The Famous Aberdeen - Season 2022/23

[lubo_blaha]

If there’s any St Mirren player we should be going for it’s Connor Ronan.

[Thenorthernlight]

1 hour ago, kingjoey said:

Alnwick can f*ck right off. What a shocking goal for a keeper to lose.

His kicking looks straight out of the Langfield coaching manual.

The hurried left foot kick, with the outside of the foot, but sliced wildly. 

[Rodhull]

5 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

If there’s any St Mirren player we should be going for it’s Connor Ronan.

Problem is he's a Wolves player so presumably that would make the fee/wages a fair bit higher.  

[A96]

14 hours ago, Game of throw-ins said:

I have a really positive view of Joe Lewis as an individual, and as a goalkeeper he was brilliant for us for several seasons.

But before he came to us he'd had problems with serious, career-threatening collapses in confidence and form.  A GK with an England cap, even if somewhat fortuitously gained, doesn't end up at Pittodrie unless stuff has gone wrong.  We gave him a chance to rebuild his career.

He took it with both hands and was arguably the best keeper in the league for a few seasons.   The form he showed could easily have got him a move to a bigger club on bigger money.  When he signed a contract extension with us he was honest enough to say in at least one interview that he as grateful to us for giving him a chance to get his career back, but he also made it clear that part of his motive for staying here was fear that moving to another club could start up the old problems again.  Aberdeen was a comfort blanket for him.

All was absolutely fine until last season, when he made several terrible mistakes that cost goals and matches.  There were games we were controlling before a Lewis howler turned things round and we were well beaten.  I saw someone refer to it (maybe here?) as the goalkeeping equivalent of the yips, which I thought hit the nail on the head.

That would be ok if he'd bounced back this season, but he hasn't.  He's had some decent games but he regularly looks capable of costing us goals.  The worry is that the old Joe isn't coming back.  The player himself may feel that he has a better chance of regaining form with a clean slate.

It's a bloody shame, he was one of my favourite players for most of his time at Pittodrie.  But if I were in Jim Goodwin's shoes I wouldn't be gambling my career on Lewis getting back to the form of a couple of years ago.  It's just too big a risk.

 

Pretty much agree with most of that. 

Fair to say also that the defence this season has far too often given little protection to the keeper. Lewis May feel hard done by getting the blame when his teammates are at least partly culpable as well. 

And if it’s Alnwick we’re after then, seeing as Goodwin knows him personally and his goalkeeping ability ,  I’m quite happy to trust Goodwin’s judgement,  more than those who are basing their view solely on his performance yesterday.

[Squonk]

15 hours ago, Game of throw-ins said:

A GK with an England cap, even if somewhat fortuitously gained, doesn't end up at Pittodrie unless stuff has gone wrong. 

Excuse my ignorance, but when did Joe Lewis gain an England cap and in what way was it fortuitous? Genuine question as I can only find reference to honours up to Under 21 level, unless that's what you're referring to.

[Dons_1988]

1 hour ago, Squonk said:

Excuse my ignorance, but when did Joe Lewis gain an England cap and in what way was it fortuitous? Genuine question as I can only find reference to honours up to Under 21 level, unless that's what you're referring to.

Don’t think he was capped, got called up to the squad though. 

[lubo_blaha]

I have a really positive view of Joe Lewis as an individual, and as a goalkeeper he was brilliant for us for several seasons.
But before he came to us he'd had problems with serious, career-threatening collapses in confidence and form.  A GK with an England cap, even if somewhat fortuitously gained, doesn't end up at Pittodrie unless stuff has gone wrong.  We gave him a chance to rebuild his career.
He took it with both hands and was arguably the best keeper in the league for a few seasons.   The form he showed could easily have got him a move to a bigger club on bigger money.  When he signed a contract extension with us he was honest enough to say in at least one interview that he as grateful to us for giving him a chance to get his career back, but he also made it clear that part of his motive for staying here was fear that moving to another club could start up the old problems again.  Aberdeen was a comfort blanket for him.
All was absolutely fine until last season, when he made several terrible mistakes that cost goals and matches.  There were games we were controlling before a Lewis howler turned things round and we were well beaten.  I saw someone refer to it (maybe here?) as the goalkeeping equivalent of the yips, which I thought hit the nail on the head.
That would be ok if he'd bounced back this season, but he hasn't.  He's had some decent games but he regularly looks capable of costing us goals.  The worry is that the old Joe isn't coming back.  The player himself may feel that he has a better chance of regaining form with a clean slate.
It's a bloody shame, he was one of my favourite players for most of his time at Pittodrie.  But if I were in Jim Goodwin's shoes I wouldn't be gambling my career on Lewis getting back to the form of a couple of years ago.  It's just too big a risk.
 

Lewis has always thrived with a solid defence in front of him. Even last season we were decent defensively with Hoban, Taylor and Considine playing almost every week.

This season we’ve been as poor defensively as we have been for a decade. The back four has changed regularly with Considine injured, Bates and Gallagher failing to impress and the full back positions being occupied by inexperienced teenagers or out of position midfielders. Lewis hasn’t been great but the chopping and changing definitely hasn’t helped and there have been times when the defence have hung him out to dry.

[kingjoey]

No idea why people are attempting to re-write reality with Joe Lewis. He has made mistakes, of course he has with a very few absolute howlers, but so have Craig Gordon and Alan McGregor. He has been, and is, our best keeper in absolutely ages and if we bring in Alnwick or Clark it’s a downgrade. The only way I’d understand us getting rid of him is if he is desperate to leave, and he may be, who knows. Nobody on here that’s for sure.

[Game of throw-ins]

3 hours ago, kingjoey said:

No idea why people are attempting to re-write reality with Joe Lewis. He has made mistakes, of course he has with a very few absolute howlers, but so have Craig Gordon and Alan McGregor. He has been, and is, our best keeper in absolutely ages and if we bring in Alnwick or Clark it’s a downgrade. The only way I’d understand us getting rid of him is if he is desperate to leave, and he may be, who knows. Nobody on here that’s for sure.

It's a judgement.  When do the isolated mistakes that even good goalkeepers make tip over into evidence of a loss of form and confidence?  You'd look at the frequency of mistake, how bad they were, and body language indicating lack of confidence.  You'd look at whether there was evidence that making past mistakes had sapped confidence and increased the propensity to make more. 

People are not re-writing reality, most of us are just looking at the evidence and making a different judgement than you are.

Despite being comfortably our top earner Lewis has been dropped.  Probably only Woods's abysmal performances have let him back in.

There's evidence that both Glass and Goodwin are looking for replacements and strong rumours that Lewis wants away.

That's an awful lot of smoke for there not to be any fire.

 

On 13/03/2022 at 12:12, Dons_1988 said:

Don’t think he was capped, got called up to the squad though. 

Yes, I wasn't making the distinction between being called up and getting a cap. If I remember rightly he was called up owing to an injury to someone else, which is why it was arguably fortuitous.

[big al]

1 hour ago, Game of throw-ins said:

It's a judgement.  When do the isolated mistakes that even good goalkeepers make tip over into evidence of a loss of form and confidence?  You'd look at the frequency of mistake, how bad they were, and body language indicating lack of confidence.  You'd look at whether there was evidence that making past mistakes had sapped confidence and increased the propensity to make more. 

People are not re-writing reality, most of us are just looking at the evidence and making a different judgement than you are.

Despite being comfortably our top earner Lewis has been dropped.  Probably only Woods's abysmal performances have let him back in.

There's evidence that both Glass and Goodwin are looking for replacements and strong rumours that Lewis wants away.

That's an awful lot of smoke for there not to be any fire.

 

Yes, I wasn't making the distinction between being called up and getting a cap. If I remember rightly he was called up owing to an injury to someone else, which is why it was arguably fortuitous.

Joe Lewis is comfortably the top earner at the Dons?

[Game of throw-ins]

30 minutes ago, big al said:

Joe Lewis is comfortably the top earner at the Dons?

He certainly was the last time I saw a list.  That was probably a year or two ago.  Maybe somebody has come in on more since, struggling to think who though.

Edit:  according to the salary sport website Ramirez and Gallagher are now on more.  The last list I saw Lewis was way out in front.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Game of throw-ins

[RandomGuy.]

19 minutes ago, Game of throw-ins said:

according to the salary sport website Ramirez and Gallagher are now on more.  The last list I saw Lewis was way out in front.

That website puts out a load of bollocks, fwiw.

[Game of throw-ins]

33 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

That website puts out a load of bollocks, fwiw.

Yeah I'm not doubting it.

[kingjoey]

14 minutes ago, Game of throw-ins said:

Yeah I'm not doubting it.

You are really.

[big al]

Don’t know who gets what, but amazed if Lewis gets more than Ramirez

[betting competition]

8 hours ago, kingjoey said:

No idea why people are attempting to re-write reality with Joe Lewis. He has made mistakes, of course he has with a very few absolute howlers, but so have Craig Gordon and Alan McGregor. He has been, and is, our best keeper in absolutely ages and if we bring in Alnwick or Clark it’s a downgrade. The only way I’d understand us getting rid of him is if he is desperate to leave, and he may be, who knows. Nobody on here that’s for sure.

Interesting stat

 

[kingjoey]

11 minutes ago, betting competition said:

Interesting stat

 

That says a lot more about our defence than anything else. The number of goals given away by the defence with little or no blame to Joe Lewis are numerous this season.

[DrewDon]

2 hours ago, betting competition said:

Interesting stat

 

Others who are more au fait with football statistics might be better placed here, but I think a big flaw with "save percentage" is that it doesn't take into account the quality of the chances (and/or the quality of the attempt, perhaps). For example, it is possible that a goalkeeper with a poorer save percentage could be facing a relatively small number of low-quality chances, but a comparatively high number of high-quality chances. 

Saying that, I think I did see something a few weeks ago showing that Lewis is conceding more than would typically be expected this season against the quality of chances that we are giving up. If Glass and Goodwin both like to look at data to inform their decisions, it might go some way to explaining why both have seemingly been looking to replace him, or at least bring in somebody capable of taking over from him in the medium term if he is incapable of reversing that trend.

Edited March 14, 2022 by DrewDon

[RandomGuy.]

 

"Prevented goals" is just the goals they've conceded compared to what the "average" keeper has conceded based on the xG they've faced. So Lewis has conceded ~3 more goals than you'd expect an average keeper to have done this season.

Only Liam Kelly (?!), the shite County keeper and Legzdins rank worse in that category of keepers with 800+ mins, but I couldn't fit them on the screen.

Obviously all stats need an eye test to get the full picture, but if Lewis is looking shaky and conceded soft goals, and data is also showing hes costing you goals, then it would be hard to argue its worth sticking with him considering his age.

[Frank Grimes]