Gus and Michel

[goldstone]

I am a big supporter of Gus's and I seriously don't believe we'd be top of the league without him as manager.

But, even the most talented are permitted the odd mistake and I really believe he was wrong to have let Michel go at the end of last season.

What have we now on the goalkeeper list:
Casper - who many believe does not dominate his area sufficiently and, we know, has made two or three bad mistakes this season leading directly to goals. Does not fill me with loads of confidence.
Brezovan - who I thought was better than Casper, but is nowhere near the best I've seen for the Albion. And he did not shine in his recent FA Cup outings.
Poke who has been a bit of a disaster.

So my question is this. Is Michel any worse than these three? The answer is a resounding NO. In fact, IMHO he's a darn sight better.

So a mark against Gus on this one. I believe Michel could still have been first choice. Or at the very least a bloody good back-up who would never let the side down. With him playing I always had confidence in our last line of defence. Not anywhere near the same confidence with who we have now.

 

[Sam Ovett]

You forgot Mitch Walker

 

[clapham_gull]

I am a big supporter of Gus's and I seriously don't believe we'd be top of the league without him as manager.

But, even the most talented are permitted the odd mistake and I really believe he was wrong to have let Michel go at the end of last season.

What have we now on the goalkeeper list:
Casper - who many believe does not dominate his area sufficiently and, we know, has made two or three bad mistakes this season leading directly to goals. Does not fill me with loads of confidence.
Brezovan - who I thought was better than Casper, but is nowhere near the best I've seen for the Albion. And he did not shine in his recent FA Cup outings.
Poke who has been a bit of a disaster.

So my question is this. Is Michel any worse than these three? The answer is a resounding NO. In fact, IMHO he's a darn sight better.

So a mark against Gus on this one. I believe Michel could still have been first choice. Or at the very least a bloody good back-up who would never let the side down. With him playing I always had confidence in our last line of defence. Not anywhere near the same confidence with who we have now.

Would have been fascinating to see how Kuipers dealt with the passing the ball around the back and finding a player further up the pitch as the goalkeepers are now required to do.

 

[HP Seagull]

You're thinking of the Michel of four or five years ago. Ankergren is a better all-round goalkeeper than Michel. He is an excellent shot-stopper and is ten times the player with the ball at his feet. He looks shaky on crosses but as far as I can see that is the only real weakness in his game. If he was comfortable on crosses he would be a Premier League keeper.

Brezovan on the other hand is excellent (generally) at commanding his area but his ditribution can let him down, although not alarmingly so.

Michel was an excellent shot-stopper but the rest of his game was prone to mistakes, and his kicking was calamatous. He is a club legend and rightly so, but I wish people wouldn't start a thread saying we should have him back every other week, as in his last couple of seasons at the club he was extremely error-prone. His terrible distribution also means he would not now fit into our style of play. We now have two good League One goalkeepers, a situation we haven't been in since we won the playoffs.

 

[Bob!]

I am a big supporter of Gus's and I seriously don't believe we'd be top of the league without him as manager.

But, even the most talented are permitted the odd mistake and I really believe he was wrong to have let Michel go at the end of last season.

What have we now on the goalkeeper list:
Casper - who many believe does not dominate his area sufficiently and, we know, has made two or three bad mistakes this season leading directly to goals. Does not fill me with loads of confidence.
Brezovan - who I thought was better than Casper, but is nowhere near the best I've seen for the Albion. And he did not shine in his recent FA Cup outings.
Poke who has been a bit of a disaster.

So my question is this. Is Michel any worse than these three? The answer is a resounding NO. In fact, IMHO he's a darn sight better.

So a mark against Gus on this one. I believe Michel could still have been first choice. Or at the very least a bloody good back-up who would never let the side down. With him playing I always had confidence in our last line of defence. Not anywhere near the same confidence with who we have now.

It's time to drop the 'bring back FDM' campaign

 

[Beach Hut]

Kuipers and passing it around, you are joking he could only do a route one slice towards the end.

 

[Grendel]

I believe Michel could still have been first choice.

If he's good enough to be first choice for the League One leaders then surely he'd be good enough to play for another league side? Doesn't the fact that he's playing two divisions below us show that he isn't good enough for third tier football any more?

 

[supaseagull]

I am a big supporter of Gus's and I seriously don't believe we'd be top of the league without him as manager.

But, even the most talented are permitted the odd mistake and I really believe he was wrong to have let Michel go at the end of last season.

What have we now on the goalkeeper list:
Casper - who many believe does not dominate his area sufficiently and, we know, has made two or three bad mistakes this season leading directly to goals. Does not fill me with loads of confidence.
Brezovan - who I thought was better than Casper, but is nowhere near the best I've seen for the Albion. And he did not shine in his recent FA Cup outings.
Poke who has been a bit of a disaster.

So my question is this. Is Michel any worse than these three? The answer is a resounding NO. In fact, IMHO he's a darn sight better.

So a mark against Gus on this one. I believe Michel could still have been first choice. Or at the very least a bloody good back-up who would never let the side down. With him playing I always had confidence in our last line of defence. Not anywhere near the same confidence with who we have now.

I feel the same way about Perry Digweed and Nicky Rust...Perhaps they should bring them back?

Seriously dude - move on!!!!

 

[mona]

Ankergren is excellent at distribution, good at coming out when a player is bearing down on goal and a satisfactory shot stopper. He is fifth rate at claiming crosses.

 

[chez]

Get over it. Kipper was and still is a liability. We are a club on the up and we don't need has beens at the club especially ones that were pretty shit in the first place.

 

[Bob!]

Get over it. Kipper was and still is a liability. We are a club on the up and we don't need has beens at the club especially ones that were pretty shit in the first place.

harsh!

 

[Questions]

Great as FDM was, my heart wouldn`t stand it having to watch him play it out like Casper does nowadays.
Bet I`m not the only one either.

 

[andywhing4england]

Seriously what is all the fuss about ankergren's distribution? he can pass it 20 yards along the floor to a centre back. f***ing brilliant. How can you be happy with keeper that can't catch crosses or shots and doesn't command his area yet can pass the ball a short distance. ridiculous. We can compare on tuesday. Saints away last season and Mich provided an absolute MASTERCLASS in goalkeeping. he did everything..i mean EVERYTHING. Time for Casper to stand up...

 

[Rookie]

If Kuipers was still up to his past glories he would not have dropped down to the Conference and would still be playing in the league somewhere. Love the bloke but his time was up unfortunately. Do like the way big Casper is getting knocked after a dodgy game (was it even that dodgy) but yet everyone was so quiet when we didn't concede for an age

 

[JBizzle]

*sigh*

Firstly, Kuipers kicking improved vastly after John Keeley left. Its like all of a sudden the GK coach said "listen, take your time, look at the ball and kick it". All this rubbish about Kuipers kicking is based on his form 5 years ago which is the same time all of the anti-Kuipers lot say is his fans talk about.

Secondly, its irrelevant. Sure, I was a fan of Kuipers and, like Dick Knight, he suffers for serving the club for a long time, but he has left and thats it.

On our current keepers, for me the jury is out on Ankergren but this is because at times he terrifies me with his indecision. He just doesn't command his area. However, he did make some top class saves yesterday.

Brezovan, scared me a lot to begin with but still isn't a top L1 keeper. I'd also say that judging him on this FA Cup performances is a ltlle harsh as he has done very little wrong.

Poke, won't play for us again unless we get savaged by injuries.

Walker, superb prospect but too young to judge realistically.

 

[BensGrandad]

Amkergren deserves to be and is the No 1 unless something drastic happens, that forces Gus to think again but I dont envisage that happening.

 

[phoenix]

harsh!

But Fair.

 

[e77]

MK had a great career with us but it is over.

 

[goldstone]

If he's good enough to be first choice for the League One leaders then surely he'd be good enough to play for another league side? Doesn't the fact that he's playing two divisions below us show that he isn't good enough for third tier football any more?

As far as I know he didn't consider looking at any League 1 or 2 clubs. He wanted to stay in the area so Crawley suited him just fine.

 

[Gritt23]

I loved FDM, he has been a classy servant to the club for many years, but the time had certainly come for him to move on.

Don't forget, the guy who isn't playing NEVER makes a mistake. As has already been said, I think you have Kuipers of a few years ago in your minds eye, and that's not the keeper I think we'd have been watching this season.