The Goalkeeper - Next Big Problem

[Skyline Drifter]

On 09/06/2023 at 23:20, velo army said:

Aye I really dont think there's any substance to the chat around Gordon taking the gloves when he comes back. He was making mistakes for Hearts before his injury and he then broke his leg in two places.

Being 40 and coming back from an injury like that to even play regular fives would be impressive enough, I don't think there's any chance he'll do anything other than retire tbh.

I didn't see an awful lot of him at Hearts but there was absolutely no evidence of him "making mistakes" in his recent internationals pre-injury and he was as good as ever in the Ukraine in the 0-0 for instance.

Gunn's done fine so far but to be honest we could have played me in goal this last three games and still conceded just the one goal. If Gordon gets back to 1st choice for Hearts and displaces Clark he'll be at least our number 2 if he wants to be and I'd expect him to be no 1 for the next year or so.

On 10/06/2023 at 00:35, Ludo*1 said:

I think Gordon still has a future with Scotland, it might be absolutely limited, but I still see him as having a chance to adding to his cap total.

Long term, Gunn is going to get the gloves unless someone completely out of the blue turns up or Scott Bain/Zander Clark/Liam Kelly etc suddenly turn into Buffon which doesn't look likely so of course he's decided he's happy to jump ship at this point.

Craig Gordon's future with Scotland if he fully recovers and is miraculously the keeper he once was is still limited to a year or two at the maximum. Gunn will rack up the appearances longer term so if he has to 'suffer' by being second choice to one of Scotland's best ever servants for a period of 5-10 games then I don't see it as a major issue either way.

Agree completely with this post, with the exception of the throwing of Scott Bain into the list. He'll have to turn into a goalkeeper first before he turns into Buffon. There must be a good dozen better Scottish keeper shouts before we go back to Celtic's 3rd choice who chucked two in his own net the last time he played.

[velo army]

2 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I didn't see an awful lot of him at Hearts but there was absolutely no evidence of him "making mistakes" in his recent internationals pre-injury and he was as good as ever in the Ukraine in the 0-0 for instance.

Gunn's done fine so far but to be honest we could have played me in goal this last three games and still conceded just the one goal. If Gordon gets back to 1st choice for Hearts and displaces Clark he'll be at least our number 2 if he wants to be and I'd expect him to be no 1 for the next year or so.

Agree completely with this post, with the exception of the throwing of Scott Bain into the list. He'll have to turn into a goalkeeper first before he turns into Buffon. There must be a good dozen better Scottish keeper shouts before we go back to Celtic's 3rd choice who chucked two in his own net the last time he played.

Aye I wasn't referring to him in internationals, but according to those who do watch Hearts games, he had looked a bit ropey.

I'd love to see him make a miracle recovery, but it needs to be understood that recovery from a broken leg takes ages, and I include the time when people who break legs come back and then suffer muscle strains. Happens all the time and according to my physio pals is to be expected. 

Gunn is our goalie going forward and is much better than Gordon right now, especially with the ball at his feet.

[Brother Blades]

9 minutes ago, velo army said:

Aye I wasn't referring to him in internationals, but according to those who do watch Hearts games, he had looked a bit ropey.

I'd love to see him make a miracle recovery, but it needs to be understood that recovery from a broken leg takes ages, and I include the time when people who break legs come back and then suffer muscle strains. Happens all the time and according to my physio pals is to be expected. 

Gunn is our goalie going forward and is much better than Gordon right now, especially with the ball at his feet.

I’d hope so! Gordon has a broken leg!

[craigkillie]

1 hour ago, velo army said:

Gunn is our goalie going forward and is much better than Gordon right now, especially with the ball at his feet.

Based on what? He has had very little to do since coming in. He has a good air of confidence about him, but that doesn't actually mean he's good.

[velo army]

14 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Based on what? He has had very little to do since coming in. He has a good air of confidence about him, but that doesn't actually mean he's good.

You and @Monkey Tennis should get married.

[craigkillie]

Having an opinion on the relative quality of a couple of players is hardly negative, positive or anything else.

[TeeMan]

Gordon is a legend but Gunn for me. He's the long term option and it makes a big difference having a keeper comfortable with the ball at his feet, especially if we want to keep progressing as a team.

[2426255]

Gunn has been good so far. To be honest, if we'd had Gordon or potentially Kelly or Clark in goals for the last 3 matches I don't think there would have been any reason to think they couldn't have done just as well as Angus Gunn. That said, I've been impressed with his long kicking - particularly to the wing backs - which we have seen a lot of against Norway and Spain and so that's something that might mark him out against the other goalkeepers, but generally the team as a whole have insulated him well.

[Monkey Tennis]

4 hours ago, velo army said:

You and @Monkey Tennis should get married.

He'd be punching.

[Gordon EF]

I've been impressed with Gunn so far but it is true that he's not really been given a stern test yet. He's definitely better with the ball at his feet than Gordon is but Craig Gordon has been immense for Scotland over the past couple of years.

You have to imagine Gordon is setting his sights on Euro 2024 as his internaitonal swansong and from a sentimental point of view, I'd love to see him playing in Germany next summer.

We're in a good position when he comes back in that we'll have two good keepers to pick from. For me, Gunn has the gloves right now and it's going to be up to Craig Gordon to win them back.

[Skyline Drifter]

Gunn's done absolutely fine. Other than one fumble at Hampden he got away with. He's genuinely not had much to do though. I said it before but if we'd played me in goal for the last 3 games we'd still only have lost the one goal, and I'm fat and 53! It doesnt make me the future of Scottish goalkeeping. 

[Monkey Tennis]

18 hours ago, Skyline Drifter said:

I said it before but if we'd played me in goal for the last 3 games we'd still only have lost the one goal, and I'm fat and 53! It doesnt make me the future of Scottish goalkeeping. 

I think our opponents might have adopted more of a shoot on sight policy, had that been the case. I think we might also have defended a bit deeper to protect you.

Sorry to say so, but I'm not that convinced we'd still have conceded just the one.

[LondonHMFC]

21 hours ago, Gordon EF said:

You have to imagine Gordon is setting his sights on Euro 2024 as his internaitonal swansong and from a sentimental point of view, I'd love to see him playing in Germany next summer.

I'm done with the whole sentimental thing after seeing Marshall at the Euros. You play the best option, and that's now Gunn.

[BFTD]

Four games in and zero goals conceded from open play. Not a bad start for Bryan Gunn's boy.

[Donathan]

That long ball up to Tierney is the sort of distribution that suggests to me that Gunn should play even if Gordon is a slightly better shot stopper (the jury is out on that bit, partially because Gunn’s had very little to do in his four caps but also because we don’t know what post leg break Gordon will look like)

 

I still think Gordon should come back into the squad as #2 but it’s all about Angus Gunn now. 

[Thumper]

The notion that anyone has the right to just fucking walk right back into this team based on what they might have done before is fucking abhorrent. Spot the people who would vote for the fucking monarchy to remain in place.

[craigkillie]

Nobody has a right to walk into the team, but the fact that Angus Gunn has been the traffic cone standing between the sticks watching us pummel everyone else in the group doesn't give him a right to keep the jersey either. We have still, astonishingly, four caps in, got zero idea how good he actually is.

[TONTROOPER]

In answer to the thread title:-   Do we have a goalkeeper problem?

None that I can see.

Goodnight.

[Thumper]

42 minutes ago, craigkillie said:

Nobody has a right to walk into the team, but the fact that Angus Gunn has been the traffic cone standing between the sticks watching us pummel everyone else in the group doesn't give him a right to keep the jersey either. We have still, astonishingly, four caps in, got zero idea how good he actually is.

Keepers are in the fairly unique position that pretty much all but the absolute best are defined exclusively by their failures. Of which he hasn't had any. And until such point as he has, wanking over the idea of a 40-something crock getting a tournament swansong in his place is inappropriate.

[craigkillie]

You don't passively wait until someone makes a mistake, you pick the best player regardless of that. Maybe Gunn is the better player, maybe Gordon is, at the moment I don't really think we have a great deal of evidence either way.