8 less. Whoever is basing our decisions on data seems to have fucked up their formulas. 

Hindsight is fucking marvellous. 
 

Personally, I think it was a massive risk putting a 20 year old keeper into a shit shower of a team and expect anything but a rough ride for him.
 

I suspect Gavin will turn out to be a good keeper but he needs more experience away from the top flight. 

[John Boy Saint]

3 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

Proof if it were needed that we did zero scouting and just relied on Joe Shields. Given how quickly he moved on I'm honestly starting to wonder if he came here just to mug us off and give city a bunch of money for players they didn't want anyway.

 

“Hey Joe, good luck in your new role” “do us a favour can you take these 3 with you - the little one - the one with great close control and a limp finish - the not quite ripe one - and we will let you  have a decent one to throw them off the scent” 

[Weston Super Saint]

2 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Hindsight is fucking marvellous. 
 

Personally, I think it was a massive risk putting a 20 year old keeper into a shit shower of a team and expect anything but a rough ride for him.
 

I suspect Gavin will turn out to be a good keeper but he needs more experience away from the top flight. 

Not sure he knows how lucky he is just yet....

[Turkish]

3 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Hindsight is fucking marvellous. 
 

Personally, I think it was a massive risk putting a 20 year old keeper into a shit shower of a team and expect anything but a rough ride for him.
 

I suspect Gavin will turn out to be a good keeper but he needs more experience away from the top flight. 

Not hindsight quite a few of us said it was a mistake. We were told we are wrong he’s brilliant and has played for Ireland 

[saint1977]

2 hours ago, John Boy Saint said:

“Hey Joe, good luck in your new role” “do us a favour can you take these 3 with you - the little one - the one with great close control and a limp finish - the not quite ripe one - and we will let you  have a decent one to throw them off the scent” 

Absolute shyster, and sickening overall in the last 5 years that Man City with all the petrol money have fleeced Saints for £25m+ on Bazanu/Gunn, £12m on a midfielder made of glass and £3m on a 12 year old left back we didn’t need. Jury out on Edozie, lively but light on assists and goals. 

[notnowcato]

3 hours ago, Turkish said:

Not hindsight quite a few of us said it was a mistake. We were told we are wrong he’s brilliant and has played for Ireland 

Hindsight on Leno, clearly it was a risk on Gavin. 

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Hindsight on Leno, clearly it was a risk on Gavin. 

I absolutely would have taken Leno in the summer, no hindsight involved at all. He'd have been the best keeper we signed since Boruc.

[notnowcato]

5 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

I absolutely would have taken Leno in the summer, no hindsight involved at all. He'd have been the best keeper we signed since Boruc.

Best since Boruc, that’s an illustrious list of keepers 😂

[Saint_clark]

2 hours ago, notnowcato said:

Best since Boruc, that’s an illustrious list of keepers 😂

Indeed. And we managed to sign someone worse instead of Leno who would have been an improvement.

[notnowcato]

I don’t recall there being much of a clamour on here to sign Leno, I could’ve missed it. 

[Saint NL]

 

Interesting stat..

 

Willy Caballero made his senior debut 21 years ago this weekend, for Boca Juniors on February 5th, 2002.

 

Gavin Bazunu, who is currently first choice keeper at Southampton ahead of Caballero, was born 15 days later…

[Wade Garrett]

I've been very critical of Bazunu.  I thought his performance on Tuesday was a big improvement.  Hopefully he gets a bit of confidence from it.

[SotonianWill]

4 hours ago, Wade Garrett said:

I've been very critical of Bazunu.  I thought his performance on Tuesday was a big improvement.  Hopefully he gets a bit of confidence from it.

how was he any different? he must have had the most touches of the ball by any of our players, due to insisting (probably Jones' fault) to play out from the back only to smash it up field after a while. Cant remember any great saves, our whole defence looked disorganised first half and were shitting themselves. A decent keeper would increase confidence.

[Toussaint]

8 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

how was he any different? he must have had the most touches of the ball by any of our players, due to insisting (probably Jones' fault) to play out from the back only to smash it up field after a while. Cant remember any great saves, our whole defence looked disorganised first half and were shitting themselves. A decent keeper would increase confidence.

There were some good saves and he was much more commanding than he has been, I thought it was his best game so far. 

[saintscottofthenortham]

8 minutes ago, Toussaint said:

There were some good saves and he was much more commanding than he has been, I thought it was his best game so far. 

He was a bit better, but he made a right hash of the opening goal. He covered near post when they came down into corner of our box, but didn't centre himself when it was squared to Longstaff. If he had, that was a relatively simple save as it was tucked into the corner. It probably would've been in for a rebound, but he at least saves the first attempt, seeing as he got a hand to it from bad positioning.

He made a decent double save down in front of us in second-half. Can't remember who from, but it was when we were pushing forward and got caught on break.

He looked far more composed with balls into the box. He claimed a few crosses into the box that didn't look the easiest to deal with.

I'd like to see him command his defence more, but that'll come in time hopefully. He'll be a top keeper, but he has very much been tossed into the fire at a very young age.

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

He was a bit better, but he made a right hash of the opening goal. He covered near post when they came down into corner of our box, but didn't centre himself when it was squared to Longstaff. If he had, that was a relatively simple save as it was tucked into the corner. It probably would've been in for a rebound, but he at least saves the first attempt, seeing as he got a hand to it from bad positioning.

He made a decent double save down in front of us in second-half. Can't remember who from, but it was when we were pushing forward and got caught on break.

He looked far more composed with balls into the box. He claimed a few crosses into the box that didn't look the easiest to deal with.

I'd like to see him command his defence more, but that'll come in time hopefully. He'll be a top keeper, but he has very much been tossed into the fire at a very young age.

First goal was not stoppable. Ten yards out.

Edited 2 February, 2023 by Whitey Grandad

[saintscottofthenortham]

4 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

First goal was not stoppable. Ten yards out.

He got a hand to it having not positioned himself correctly. You consistently talk carp about this lad. Why is that? Watch any keeper... When a ball is squared across a box, they'll take a step with it. He didn't, and that's why he didn't get enough on it, to stop it. It's simple stuff Grandad. 

[Toussaint]

3 hours ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

He got a hand to it having not positioned himself correctly. You consistently talk carp about this lad. Why is that? Watch any keeper... When a ball is squared across a box, they'll take a step with it. He didn't, and that's why he didn't get enough on it, to stop it. It's simple stuff Grandad. 

Watching it on tv at the time, I didn’t think he had a clear sight  of it.

Edited 2 February, 2023 by Toussaint
Typo

[Whitey Grandad]

41 minutes ago, saintscottofthenortham said:

He got a hand to it having not positioned himself correctly. You consistently talk carp about this lad. Why is that? Watch any keeper... When a ball is squared across a box, they'll take a step with it. He didn't, and that's why he didn't get enough on it, to stop it. It's simple stuff Grandad. 

None of the insults please, sonny.

You cannot seriously expect any goalkeeper to save a shot that's low down from just over ten yards out. That shot was closer than the penalty spot. The goal is 8 yards wide. That's 24 feet wide. There's enough room for four six- foot goalkeepers to stretch out along it. Or for one goalkeeper to have twelve feet either side of him.

It didn't matter where he positioned himself Longstaff would have put the ball past him. 

Try spending some time in goal yourself and you might understand what's involved. 

[Weston Super Saint]

21 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

None of the insults please, sonny.

You cannot seriously expect any goalkeeper to save a shot that's low down from just over ten yards out. That shot was closer than the penalty spot. The goal is 8 yards wide. That's 24 feet wide. There's enough room for four six- foot goalkeepers to stretch out along it. Or for one goalkeeper to have twelve feet either side of him.

It didn't matter where he positioned himself Longstaff would have put the ball past him. 

Try spending some time in goal yourself and you might understand what's involved. 

Pedant alert, but a 6 foot goalkeeper will be more than 6 foot when 'spread out' as they will be six foot plus the length of their arms  

[FarehamSaintJames]

Bazunu is crap. Back in November I felt for him but now I just do t think he’s very good.

A good keeper might give you eight-ten points more a season.

He’s fluffed an awful lot.

[Hodgey]

Blinded by the City tag, I’d understand if we thought he’d had amazing coaching at city, but the fact is he hadn’t really been at city for 2 years spending the first at Shrewsbury then Portsmouth. Even going by the logic that in a year he’d stepped up from league 2 to league 1 successfully, championship is the next step.

let me put it this way - would we have thought a rookie Pompey owned keeper who’d had one previous year at Shrewsbury was ready for 1st team Prem ? As that is what we did.

Shocking decision in a critical area, and one that may still cost the owners millions.

I will say though that I thought he played ok against Toon (with terrible distribution), it’s the other games I’ve seen that have worried me in terms of saving goals.

 

[saintscottofthenortham]

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

None of the insults please, sonny.

You cannot seriously expect any goalkeeper to save a shot that's low down from just over ten yards out. That shot was closer than the penalty spot. The goal is 8 yards wide. That's 24 feet wide. There's enough room for four six- foot goalkeepers to stretch out along it. Or for one goalkeeper to have twelve feet either side of him.

It didn't matter where he positioned himself Longstaff would have put the ball past him. 

Try spending some time in goal yourself and you might understand what's involved. 

I was a keeper for 25 years.

[saintscottofthenortham]

The shot is relatively central to the goal, but because Baz doesn't step back left when the ball was squared, he was left with a gaping whole to his right. It's bad positioning. It's not even an opinion FFS. Don't see how anyone couldn't see that.

[Saint Garrett]

Shocking defending from Bednarek there too. 😯

[saintscottofthenortham]

3 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

Shocking defending from Bednarek there too. 😯

Hasn't made himself big has he, but the real issue is both Alcaraz and then Lyanco gifting possession away and then not tracking the runner. Lots of real simple stuff in the build up to that.

100% though, Bazunu will have his positioning pointed out in the aftermath, if he didn't know it already. Argument to be had with his view, but even if you can't see, you HAVE to take that step right to centre yourself. Becomes a fairly simple save then.