Mr Burns
New member
Before you all jump on the Kuipers band wagon hear me out.
Yes, he makes great saves, yes he has probably won us points, but I think he is the one of the worst players to wear an Albion shirt at the moment and judging on here the most overrated.
As a person I have to admit I dislike the man. It doesn't cloud what I think of him as a player, but I've always found him extremely arrogant, and very much a "me me me" type of man. Anyone who's ever seen him play in the reserves, will no doubt have heard him telling anyone who listens that he should be in the first team, which is totally disrepectful to the number one keepers at the time.
But the fact is, every Albion manager has preferred someone else to him. Even this season the fact when they give out the shirt numbers, and the number one jersey has been unused, suggest Wilkins feels the same, and Kuipers is only there because we failed to sign someone else. When the retained list comes out , I really hope he's released, but I fear he'll have an appearance clause and get another contract. I think Wilkins' comments after the FOrest game sums up what he thinks of him, when asked about his MOM performance, all Wilkins said was "Thats what he's there for, thats his job" and the Arsegas even said "Wilkins jokinly" said it, but WIlkins meant what he said. I think a lot can be said about the fact whenever he's not first choice, and has wanted to leave, no one came in for him except Boston United, and look where they are now! Wilkins loves to heap praise on indivual players, and the fact he never does on Kuipers speaks volumes.
There is no doubt that Kuipers is a great shot stopper, and he's proved that again this year. But how many of these shots would have been avoided with another keeper in goal?
David Seaman was a perfect example of a goalkeeper, who rarely made spectacular saves, but was a rock behind the defence. Kuipers I feel is the opposite, make specatcular saves, yet scares the shit out of his defenders with the rest of his game.
The main reason I feel Kuipers shouldn't be near our team is because of his kicking. Many will shout "I don't give a f*** if he can't kick", but its a major part of a keepers game. Today the 3rd Port Vale goal was down to him, pure and simple. He f*** up his umpeth kick and got caught of this line and the rest is history. If you get a video of todays game, and I'm sure Wilkins will, and look at the amount of pressure the defence was placed under today, due to his poor kicking, and look at this over the season, I think his kicking as costs us far more points than his saves have earnt us. I don't mean directly like todays 3rd, but indirectly his kicking costs us plenty of goals.
Take the Vale keeper, his kicking was excellent today, yet Kuipers on one of the smallest pitches in the league and the wind up his arse in the second half, failed to get the ball over the halfway line on more than one occasion. When he did catch it right, the ball sailed striaght into the Vale's keepers hands (Although he did make a meal of one of them). Yet the Vales keepers kicks, when long went to the sides of the area and keep us under pressure.
For a professional keeper to kick so poorly is just not acceptable. His whole body shape is embarrasinly poor, he turns 90 degrees when he releases the ball, he is almost getting tangled up in himself, and this is why he slices it all the time. Even when he get distance on it, he slices it, and there is no way the keeper coach would tell him to kick it like that.
I know this is a huge rant for what most will see a trival thing, but Kuipers has got to be the worst kicker in professional football, but as any manager will tell you, kicking is a huge part of a keepers game these days, and Kuiper's would be in the bottom 5% of county league keepers in terms of his kicking, and has got to be by far the worst in professional football as far as kicking is concerned.
I'm not blaming Kuipers for today result, but I do think he is the most overrated player we have, and would struggle to get in any other league side, as has been proved in the past.
Shot stopping - excellent
overall game - far far short of what we need
NUmber one priority of pre-season, Midfielders,
Number 1.1 priority a new Keeper is SUllivan aint ready for next year.
Yes, he makes great saves, yes he has probably won us points, but I think he is the one of the worst players to wear an Albion shirt at the moment and judging on here the most overrated.
As a person I have to admit I dislike the man. It doesn't cloud what I think of him as a player, but I've always found him extremely arrogant, and very much a "me me me" type of man. Anyone who's ever seen him play in the reserves, will no doubt have heard him telling anyone who listens that he should be in the first team, which is totally disrepectful to the number one keepers at the time.
But the fact is, every Albion manager has preferred someone else to him. Even this season the fact when they give out the shirt numbers, and the number one jersey has been unused, suggest Wilkins feels the same, and Kuipers is only there because we failed to sign someone else. When the retained list comes out , I really hope he's released, but I fear he'll have an appearance clause and get another contract. I think Wilkins' comments after the FOrest game sums up what he thinks of him, when asked about his MOM performance, all Wilkins said was "Thats what he's there for, thats his job" and the Arsegas even said "Wilkins jokinly" said it, but WIlkins meant what he said. I think a lot can be said about the fact whenever he's not first choice, and has wanted to leave, no one came in for him except Boston United, and look where they are now! Wilkins loves to heap praise on indivual players, and the fact he never does on Kuipers speaks volumes.
There is no doubt that Kuipers is a great shot stopper, and he's proved that again this year. But how many of these shots would have been avoided with another keeper in goal?
David Seaman was a perfect example of a goalkeeper, who rarely made spectacular saves, but was a rock behind the defence. Kuipers I feel is the opposite, make specatcular saves, yet scares the shit out of his defenders with the rest of his game.
The main reason I feel Kuipers shouldn't be near our team is because of his kicking. Many will shout "I don't give a f*** if he can't kick", but its a major part of a keepers game. Today the 3rd Port Vale goal was down to him, pure and simple. He f*** up his umpeth kick and got caught of this line and the rest is history. If you get a video of todays game, and I'm sure Wilkins will, and look at the amount of pressure the defence was placed under today, due to his poor kicking, and look at this over the season, I think his kicking as costs us far more points than his saves have earnt us. I don't mean directly like todays 3rd, but indirectly his kicking costs us plenty of goals.
Take the Vale keeper, his kicking was excellent today, yet Kuipers on one of the smallest pitches in the league and the wind up his arse in the second half, failed to get the ball over the halfway line on more than one occasion. When he did catch it right, the ball sailed striaght into the Vale's keepers hands (Although he did make a meal of one of them). Yet the Vales keepers kicks, when long went to the sides of the area and keep us under pressure.
For a professional keeper to kick so poorly is just not acceptable. His whole body shape is embarrasinly poor, he turns 90 degrees when he releases the ball, he is almost getting tangled up in himself, and this is why he slices it all the time. Even when he get distance on it, he slices it, and there is no way the keeper coach would tell him to kick it like that.
I know this is a huge rant for what most will see a trival thing, but Kuipers has got to be the worst kicker in professional football, but as any manager will tell you, kicking is a huge part of a keepers game these days, and Kuiper's would be in the bottom 5% of county league keepers in terms of his kicking, and has got to be by far the worst in professional football as far as kicking is concerned.
I'm not blaming Kuipers for today result, but I do think he is the most overrated player we have, and would struggle to get in any other league side, as has been proved in the past.
Shot stopping - excellent
overall game - far far short of what we need
NUmber one priority of pre-season, Midfielders,
Number 1.1 priority a new Keeper is SUllivan aint ready for next year.
knocked forward to the defence/midfield but no one put in the tackle to win it , their bloke picks it up and puts in a good finish
). Thank God for that, I thought NSC was going all sensible and soft.
