Bye Bye Graeme Smith

[Mendoza]

To be fair Bruno, the defence was OUTSTANDING against Southampton.

as they were at Brentford, Carlisle and Bristol Rovers under SLADE. They jusy like hitting the self destruct button ever other game

 

[British Bulldog]

No improvement what so ever.....yet

In fairness having 4 games in the space of 10 days has'nt really given Gus much time to work with the players on the training ground.

 

[murraymint]

Same old NSC. Some bad performances so someone has to go. It is clear Smith is not playing well and has very little confidence but he has come in to team who are defending (for the most part) like schoolboys.
Instead of showing him the door, how about we get him on the training pitch, coach and work with him and try and improve him as a player. He's still pretty young, especially in goalkeeping terms, and was highly rated by many people in Scotland before he came to us. If the reports are right there was reasonably big money offered for him previously. That has to be taken on its merits...it may only be the SPL but it is the views of people who are actually involved in the game at a professional level on a day to day basis....unlike us.
Instead of shooting him down just a few months after he arrived let's get behind him and hope he improves.
Kuipers has been a great servant to this club, has many good qualities but also has his faults. It should not be forgotten he has been displaced many times....and sent on loan to lower league clubs on more than one occasion.
He is without doubt a great shot stopper, but he is slow off his line and his distribution is poor.
He should be brought back when fit, he is an older, experienced head, which should suit our current situation.
But we shouldn't just toss Smith on to the scrapheap after a few poor games behind a very poor defence.

 

[Mackenzie]

I'm convinced that the return of a fit Jim McNulty (and Kuipers) will give our defence much better shape and give confidence to his fellow defenders.

 

[MJsGhost]

In fairness having 4 games in the space of 10 days has'nt really given Gus much time to work with the players on the training ground.

Precisely.

The players won't be training too much between games when they're this close together, so what exactly can be done to turn around what is generally accepted as a very poor defence? Poyet must also be rushing about doing all sorts of other things behind the scenes to set things up how he wants them - getting to know how the club is run before he can put new plans in place for scouting, training, fitness, facilities etc etc. Being the gaffer is new to him, so that process is likely to take longer than for an old hand.

Everything needs time to settle in and start working properly. The Saints game was a bit of a one-off - the buzz around having a new manager and being on TV... Wycombe are shithouse, so while 2-0 is encouraging for the clean sheet, I don't think we should read too much into it. Follow that with 2 (albeit heavy) defeats in games we knew would be tough and I don't see the need to panic. We know there are problems there, but we need to give the new management team time to sort it out. Defeat against Charlton won't be a sign of relegation either - I have a sneaky suspicion we'll get a result (a point!) after putting in a solid performance against Rushden to improve confidence, but if we don't I won't be losing my faith.

I'm hoping Kuipers comes back soon though!

 

[Mackenzie]

I'd like to know what Smith's shots saved to shots on goal taken ratio is, I bet it doesn't make good reading. I hope he gets better.

 

[Mr Blobby]

To be fair, the back four did pretty well overall, and have improved immensely in just the 4 games that Gus has been in charge.
QUOTE]

You serious?

How many times did we see free headers, players in yards of space in our box or the edge of the box. This happened last night and Saturday. Yes Smith was very poor but so was the rest of our team defensively. Cox has decided he no longer needs to help out the full back, at least Bennett does help out .

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

I think Smith get's plenty of practise in shot stopping during the matches!

 

[Bwian]

I wonder how long Gus will get before the team get him sacked aswell??

 

[clarkey]

Anyone else see Elphick go absolutely mental at Smith after the ball came over the top and Elphick had to deal with it because Smith appears scared to touch the ball.

First time Ive seen us play for a few weeks, I was shocked at how often we gave the ball away, especially deep inside our own half, led to the second goal. And the number of times we played each other into trouble as well. Really, really disappointed after last night.

 

[cjd]

Anyone else see Elphick go absolutely mental at Smith after the ball came over the top and Elphick had to deal with it because Smith appears scared to touch the ball.

Yes....couldn't really miss it.

A lot of last nights problems were due to the fact that there was no confidence in Smith whatsoever

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Yes....couldn't really miss it.

A lot of last nights problems were due to the fact that there was no confidence in Smith whatsoever

I only saw the goals briefly on SSN - but did the ball really bounce TWICE for the first goal. Bit hard to pin that on Smith. Although you could say we may have defended too deep to compensate.

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

Yes....couldn't really miss it.

A lot of last nights problems were due to the fact that there was no confidence in Smith whatsoever

... and I wonder just how much confidence Smith has in his defence, it works both ways. He must really look forward to playing with that lot

 

[Scotty Mac]

So where are all the people who were DEMANDING Smith replace Kuipers a few weeks ago? Funny how things change isn't it?

no, its really not. kuipers has been poor this season, so demanding a change was totally understandable - especially as nobody had seen smith in a run of games to gauge an opinion

just because our back up may be gash, it doesnt mean that kuipers is now some sort of world beater. they have both made mistakes this season, and the sooner that we look to get a new keeper in so that if kuipers does keep making mistakes we have somebody at least as good to replace him the better

 

[Lady Whistledown]

New keeper completely for me, poor old Smith has been a disaster but Kuipers has had his share of crap games in recent years too.

Right now I'd pick Kuipers as he gives me marginally more confidence, but to be honest, that's an accolade about as praiseworthy as winning the World's Tallest Dwarf competition.

 

[Jim D]

I thought MK had his best game in ages against Soton - it looked like he was really out to show the new management team what he could do. It's just a pity that he only lasted another 45 mins.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Right now I'd pick Kuipers as he gives me marginally more confidence, but to be honest, that's an accolade about as praiseworthy as winning the World's Tallest Dwarf competition.

I'd rather have the World's Tallest Dwarf in goal than Graeme Smith.

 

[The Wizard]

New keeper completely for me, poor old Smith has been a disaster but Kuipers has had his share of crap games in recent years too.

Right now I'd pick Kuipers as he gives me marginally more confidence, but to be honest, that's an accolade about as praiseworthy as winning the World's Tallest Dwarf competition.

 

[eastlondonseagull]

Without wishing to break up the Smith hate-athon you have to look at what is front of him as well. Granted the first goal his positioning was shocking but what the hell was Whing doing? The second, give the ball away on our own box and let there player just stroll through. 3rd bugger know what went on there but it didn't look pretty on the highlights. 4th was like we were saying here Mr take a shot we don't want to try and tackle you.
Until our back 4 stop backing off and actually getting stuck in we will continue to let some in, Whing has looked a liability since he came back. Personally would go 5 in midfield with Navarro in front of the back 4 to give them a bit of protection and he is not afraid to get a tackle in.

And then, of course, there was the 'disallowed' goal that was down to more appalling defending. Free header, despite being marked, Smith standing still (if memory serves me right) as ball loops past him.

I thought that disallowed goal was vital - we'd have been 3-0 down but then pulled one back to make it 2-1, and I thought we looked brighter and much better value. Until their third knocked the stuffing out of us.

But yes, the defence were shithouse last night.

 

[withdeanwombat]

Smith doesn't deliberately let goals in.It just looks as if he's a forward forced to play in goal.All four goals were saveable.Now,I'm not saying Kuipers would have saved them all,but he would have been more positive in his area.

I'm afraid Smith doesn't look like a keeper.Sad ,really,but if Kuipers isn't fit I'm sure the manager will be looking elsewhere.Is our goalkeeping coach registered? Even if he's sixty !