Gavin Bazunu

[Harry_SFC]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Any mentions of his save at 1-1 to get us that point? It was excellent. I think he's having a good run with us at the moment, certainly improving in my eyes and one of the key reasons (arguably the only reason) we're unbeaten in 13.

He is a more than decent keeper when the ball isn't low down to his left...

[Whitey Grandad]

9 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

He is a more than decent keeper when the ball isn't low down to his left...

When his view is blocked he leans to the right which puts his weight on the wrong leg. He can be coached out of it but that doesn’t help us right now.

[Saint Troy]

8 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

When his view is blocked he leans to the right which puts his weight on the wrong leg. He can be coached out of it but that doesn’t help us right now.

Genuine question - what is he supposed to do when unsighted? I assume he leans one way to try and get a view of the ball (which seems sensible). If he leans left it’s the same problem to the right, if he stays unsighted he’s unsighted so that’s not great either (but is that technically what he’s supposed to do)?

[Whitey Grandad]

1 hour ago, Saint Troy said:

Genuine question - what is he supposed to do when unsighted? I assume he leans one way to try and get a view of the ball (which seems sensible). If he leans left it’s the same problem to the right, if he stays unsighted he’s unsighted so that’s not great either (but is that technically what he’s supposed to do)?

It’s something that needs to be sorted out with the defenders in front of him. If they can block his view they can also block the shot. 

Maybe instead of leaning he should shuffle across slightly?

[Saint Troy]

3 hours ago, Whitey Grandad said:

It’s something that needs to be sorted out with the defenders in front of him. If they can block his view they can also block the shot. 

Maybe instead of leaning he should shuffle across slightly?

Interesting, the shuffle may be better,  will watch out for this a bit more and see how others deal with it

[Weston Super Saint]

6 hours ago, Saint Troy said:

Genuine question - what is he supposed to do when unsighted? I assume he leans one way to try and get a view of the ball (which seems sensible). If he leans left it’s the same problem to the right, if he stays unsighted he’s unsighted so that’s not great either (but is that technically what he’s supposed to do)?

Shout at Bednarek who's in his fucking way, again!

[St. Ciervo]

Are Baz haters still talking about THAT goal? He should have absolutely stopped that final shot. However, we shouldn't have even been in a position to win the game; he kept us in it. You may say he lost us 2 points, but I'd say he earned us 1 pt. I'd repeat that again for the mid-week game.

There is a lot of other players for haters to move onto. If Baz had taken that throw-in like Alcaraz, I'd be reading entire spreadsheets about how he is subpar in whatever  category. 

[Saint_clark]

6 hours ago, St. Ciervo said:

Are Baz haters still talking about THAT goal? He should have absolutely stopped that final shot. However, we shouldn't have even been in a position to win the game; he kept us in it. You may say he lost us 2 points, but I'd say he earned us 1 pt. I'd repeat that again for the mid-week game.

There is a lot of other players for haters to move onto. If Baz had taken that throw-in like Alcaraz, I'd be reading entire spreadsheets about how he is subpar in whatever  category. 

And if any outfield player had consistently made mistakes to the extent Bazunu has in his time here, we wouldn't even be discussing this because they'd no longer be in the team.

[The Cat]

13 minutes ago, Saint_clark said:

And if any outfield player had consistently made mistakes to the extent Bazunu has in his time here, we wouldn't even be discussing this because they'd no longer be in the team.

Outfield players make loads of mistakes every game. Poor passes, shots ballooned over the bar, bad runs, wrong positioning. 

Goalkeepers make very few in comparison but they always magnified and analysed far more.

Goalkeeper lets a soft one in, meltdown. A striker misses a good chance, oh, he should have done better. If that game turns out to a draw then both of them have equally contributed to us not winning.

[Lighthouse]

8 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

And if any outfield player had consistently made mistakes to the extent Bazunu has in his time here, we wouldn't even be discussing this because they'd no longer be in the team.

AA made more mistakes against Cardiff, a game in which he scored twice and was MotM, than Bazunu has all season. You're going to need a new, irrational argument.

[Weston Super Saint]

37 minutes ago, Lighthouse said:

AA made more mistakes against Cardiff, a game in which he scored twice and was MotM, than Bazunu has all season. You're going to need a new, irrational argument.

I'm sure there's an X? stat for it, but if you have 30 interactions during a game and screw up 5 of them, you will be more effective than someone who has 10 interactions and screws up 3 of them.

In most teams (that don't insist on passing the ball backwards constantly) the keeper has less interactions than outfield players, who are generally under more pressure on the ball.

[Bakovnetski]

9 hours ago, Saint_clark said:

And if any outfield player had consistently made mistakes to the extent Bazunu has in his time here, we wouldn't even be discussing this because they'd no longer be in the team.

Manning?

[Tommy Mulgrew]

But, in our team, Bazunu has almost as many touches as Bednarek, who is consistently among the most frequent touchers of the ball we have.  No jokes please.

[FarehamSaintJames]

What’s Fraser Forster up to nowadays? 😅

[Lighthouse]

57 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

What’s Fraser Forster up to nowadays? 😅

I believe he’s still diving down towards Jesse Lingard’s shot in the League Cup final.

[Saint_clark]

1 hour ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

What’s Fraser Forster up to nowadays? 😅

Back up keeper for the team 5th in the premier league, 18 places above us. 

[Harry_SFC]

I just read on twitter that Bazunu had a 100% pass accuracy today. Can anyone verify this? If so that can't happen very often from a goalkeeper.. 

[S-Clarke]

45 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I just read on twitter that Bazunu had a 100% pass accuracy today. Can anyone verify this? If so that can't happen very often from a goalkeeper.. 

I'd expect that to be true, he doesn't seem to give it away when he has it. His on the ball work is as good as I've seen from a goalkeeper for us, very Ederson-esque. 

Still genuine aspects he has to improve in, but I'm really pleased to see him on the run he's on at the moment. It's going to do him the world of good after what was a pretty chastening experience last year. He's got all the attributes scouts would look for in a young keeper though.

[FarehamSaintJames]

Four shots at his goal yesterday, all on target, all good saves, none of them were pea-rollers by any means. 👏🏻

[Sheaf Saint]

7 minutes ago, FarehamSaintJames said:

Four shots at his goal yesterday, all on target, all good saves, none of them were pea-rollers by any means. 👏🏻

You could argue he was a bit lucky that his failure to hold the shot from the free kick didn't present a clear chance to the onrushing attacker, but he recovered well and got away with it. Overall a good game though.

[sfc4prem]

6 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

You could argue he was a bit lucky that his failure to hold the shot from the free kick didn't present a clear chance to the onrushing attacker, but he recovered well and got away with it. Overall a good game though.

I mean, that was a free kick with a fair bit of venom. Fair play to him for anticipating the power behind it and being quick to pounce after saving the initial shot.

[Suhari]

Another clean sheet today.

He's coming good.

[Lighthouse]

10 conceded in the last 16 games (only Leicester are slightly better with 9 in the same period) and only 2 in the last 7. Not bad for the worst keeper in the league.

[Saint_clark]

Did well to keep out Swanseas one shot on target. 

 

On a serious note the small bits I saw he looked very good, much more commanding in the box than he has been previously. He's slowly turning into the kind of experienced, composed keeper we should have signed start of last season. 

[Barsiem]

It's the whole defence tbf.  In much the same way when we were conceding a bucket load that wasn't all his fault, now we are defensively solid it's not all down to him, but long may this state continue!

[Andrew Watson]

We will do well to keep hold of him,if we do not go up this season or next. Hopefully we do go up and that situation does not come into play.

[Turkish]

4 hours ago, Suhari said:

Another clean sheet today.

He's coming good.

He didn’t have much to do though. He is improving but he’s also playing behind a decent, organised defence. Harwood-Bellis is a superb player. He’s going to have a big future

[Galway saint]

9 hours ago, Andrew Watson said:

We will do well to keep hold of him,if we do not go up this season or next. Hopefully we do go up and that situation does not come into play.

it would be churlish to say he’s not improving( but that’s from a pretty low base last season)  but overall the defence is much better. it’s incomparable to those games at sunderland and middlesbrough and so he’s doesn’t have a great deal to do comparatively.

he still has that technical deficiency down to his left hand side and before we anyone gets concerned about his leaving he needs to sort that out. if we don’t go up i’d be far more concerned about replacing downes and THB than the keeper. you look at the guy at rotherham and see what you can pick up for say 5 or 6 million. 

personally if we ever get an offer for more than we paid we will have done well but he certainly seems a more confident presence but so he should as we’ve not lost for 16 games.

 

[Lighthouse]

For all the arguments that it's mainly the defence that's improving, not Baz making saves; hang on, a few months ago it was his fault for not communicating with the defence and shouting loudly enough at the 'son-in-laws' etc. The best saves are the ones you don't have to make and if his calmness, control, communication and distribution are a huge part of that. If Baz never has to face another shot on target for the rest of the season then it'll be largely because of his own excellent goalkeeping.

[IFHP]

It’s no coincidence that Bazunu has got better in line with a settled CB pairing in front of him .

Both Bennarek and Harwood-Bellis have been excellent and probably one of the best CB paring in the league . 
 

Bazunu though is excellent on the ball and he passes out with such confidence. 

[The Cat]

Last season would have been incredibly difficult for such a young keeper, adjusting to a new team in the hardest league in the world all the while behind a clusterfuck of a defence. 

If he'd had the wrong temperament it could have broken him, but he's kept his head together and focused on his game. Ever since Russell Martin's passionate defence of him at the fans forum he's become more confident and grown as a player.

It was quite obvious that we bought an extremely good young keeper with huge potential. People talk about technical deficiencies like no other goalkeeper has them but pretty much all of them have one somewhere.

Begovic also has a problem with diving left but that hasn't stopped him having a long top flight career. De Gea couldn't deal with crosses when Man Utd bought him but he went on to win pretty much every trophy there is.

Bazunu is also integral to the way we build from the back, I'm not sure there's another keeper in the league who could do that so well, and not many in the league above either.

Edited 27 December, 2023 by The Cat

[Lord Duckhunter]

Defo improving, he hasn’t cost us points since Watford 3 games ago. 

[Dman]

7 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

Defo improving, he hasn’t cost us points since Watford 3 games ago. 

He's not the finished article and not a brilliant goal keeper - never will be imo. 

However, he's a massive part in us being able to play out from the back. He is brilliant with the ball at his feet and so comfortable under pressure. 

He's also commanding his box a lot more. Taking a load more crosses into the box. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

10 minutes ago, Dman said:

He's not the finished article and not a brilliant goal keeper - never will be imo. 

However, he's a massive part in us being able to play out from the back. He is brilliant with the ball at his feet and so comfortable under pressure. 

He's also commanding his box a lot more. Taking a load more crosses into the box. 

Yeah, he does contribute to our passing game , and is getting better (he couldn’t get much worse).  But personally, I’d like a larger run of games without letting soft ones in before I start worrying whether we’ll keep hold of him.
 

[St. Ciervo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah... You don't like him. We have heard your insufferable opinion plenty over the past 34 pages, Eeyore.

He has been playing top-quality football for the better part of the season, and all I hear is, "Last year...blah blah blah." Last year was a wreck from the goal box to the owner's box. The fact that his confidence is in tact speaks for how strong this kid is mentally. And, my god, he is getting better by the day. Get off his back and go be miserable elsewhere. Try to enjoy our run while it lasts, even if that is against your nature.

 

Edited 28 December, 2023 by St. Ciervo

[Whitey Grandad]

14 minutes ago, St. Ciervo said:

Yeah, yeah, yeah... You don't like him. We have heard your insufferable opinion plenty over the past 34 pages, Eeyore.

He has been playing top-quality football for the better part of the season, and all I hear is, "Last year...blah blah blah." Last year was a wreck from the goal box to the owner's box. The fact that his confidence is in tact speaks for how strong this kid is mentally. And, my god, he is getting better by the day. Get off his back and go be miserable elsewhere. Try to enjoy our run while it lasts, even if that is against your nature.

 

“Past performance is no guarantee of future performance”

[sambosa75]

This useless cunt needs to be a million miles away from the first team.

[trousers]

[Block41 Saint]

Add that one to the list of howlers since he's joined. He's improved but for the money, he's still a bang average Championship keeper. 

[Colinjb]

That was stupid of him tonight. But he wasn't alone in making daft errors (Shay.....) 

It didn't effect the result, it must not be something used to beat him with in the context of his clear and evident improvement. 

[stknowle]

9 minutes ago, sambosa75 said:

This useless cunt needs to be a million miles away from the first team.

Bit harsh but you do have to worry he might seriously cost us with one of these fuck ups.

[sfc4prem]

Brain fart, move on. Even Allison has made similar gaffs. It happens.

[Cabrone]

Everyone is talking about a decent goalscorer but i'd be shopping for a better keeper too. 

It's such an important position and his brain farts may cost us badly in the crunch games as we get to the sharp end of the season.

[Ivan Katalinic's 'tache]

It’ll happen with the way we play. It’s high risk stuff at times from Baz, Bednarek and THB right in front of the goal inviting forwards to press and then moving it on just as they arrive. We do need to learn when to punt it on occasion IMO and it meant unnecessary pressure at the end of the game but it’s clearly something we’ll keep doing.

[trousers]

Wasn't a great back pass from Stephens in the first place IMO - It wasn't along the ground, which gave Bazunu something extra to worry about, and there were also other options than passing back to a keeper who had the opposition breathing down his throat, especially given we were already in injury time. 

Edited 29 December, 2023 by trousers

[SambaMaverick]

Shit happens

[sambosa75]

20 minutes ago, stknowle said:

Bit harsh but you do have to worry he might seriously cost us with one of these fuck ups.

It’s a matter of time before he does.  His feet are meant to be his strong point but that was diabolical.

[Holmes_and_Watson]

We like to create as much space as possible, so let as many come onto Baz as we think we can reasonably dal with. There's been a few recently where he's reacted really quickly to make those passes back look effortless. Tonight we had lost a bit of our midfield structure and the dropping back wasn;t our only option. Oddly, he also did kick it to an opponent a minute before their goal too, for the purposes of balance.

We looked to have a defender who had taken a knock. In the couple of passes leading up to it, he wasn;t keen on receiving the ball. The pass back to Baz missed him out, rahter than going to him. Baz got a bit caught seeing a player, figuring out if it was a viable pass, deciding it wasn;t and by the time all that was going on, it was too late.

We know there's going to be the odd one like that. But it is an odd one of late,  didn't cost us (and had it there would be comments on our finishing at the other end) and he was fine in everything else.

[The Kraken]

2 minutes ago, SambaMaverick said:

Shit happens too often

Yep

[SambaMaverick]

2 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Yep

First time something similar has happened this season by my count?

Granted there was the Watford fuck up, but there are far worse keepers in this league.