Originally Posted by
jackal2
Alan Hardy is actually correct, but the negative narrative about the goalkeeper is so strong at present that people are blaming him for virtually every goal that goes in. The script is pre-written in their head even before the game starts and I noticed it yesterday with some of the comments from fans around me.
In reality, the biggest problem we have with our defence is a complete inability to stop crosses, too many missed headers and a tendency to back off and shadow play (a Nolan legacy) rather than engage the opponent's attacking players early, all of which leads to far too much of the ball coming into our penalty area and too many shots and headers on goal from close range, which are always going to be difficult for a goalkeeper to stop.
Yes, Ross Fitzsimons does look low on confidence, and without doubt he was at fault for one of the goals against Lincoln (flapping at a ball in the air) and the third goal against Forest Green (went softly under his arm), but even if we'd had Adam Collin or even Steve Cherry or Kasper Schmeichel in goal, they wouldn't have been able to do much about many of the goals we're conceding. Anybody who thinks that a new goalkeeper is the answer to all of our problems is basing that view on a basic pre-conceived narrative that the goalkeeper must be to blame if a team concedes lots of goals, rather than objectively analysing the goals themselves.
As I said last week, my biggest criticism of Fitzsimons is actually that (probably due to lack of confidence) he doesn't impose himself enough on his defence as a personality. He stupidly kicked an opposition player up the backside last season, but metaphorically speaking he should try doing that a bit more with our own full-backs, central defenders and midfielders, because they bloody deserve it. Some of their "defensive" efforts are so poor and lazy as to be comical - they literally just go through the motions to "look" as if they're trying to affect play, without actually doing much at all. In that regard, I think a Cherry or a Schmeichel would have been handing out a few more b*llockings, pushing more players around and generally demanding much more. Ross in comparison looks meek, perhaps because he hasn't got the experience or maybe that type of personality. He's actually entitled to be very angry, and to show it, because he's copping a lot of the flack individually for what is very clearly a collective failure.
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