That was arguably the worst performance I have seen from our keeper in a game that we did not lose. Only one I can think that would compare would be Thuram against QPR
I’ll be honest, I’m still confused as to why JoJo was allowed to go in the summer. With each passing week watching Ash in goal, strengthens my opinion.
It's all about the money money money. Probably got offered a fee for Woolacott & not AMB and gambled that AMB would improve this season to be as good. Scott got it wrong again. Most gambles to do with saving money have backfired.
Yeah that's fair...also, this was a Holden decision, Scott wasn't at the club when JoJo was sold.
I believe Isted is an upgrade on AMB, is he good enough for a top six team maybe not but a better overall keeper for sure.
Did not really rate Wollacott either so not convinced we missed a trick by letting him go.
Isted was good enough for a top 6 team a year ago
8 clean sheets in 19 games for the team that finished 4th, but people watched him play 5 games for us (1 clean sheet) and that is enough for them to rule him out. AMB has 2 clean sheets in 24 appearances.
I think a lot of the criticism of AMB has been a bit over blown. There’s no disputing that he had a very poor game yesterday though.
I think he does need taking out or the firing line but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a dramatic improvement from Isted. I didn’t see much in him when he started the season first choice.
Let’s not pretend Wollacott was anything special either.
Players have a habit of going up in people’s estimation the longer they are out of the team. Truth is all three of them are mediocre.
I think a lot of the criticism of AMB has been a bit over blown. There’s no disputing that he had a very poor game yesterday though.
I think he does need taking out or the firing line but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a dramatic improvement from Isted. I didn’t see much in him when he started the season first choice.
Let’s not pretend Wollacott was anything special either.
Players have a habit of going up in people’s estimation the longer they are out of the team. Truth is all three of them are mediocre.
I think a lot of the criticism of AMB has been a bit over blown. There’s no disputing that he had a very poor game yesterday though.
I think he does need taking out or the firing line but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a dramatic improvement from Isted. I didn’t see much in him when he started the season first choice.
Let’s not pretend Wollacott was anything special either.
Players have a habit of going up in people’s estimation the longer they are out of the team. Truth is all three of them are mediocre.
Exactly this.
Remember the game where Wollacott came for a cross and got nowhere near it and a bloke headed into an empty goal? That was far from class
I think a lot of the criticism of AMB has been a bit over blown. There’s no disputing that he had a very poor game yesterday though.
I think he does need taking out or the firing line but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a dramatic improvement from Isted. I didn’t see much in him when he started the season first choice.
Let’s not pretend Wollacott was anything special either.
Players have a habit of going up in people’s estimation the longer they are out of the team. Truth is all three of them are mediocre.
Players always suddenly become better than they actually are when they're not playing... I thought Fraser's injury was the answer for our early season poor form after beating Leyton Orient
I think a lot of the criticism of AMB has been a bit over blown. There’s no disputing that he had a very poor game yesterday though.
I think he does need taking out or the firing line but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a dramatic improvement from Isted. I didn’t see much in him when he started the season first choice.
Let’s not pretend Wollacott was anything special either.
Players have a habit of going up in people’s estimation the longer they are out of the team. Truth is all three of them are mediocre.
That's very true and I'm honestly not convinced that Isted is necessarily a promotion level goalkeeper over a season.
However, I cannot see any way that he can ne worse than AMB on current form.
Even if it really is just a case of being LESS bad, it needs to be done.
Fleming talked a lot of sense about taking Jones out of the firing line for a bit to reset the batteries. I hope he does the same for AMB. He’s making too many mistakes at the moment and needs time to regain his confidence.
I'm a huge fan of AMB - he's one of our own, he's made big saves at times this/last season and I still believe he will keep improving to become the keeper that many people (incl. myself) still think he can be. However, like so many of our Academy players, he's been thrust into a high pressure situation without the experience he needed before being made the number 1 here. He's making the mistakes now that should have been made out in Scotland/L2, where it doesn't matter to us and he can level up without errors that could cost us points. You have to always keep in mind that he is AT LEAST a season of full league experience behind where he should be for the amount of games he is starting for us, imho.
On balance, he has kept us in games but he's had several games where he's really looked out of place. I think that the criticism recently in particular is very fair, but I also think that a number of people have been jumping a little bit too much on his back. His mistakes, for me, come from not having a settled defence in front of him and a lack of leadership within that defensive unit too. His performances like on Saturday (and even several prior, tbh) have made the defenders worry and everything cyclically affects both his and the other defenders confidence to deal with situations. The downturn in form for some of the defenders is partially linked to his performances. He's got to look at himself and improve, but that's true of the whole defense as a unit.
It's time for Isted to come back if he's fit. I think he'll play against Derby and it'll be good for AMB and the other defenders. It's all part of the learning on the job he's had to do. Like others, I'd have probably preferred if we'd kept Wollacott, but that was the old regime and and they made plenty of weird decisions.
Oh, and the mask - I find it incredibly amusing just as a thing that our GK looks like a discount bank robber, but honestly, I don't think it's anything affecting his play to the degree some people make out. It's probably not ideal, but it may have just as many positives from allowing him the play his natural game and not get injured again. Discourse about this is not really that relevant.
Isted hasn’t convinced me at all. Can’t comment re Ward. Reckon Ash has the makings of a decent keeper given the support and confidence to be more commanding.
But
Goalkeeper, like full backs, is an area of huge opportunity. For a relatively small investment, you can get the best in the league. This fact seems to have passed us by for at least the past five - if not ten - years. Last time we had it was Solly - Hamer - Wiggins under SCP.
If we can't get him back in time for Saturday I've got you pencilled in for the gloves, Gribbo. You seem the vocal type who can get the defence organised. We've heard decent things about your shop over Grove Park way too. I'm sure you can replicate those throaty "read all about it" cries as you marshal the troops on Saturday.
I'm unsure about Isted BUT he definitely deserves the chance to see what he can do. And this week, a full week for training, is the perfect time to work with him and the defence.
If we can't get him back in time for Saturday I've got you pencilled in for the gloves, Gribbo. You seem the vocal type who can get the defence organised. We've heard decent things about your shop over Grove Park way too. I'm sure you can replicate those throaty "read all about it" cries as you marshal the troops on Saturday.
He did well, but he made one save (the double) which was really questionable
Where he pushed it straight to a Chelsea player rather than out towards for a corner, an experienced player would have punished us for that.
Shot stopping as someone said on the Match Thread has never been in doubt for him though.
Its other areas, that he needs to show... Mannion is brilliant at catching, whilst AMB does have occasions where he almost loses his head and rushes out to close the angle a bit too enthusiastically - I think as well part of our recent problems are because we dont have Mitchell / Jones in defence, Jones especially is really good at communicating with the Goalkeeper (we all know how thats Ashley's biggest weakness).
Think we're suffering more because of that, than because of who is between the sticks.
Agree with @ForeverAddickted, he didn't really get a chance to show his weaknesses as Chelsea were never going to sling the ball into the box and the game was played at a pace that meant his distribution was less important. The Chelsea keeper had great distribution but wasn't great between the sticks. Combine the two and you're 2/3 of the way to an excellent keeper
Agree with @ForeverAddickted, he didn't really get a chance to show his weaknesses as Chelsea were never going to sling the ball into the box and the game was played at a pace that meant his distribution was less important. The Chelsea keeper had great distribution but wasn't great between the sticks. Combine the two and you're 2/3 of the way to an excellent keeper
You can’t do much more than what AMB did last night in terms of performance to knock on the door - and I would certainly like to see him have another chance in the next game.
However the horrors of last year still live close in my memory, and one swallow does not make a summer as they say.
AMB showed what he is very good at last night, against a young technical Chelsea team. However, it’s a very different game playing against a physical league one team full of seasoned pros who will ask very different questions.
You can’t do much more than what AMB did last night in terms of performance to knock on the door - and I would certainly like to see him have another chance in the next game.
However the horrors of last year still live close in my memory, and one swallow does not make a summer as they say.
AMB showed what he is very good at last night, against a young technical Chelsea team. However, it’s a very different game playing against a physical league one team full of seasoned pros who will ask very different questions.
The horrors of last season, he had a poor defence in front of him, which didn’t help.
Comments
Did not really rate Wollacott either so not convinced we missed a trick by letting him go.
I think he does need taking out or the firing line but I wouldn’t hold your breath for a dramatic improvement from Isted. I didn’t see much in him
when he started the season first choice.
Let’s not pretend Wollacott was anything special either.
Players have a habit of going up in people’s estimation the longer they are out of the team. Truth is all three of them are mediocre.
Remember the game where Wollacott came for a cross and got nowhere near it and a bloke headed into an empty goal? That was far from class
However, I cannot see any way that he can ne worse than AMB on current form.
Even if it really is just a case of being LESS bad, it needs to be done.
On balance, he has kept us in games but he's had several games where he's really looked out of place. I think that the criticism recently in particular is very fair, but I also think that a number of people have been jumping a little bit too much on his back. His mistakes, for me, come from not having a settled defence in front of him and a lack of leadership within that defensive unit too. His performances like on Saturday (and even several prior, tbh) have made the defenders worry and everything cyclically affects both his and the other defenders confidence to deal with situations. The downturn in form for some of the defenders is partially linked to his performances. He's got to look at himself and improve, but that's true of the whole defense as a unit.
It's time for Isted to come back if he's fit. I think he'll play against Derby and it'll be good for AMB and the other defenders. It's all part of the learning on the job he's had to do. Like others, I'd have probably preferred if we'd kept Wollacott, but that was the old regime and and they made plenty of weird decisions.
Oh, and the mask - I find it incredibly amusing just as a thing that our GK looks like a discount bank robber, but honestly, I don't think it's anything affecting his play to the degree some people make out. It's probably not ideal, but it may have just as many positives from allowing him the play his natural game and not get injured again. Discourse about this is not really that relevant.
Goalkeeper, like full backs, is an area of huge opportunity. For a relatively small investment, you can get the best in the league. This fact seems to have passed us by for at least the past five - if not ten - years. Last time we had it was Solly - Hamer - Wiggins under SCP.
Hope he is okay of course?
Where he pushed it straight to a Chelsea player rather than out towards for a corner, an experienced player would have punished us for that.
Shot stopping as someone said on the Match Thread has never been in doubt for him though.
Its other areas, that he needs to show... Mannion is brilliant at catching, whilst AMB does have occasions where he almost loses his head and rushes out to close the angle a bit too enthusiastically - I think as well part of our recent problems are because we dont have Mitchell / Jones in defence, Jones especially is really good at communicating with the Goalkeeper (we all know how thats Ashley's biggest weakness).
Think we're suffering more because of that, than because of who is between the sticks.
Hope he gets to start again on Saturday though.
However the horrors of last year still live close in my memory, and one swallow does not make a summer as they say.