Brezovan - shocking

[backson]

Does anyone REALLY think Ankegren would have done much better against those 7ft freaks?

 

[Peterrhodes]

Though he pulled himself together a bit second half as did the rest of the team. Seems a bit unfair to blame him as we were playing a prem team and put out a weakened team.

 

[westy]

dreadful. Just dreadful.

 

[mreprice]

He was not helped by the decision not to put players on the post. He will do for me.

I agree. It would have been a close game if we put players on the post.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Well, the commentators laid into him as well. But I still struggle to see what he could have done to cope with the first goal, a defender getting his head on the ball would have helped.

The second, header at point-blank range, again I'd rather single out the defence than an exposed goalie. The third, defence again, and no-one on the post is strange.

At the end of the day, this is what Stoke do, and they're damn good at it. Recriminations won't help our season.

 

[kevo]

He had a poor game - and yes Ankergren would have coped better. Don't like the targettng tho - he's done OK for us in the past. Perhaps you have to question Gus's decision to play him, Elphick and Batti against a Premiership side. To have stood any chance, we surely had to play our strongest team?

 

[Jesus Gul]

Brez is a very good shot stopper but lacked confidence yesterday...and to make things worse the BBC reporter is calling him Czech and not Slovak...

 

[mona]

Not really, as I think the onslaught of long balls, and crosses into the box would have been Caspers worst nightmare.

Agreed. Ankergren has usually struggled against crosses this season. What makes people think he'd have coped successfully against Stoke?

 

[Finchley Seagull]

I agree that Brezovan had a poor game yesterday, although personally I would only blame him for the 1st goal. However, I remember watching Stoke vs Sunderland in the pub before the Bristol Rovers game a couple of weeks ago and Craig Gordon, Britain's most expensive goalkeeper, struggled badly under Stoke's aerial bombardment so how exactly did people expect a league one reserve keeper to manage?

 

[OzMike]

After the first 2 goals there was no going back and yes he cost us the game and YES I did see it.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Not really, as I think the onslaught of long balls, and crosses into the box would have been Caspers worst nightmare.

Agree completely. It's all too easy (and lazy) to blame Brezovan for the goals. Greer left him totally exposed for the 2nd goal. We knew that Stoke are specialists at set pieces and if we had placed players at the posts then that would have given their players free headers.
The difference in the class of divisions showed yesterday. Better teams than us have struggled at the Britannia to deal with it.

 

[Bwian]

He was not helped by the decision not to put players on the post. He will do for me.

I've been saying that for weeks-still, the important part of our season begins now and we came away from this game with no key player getting injured.

 

[WATFORD zero]

Yeah, shocking - You would never see a premier level keeper have those sort of problems with crosses and long throws at the Britannia

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

Interesting perspective from Gus in The Times ( and probably other papers):

John Carew, Jonathan Walters and Ryan Shawcross all gratefully received the gifts that came their way wrapped as prettily as a piece of Brighton Rock as the visitors’ defence crumbled under an aerial bombardment they could do little about. After the second goal had flashed by him after 22 minutes, goalkeeper Peter Brezovan, the 6ft 6in Slovakian, retreated behind his line and into his net as though he wanted it to transport him back down to the south coast.

“Heurelho Gomes was in tears here once,” Gus Poyet said afterwards, referring to the time he came here as assistant manager with Tottenham. “You get kicked, punched, all within the rules of the game. Try putting a pair of gloves on and trying it yourself. Once I saw the team sheet I knew it was going to be difficult and they were better than us physically and technically. The players are in the dressing room talking about the game. They know now what the Premier League standard is like.”

 

[ATFC Seagull]

2 extremes on this this thread - needs calming down a bit!

Is Brezovan rubbish and needs to be got rid of? No.
Did Brezovan make mistakes that gave Stoke a 2-0 headstart today? Yes.

Edit - by today, I of course mean yesterday.

 

[WATFORD zero]

With hindsight, there was a good chance from the very beginning that one of our keeper's confidence was likely to take a knock yesterday. Since Brezovan is our cup keeper, he was in the firing line, but it does mean that Ankergen should be full of confidence for Plymouth.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

He should have been better able to deal with the long balls, but we've all seen what happened to Craig Gordon at the Britannia a couple of weeks ago.

I would rather applaud Stoke for being so good from set pieces, than criticise Brezovan for being exposed. He could have done better, and should have, but how often do you have to face that sort of specialised attack? It's not fair to judge him on that one match, especially when Ankergren would have been no better, as a lot of people have said.