Gavin Bazunu

[Wade Garrett]

Palace alone had 3 keepers in Johnstone, Butland and Hennessy that are all much better than Bazunu.

[Lord Duckhunter]

Why did we have to buy the clown, why didn’t we just take him on loan, with the option to buy? 
 

Put it like this, 90% of the supporters would not want us taking the option had we done so imo. 

[Osvaldorama]

I feel sorry for the lad. 
 

He’s been thrown in way above his head. Could turn into a great keeper in a few years, but he has been properly hung out to dry by the club. I would be happy with him as a back up, but if we are serious about promotion we have to have someone who knows his trade IMO 

[egg]

Just now, Osvaldorama said:

I feel sorry for the lad. 
 

He’s been thrown in way above his head. Could turn into a great keeper in a few years, but he has been properly hung out to dry by the club. I would be happy with him as a back up, but if we are serious about promotion we have to have someone who knows his trade IMO 

Absolutely. He's plainly a talented lad and properly managed he could go on to have a great career. It was a sink or scenario and the poor lad sank. We must upgrade this season for our sake and his. 

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Why did we have to buy the clown, why didn’t we just take him on loan, with the option to buy? 
 

Put it like this, 90% of the supporters would not want us taking the option had we done so imo. 

Thing is he may turn into an excellent keeper with time. That time isn't now though which is why he shouldn't be our first choice. 

[Lighthouse]

23 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

I reckon he easily cost us 10 points last season with the mistakes he made. We finished 11 points behind. 

So in other words, if we had a perfect keeper, who made no mistakes, we’d still have been relegated.

[The Kraken]

2 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

I feel sorry for the lad. 
 

He’s been thrown in way above his head. Could turn into a great keeper in a few years, but he has been properly hung out to dry by the club. I would be happy with him as a back up, but if we are serious about promotion we have to have someone who knows his trade IMO 

I’ve seen very little to suggest that this is likely. Too many needless mistakes, not enough saves made, not enough command of the high ball, he just looks like a bag of nerves. The best we can hope for is him being a backup but he has an enormous amount of stepping up if he’s going to make a success of it at Championship level or above. Two absolutely painful rickets in two pre season games aren’t going to help that one little bit. It was telling that he was frozen out for a terrible McCarthy at the back end of last season.

[Saint Matty 76]

Just now, Lighthouse said:

So in other words, if we had a perfect keeper, who made no mistakes, we’d still have been relegated.

You know that isn't remotely true, what point are you trying to make?

[Saint_clark]

14 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Who cost more than Bazunu ? 
Who could we have signed ? 

He meant cost less. 

Leno went to Fulham for £4million, was excellent for them. 

Navas went to Forest on loan, we could have got him. 

Bournemouth signed Neto on a free transfer - his return for injury is what turned their season and kept them up. 

Sam Johnstone signed for Palace on a free transfer.

What was most interesting to me whilst looking at goalkeeper transfers is that there was about 15 goalkeepers aged between 19 and 22 who were signed by premier league clubs last summer...and then promptly loaned out again to gain experience. We signed a 19 year old and stuck him in as number one. 

[Bad Wolf]

11 minutes ago, Osvaldorama said:

I feel sorry for the lad. 
 

He’s been thrown in way above his head. Could turn into a great keeper in a few years, but he has been properly hung out to dry by the club. I would be happy with him as a back up, but if we are serious about promotion we have to have someone who knows his trade IMO 

This

[Sfcphilc]

For me, the goalkeeper the main position that you don't take any risks with. 

This is the one position that we should scout differently to every other. We shouldn't be looking to scout goalies with the intent to make money with future transfers (i.e young with potential). We should scout experienced goalkeepers that will stay with us for a few years, who also have good shot stopping stats at our current level or above.

This (along with many others) was a massive mistake by Sport Republic last season. Throwing a 20 year old into being a starting Premier League goalie, with no real experience above League 1 was catastrophic.

I really hope he can come good this season, but there's already been two shockers against Goztepe and Reading, which puts a lot of doubts in people's minds, and rightly so. 

 

[sfc4prem]

7 minutes ago, Sfcphilc said:

For me, the goalkeeper the main position that you don't take any risks with. 

This is the one position that we should scout differently to every other. We shouldn't be looking to scout goalies with the intent to make money with future transfers (i.e young with potential). We should scout experienced goalkeepers that will stay with us for a few years, who also have good shot stopping stats at our current level or above.

This (along with many others) was a massive mistake by Sport Republic last season. Throwing a 20 year old into being a starting Premier League goalie, with no real experience above League 1 was catastrophic.

I really hope he can come good this season, but there's already been two shockers against Goztepe and Reading, which puts a lot of doubts in people's minds, and rightly so. 

 

Wholeheartedly agree. I mean, what the actual fuck were they thinking? It's a fucking schoolboy-playing-FM error that reeks of contrived attempts to 'think outside the box'.

As you rightly say, a GK is one position where you really do need to think inside the box with your scouting. That one game Bazunu had against Ipswich when playing for Portsmouth (in League One, for crying out loud) was enough of a clue of his ineptitude.

We can't afford to piss about with him in goal.

[James]

I can't believe its even up for debate that (a) Bazunu was nowhere near PL standard last year and (b) there were PL quality goalkeepers available to us that we could have signed instead and probably for less money (most of them have been mentioned).

Whether Bazunu is good enough for a promotion chasing Championship side is yet to be seen and whether he turns out to be "quality" in the future is, again, to be seen but personally I haven't seen much to suggest we've got a top keeper in waiting. It's a concern that he's making silly errors in pre-season, let's hope he gets those out of his system before we start in the league, but we know that those types of mistakes are going to cost a team like ours points - as encouraging as yesterday was, this team had a serious issue scoring goals last year.

I hope Bazunu turns out to be good, every Saints fan does, but so far he's quite a bit worse than Angus Gunn (to compare to another keeper we paid big money for from City) and we got rid of him quickly enough....

[hypochondriac]

44 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

I clearly do.  Height of your career was City Rangers 😂😂

Looks like you could be onto something given that @Ed Rooneyseems to have scarpered. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

Things can be both. 

The defending was poor but if you want to stay up/get promoted your Goalkeeper cannot be making a howler a game which typically results in a goal. We all know it's the least forgiving position in the game.

We need an experienced goalkeeper. He is not ready.

There were no howlers yesterday. When the opposition can waltz right into the box unopposed they’re probably going to score every time.

Get a sense of reality.

[Saint Matty 76]

Just now, Whitey Grandad said:

There were no howlers yesterday. When the opposition can waltz right into the box unopposed they’re probably going to score every time.

Get a sense of reality.

Thought you'd pop up eventually!

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, egg said:

Put yourself in the position of che or any other outfield player last season knowing that whatever they did, Baz would likely mess up at the other end. It was evident last season that the defence had little confidence in Baz, and that will have spread across the pitch. The impact of a poor goalkeeper who costs goals and points is a hell of a lot more than just the goals conceded. 

Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?

[Lighthouse]

56 minutes ago, Saint Matty 76 said:

You know that isn't remotely true, what point are you trying to make?

Exactly what I said. Baz was substandard and if anyone wants to argue his mistakes cost us ten points, compared to a top level keeper, then so be it. My point is that even if you swap him for peak Niemi, we still get relegated. Therefore saying that he was the main reason we went down is nonsense.

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, Saint Matty 76 said:

Thought you'd pop up eventually!

I just cannot stand the puerile drivel that gets written on here. It’s all extreme rubbish.

I searched for the highlights expecting to see a game full of amateurish goalkeeping errors and I gave up when I go to the end.

If we win every game 4-2 this season I will be happy.

[egg]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Do you realise how ridiculous that sounds?

It really doesn't if you actually think about it and understand it Whitey. There's a thing called confidence, and shit keepers like Baz drain it from their team mates. 

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Lighthouse said:

Exactly what I said. Baz was substandard and if anyone wants to argue his mistakes cost us ten points, compared to a top level keeper, then so be it. My point is that even if you swap him for peak Niemi, we still get relegated. Therefore saying that he was the main reason we went down is nonsense.

It's not nonsense. There were loads of reasons we went down last year and Bazunu being rubbish is certainly one of them. I'm not sure I agree with someone who has the opinion that he was the main reason, but it wouldn't be entirely outlandish for someone to think that. He was certainly a big reason. 

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I just cannot stand the puerile drivel that gets written on here. It’s all extreme rubbish.

I searched for the highlights expecting to see a game full of amateurish goalkeeping errors and I gave up when I go to the end.

If we win every game 4-2 this season I will be happy.

There's nothing extreme about pointing out that making a bad error that leads to a goal once a game is below average for a first team keeper and is likely to cost us points in tighter games where we don't score 4. Statistically he was the worst keeper last year for saving shots that were saveable. Going on the evidence so far, it seems like that will continue. 

[egg]

1 minute ago, hypochondriac said:

There's nothing extreme about pointing out that making a bad error that leads to a goal once a game is below average for a first team keeper and is likely to cost us points in tighter games where we don't score 4. Statistically he was the worst keeper last year for saving shots that were saveable. Going on the evidence so far, it seems like that will continue. 

You're fighting a losing battle trying to make Whitey see reason on this issue mate. It's staggering that anyone can try to argue that Baz cost us heavily last season, has made errors pre season, and isn't the keeper we need this season. 

[SambaMaverick]

6 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I just cannot stand the puerile drivel that gets written on here. It’s all extreme rubbish.

I searched for the highlights expecting to see a game full of amateurish goalkeeping errors and I gave up when I go to the end.

If we win every game 4-2 this season I will be happy.

What did you make of Bazunu's attempt at their second goal?

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, egg said:

You're fighting a losing battle trying to make Whitey see reason on this issue mate. It's staggering that anyone can try to argue that Baz cost us heavily last season, has made errors pre season, and isn't the keeper we need this season. 

He didn’t’ cost us heavily’. That’s ridiculous.

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Saint_clark said:

I reckon he easily cost us 10 points last season with the mistakes he made. We finished 11 points behind. 

Not going to argue with the points, I really can't remember, but all keepers make mistakes, so fair chance another keeper would have cost us some points too.

You mention Navas on another post. He was fucking terrible when we played them. I know he had a couple of good games for Forest when he first joined, but overall he wasn't great. 

[egg]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He didn’t’ cost us heavily’. That’s ridiculous.

Serious question - did you watch us last season? If so, you'd have seen lots of goals that were his fault. That led to points lost. It's not complicated.

Edited 23 July, 2023 by egg

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, SambaMaverick said:

What did you make of Bazunu's attempt at their second goal?

He did well to get a hand to it. The attacker was right on top of him and had got their unopposed.he was always most likely to score. If you’re relying on your goalkeeper to save one on ones from a few feet away then you’re going to be disappointed.

[hypochondriac]

Just now, Whitey Grandad said:

He didn’t’ cost us heavily’. That’s ridiculous.

Why is that ridiculous? Statistically he was the worst goalkeeper in the league last year along with the Leeds keeper. He undoubtedly cost us goals and points due to his own goalkeeping ability and the knock-on effect that has on the players around him. I'm not sure how that can even be argued, even if you accept that it wasn't the main reason for relegation and that lots of other factors combined together to achieve it. 

[Lighthouse]

5 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

It's not nonsense. There were loads of reasons we went down last year and Bazunu being rubbish is certainly one of them. I'm not sure I agree with someone who has the opinion that he was the main reason, but it wouldn't be entirely outlandish for someone to think that. He was certainly a big reason. 

Then McCarthy came in and was even worse. Something like 17 conceded in 6 games.

Also, we lost 1-0 in the league 9 times. Does that sound like a team who’s main problem is between the sticks?

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, egg said:

Serious question - did you watch us last season? If so, you'd have seen lots of goals that were his fault. That led to points lost. It's not complicated.

I had a season ticket. I saw very, very few games where he cost us any points.

It really isn’t complicated.

[hypochondriac]

2 minutes ago, Chez said:

Not going to argue with the points, I really can't remember, but all keepers make mistakes, so fair chance another keeper would have cost us some points too.

You mention Navas on another post. He was fucking terrible when we played them. I know he had a couple of good games for Forest when he first joined, but overall he wasn't great. 

It's difficult to discuss hypothetical, but surely you would accept that getting in a more proven and skilled keeper would mor likely result in less goals conceded and more points? Using your logic, it's a bit like saying if we had signed Haaland last year, we wouldn't know for certain that he wouldn't have got us more points than Che. 

[Whitey Grandad]

1 minute ago, hypochondriac said:

Why is that ridiculous? Statistically he was the worst goalkeeper in the league last year along with the Leeds keeper. He undoubtedly cost us goals and points due to his own goalkeeping ability and the knock-on effect that has on the players around him. I'm not sure how that can even be argued, even if you accept that it wasn't the main reason for relegation and that lots of other factors combined together to achieve it. 

You’ve been looking at too many statistics. Too much soccerball.

Professional players only have their own performances to worry about. Laying on a good chance for a striker to miss is also disappointing.

We were comfortably relegated because as a team we weren’t good enough. To lay it at the feet (or hands) of a goalkeeper is pathetic.

[SambaMaverick]

2 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

Then McCarthy came in and was even worse. Something like 17 conceded in 6 games.

Also, we lost 1-0 in the league 9 times. Does that sound like a team who’s main problem is between the sticks?

And hopefully our lack of goals is going to be addressed this summer. They tried (and failed) to address it in January.

But Bazunu looks like he's going to get a free pass? I think that's the problem. The guy isn't good enough. He was dropped too late last season to actually make a difference, and McCarthy is finished in the top two leagues anyway.

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

He did well to get a hand to it. The attacker was right on top of him and had got their unopposed.he was always most likely to score. If you’re relying on your goalkeeper to save one on ones from a few feet away then you’re going to be disappointed.

What do you make of the fact that statistically he was the worst keeper last year at letting in shots that weren't in difficult areas to save? 

[egg]

4 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

I had a season ticket. I saw very, very few games where he cost us any points.

It really isn’t complicated.

It's fair to say that you watched a different game to 99% of the fans Whitey. Other people saw a keeper out of his depth who cost us goals and points. 

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, SambaMaverick said:

And hopefully our lack of goals is going to be addressed this summer. They tried (and failed) to address it in January.

But Bazunu looks like he's going to get a free pass? I think that's the problem. The guy isn't good enough. He was dropped too late last season to actually make a difference, and McCarthy is finished in the top two leagues anyway.

Six games not enough?

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, egg said:

It's fair to say that you watched a different game to 99% of the fans Whitey. Other people saw a keeper out of his depth who cost us goals and points. 

99% ?

You do realise how few people actually go out of there way to post on here?

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

You’ve been looking at too many statistics. Too much soccerball.

Professional players only have their own performances to worry about. Laying on a good chance for a striker to miss is also disappointing.

We were comfortably relegated because as a team we weren’t good enough. To lay it at the feet (or hands) of a goalkeeper is pathetic.

Please provide the evidence of one poster laying our relegation at the feet of the goalkeeper? That sounds more like extremist rubbish than anyone else has posted on this thread. Literally no one has said that. 

[Whitey Grandad]

3 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

What do you make of the fact that statistically he was the worst keeper last year at letting in shots that weren't in difficult areas to save? 

There’s that word again. It is meaningless tosh.

When the attackers are allowed to waltz into our penalty area and choose their spot they are always most likely to score. Whoever plays in goal, as was shown when McCarthy was chosen. That goal he let in against Bournemouth was woeful.

[SambaMaverick]

1 minute ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Six games not enough?

McCarthy's first game in nets was essentially a must-win against Bournemouth. A complete hail mary from Selles.

McCarthy wasn't good enough anyway, we can see that with hindsight. Injury hasn't helped him in the last 12 months.

But why wasn't another goalkeeper signed in Jan when we were chucking cash at the problems?

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

Please provide the evidence of one poster laying our relegation at the feet of the goalkeeper? That sounds more like extremist rubbish than anyone else has posted on this thread. Literally no one has said that. 

But that has been said many times???

[Whitey Grandad]

Just now, SambaMaverick said:

McCarthy's first game in nets was essentially a must-win against Bournemouth. A complete hail mary from Selles.

McCarthy wasn't good enough anyway, we can see that with hindsight. Injury hasn't helped him in the last 12 months.

But why wasn't another goalkeeper signed in Jan when we were chucking cash at the problems?

At last! The real question.

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

99% ?

You do realise how few people actually go out of there way to post on here?

So your view is that it's only on here that people think he's not good enough currently to be our number one starting keeper and that his failures last year contributed to our relegation? Because that's the view of pretty much every saints fan I have spoken to. 

[hypochondriac]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

There’s that word again. It is meaningless tosh.

When the attackers are allowed to waltz into our penalty area and choose their spot they are always most likely to score. Whoever plays in goal, as was shown when McCarthy was chosen. That goal he let in against Bournemouth was woeful.

McCarthy is a terrible goalkeeper, I'm not sure you will find anyone who would argue otherwise. Are you suggesting that it was an irrelevance who we had in goal last year? That if we had Ederson we wouldn't have conceded less and gained more points as a result? 

[Saint_clark]

3 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Please provide the evidence of one poster laying our relegation at the feet of the goalkeeper? That sounds more like extremist rubbish than anyone else has posted on this thread. Literally no one has said that. 

He's probably referring to me. I've never said that our relegation is entirely down to him. What I have said many times is that if we could go back and change one single thing about our season to give us the best chance of staying up, I believe signing a more experienced keeper instead of Bazunu would give us that chance. 

I also believe had McCarthy played all season we would have stayed up, as we did with him as first choice previously. He was chucked in way too late, massively lacking match sharpness and bereft of confidence from having to watch Bazunu flap at the ball every week, dive out the way of shots and throw the ball in his own net and still get picked ahead of him. 

[egg]

3 minutes ago, Whitey Grandad said:

At last! The real question.

So is your point that Baz was good enough, or that we should have signed an upgrade in January? You surely can't be arguing both?!

[sledger]

a confident keeper will run and give confidence to his defenders,sadly a nervy back line will be nervous wrecks with bazuno behind them.Ive said this before and its plainly obvious that his positioning is often wrong and physically he is just to small and this will be shown up big time in this league

[egg]

Just now, sledger said:

a confident keeper will run and give confidence to his defenders,sadly a nervy back line will be nervous wrecks with bazuno behind them.Ive said this before and its plainly obvious that his positioning is often wrong and physically he is just to small and this will be shown up big time in this league

Exactly, bur Whitey will pop up in a moment to tell you how ridiculous your excellent point sounded to him. 

[hypochondriac]

Just now, Saint_clark said:

He's probably referring to me. I've never said that our relegation is entirely down to him. What I have said many times is that if we could go back and change one single thing about our season to give us the best chance of staying up, I believe signing a more experienced keeper instead of Bazunu would give us that chance. 

I also believe had McCarthy played all season we would have stayed up, as we did with him as first choice previously. He was chucked in way too late, massively lacking match sharpness and bereft of confidence from having to watch Bazunu flap at the ball every week, dive out the way of shots and throw the ball in his own net and still get picked ahead of him. 

Personally I think that's a reasonable opinion to have. I don't necessarily agree with you (particularly the bit about McCarthy) but it's not a mad opinion to hold by any means.