[Archived] GAME THREAD–Leeds United v Blackburn Rovers (away)12/13

[DE.]

Robinson as a keeper should be more than good enough for the league we're currently in. I was very disappointed in him for Leeds 3rd goal, and I worry that he's nowhere near optimum fitness, but overall we should not have to worry about him over the course of the season. Our issues lie more in our ability to defend as a team, the overall fitness levels of the team and the chronic lack of pace which causes our play to be so pedestrian and predictable.

[elwaxo]

and a whisker away from signing its best ever midfielder....

shame Geoff Thomas never made it haha

[thenodrog]

We were so close to signing Keane that one Friday in Aug 1993 the LET printed a full page poster inside the back page of Keane in his international kit that had the caption "Roy Keane - Republic of Ireland & Blackburn Rovers"

He gave Dalglish backward & signed for United on the Saturday

Wrong meadows. To the best of my knowledge Kenny agreed terms with Forest, Keane and his agent on Friday and they tried to phone the club in order for the club to fax down the necessary transfer forms. Unfortunately it was after 5.00pm and everybody in the office had gone home (why tf they didnt contact someone at home to get them to go back and fax them down we'll prob never know) Anyway KMD and Keane shook hands on the deal and agreed to meet again and sign up Mon am. Keane went off to his home town in Ireland for the weekend where he received a phone call from Ferguson telling him to do nothing over the weekend and that he (Fergy) would pick him up at Manchester airport Mon am. He did and desperate to get his man after missing out on Shearer he persuaded Kean to go back on his handshake and sign for MU that morming. KMD publically criticised Keane for going back on hos handshake but it was too late and the rest is history.

[FourLaneBlue]

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[FourLaneBlue]

Stats like "he conceded 12 goals from outside the box. Only one other Prem keeper conceded over half that amount." are meaningless. Maybe the shots that the other keepers saved were a decent height or without real power - who knows? Likewise with the stat that.

I think that's embarrassing.

You analyse people objectivitely over 38 matches and the reponse is "maybe".

Anyone who really loved Rovers would say it isn't good enough, This ###### is being paid a fortune to be ###### for us AND he is one of Kean's fans,

Why else is he still here?

Oh yeah...forgot. He salutes the fans now and then.

Whatever.

[AggyBlue]

The idiots on this site can feel free to ignore them at their peril.

Why do you always try and belittle posters that disagree or have a different opinion than yourself?

[thenodrog]

Why else is he still here?

Easy peasy FLB......logic dictates that it's because no Premier League club wants him and no one out of the Prem can afford to pay his wages...... including us btw.

[Stuart]

Why do you always try and belittle posters that disagree or have a different opinion than yourself?

As one of the "idiots" I was going to ask a similar question.

Another question (for FLB) though, still subjective but perhaps less emotive. Do we have one of the better or worse keepers in THIS division?

[The Prof.]

I'm afraid my views on Robbo have never changed. Lovely guy, doesn't like Kean, suspect he got a first choice clause in his contract, but could never catch, scary with any high ball, kack distribution, mesmerised by free kicks and keeps getting relegated. A real manager would have him out in a tick. We will struggle to keep a clean sheet and get promoted with him in the sticks.

Sorry but there it is.

[broadsword]

I'm afraid my views on Robbo have never changed. Lovely guy, doesn't like Kean, suspect he got a first choice clause in his contract, but could never catch, scary with any high ball, kack distribution, mesmerised by free kicks and keeps getting relegated. A real manager would have him out in a tick. We will struggle to keep a clean sheet and get promoted with him in the sticks.

Sorry but there it is.

Agreed.

Seem particularly dody on crosses from deep and long shots.

He wasn't worth the money we paid for him. And I also would've kept Bunn instead.

[Scotty]

For what it's worth I'm with FLB here. I've never rated Robbo - I think he's had one good 6 months in all his time here - and he now looks unfit and unmotivated. He's at best a lower-half of the Prem keeper, which should be good enough for us this season, but I suspect he's got worse over the summer. I'm hoping our new Polish keeper can seriously challenge him for his place. Perhaps then we'll see a leaner, keaner Robbo.

[den]

For what it's worth I'm with FLB here. I've never rated Robbo - I think he's had one good 6 months in all his time here - and he now looks unfit and unmotivated. He's at best a lower-half of the Prem keeper, which should be good enough for us this season, but I suspect he's got worse over the summer. I'm hoping our new Polish keeper can seriously challenge him for his place. Perhaps then we'll see a leaner, keaner Robbo.

I agree Scott.

The only thing I disagreed with FLB about, was that you can't judge 'keepers by stats. Judge 'em by their mistakes.

[Exiled in Toronto]

I agree Scott.

The only thing I disagreed with FLB about, was that you can't judge 'keepers by stats. Judge 'em by their mistakes.

All depends what one decides is a mistake. Mistakes of commission or omission? Mistakes come from the combo of poor judgement and poor technique, both of which will show themselves in some of the stats over time, and I think a full season is long enough for variability to even out.

Stats are a guide to point where to look deeper. The shots conceded from outside the box stat anomoly could have been due to Robbo facing a barrage of Shearer-esque screamers, but, having seen every goal last season, wasn't. He was slow to react to some, dived over the top of some and was poorly positioned for some. Poor technique maybe made worse by weight/fitness.

[onlyonejackwalker]

In Robbo's defence, try keeping goal behind the car crash defending we have utilised for the last 18 months or so. He has rarely played in front of a settled back four, or in a winning team during his time at the club. 40+ caps for his country suggests others believe he has, or had top level International ability. If making associations, some would argue that very few of our players have played to the best of their ability since VenKean arrived.

I have to agree however he looks a little heavy and has done for a while. Player fitness / refuelling certainly appears to be a recurring issue at the club.

[Steve Kean's Hypnotoad]

He's by no means a great keeper, but is surely good enough for this level. Lowe, Ribeiro, Marcus Olsson, Murphy, Etuhu and above all Kean worry me more from a defensive standpoint than Robbo does.

[Blue blood]

Good report Blue Blood but can't agree with that at all.

Robbo is one of the team's weak links and has been poor for the past few years. The stats of his 2011/2012 compared to the rest of the Prem keepers don't lie.

Him staying and Bunn leaving is a poor decision imo.

Thanks for the encouragement on the report

Interestingly football is a game of opinions & vs. Leeds I really didn't think Robbo could've done much more with the first two.

The first goal possibly Robbo could've got stuck in more, but that's a charge you could lay at half the team's door. Had any of the defenders got stuck in for the first goal more, I doubt it'd have been an issue. Second goal was horrendous defending, leaving Robbo highly vulnerable in a 1 on 1 situation. Can't really blame him for that either.

Third goal definately wasn't a good moment for Robbo, but 1 of 3 with some other good saves isn't a bad game especially given the 2nd half onslaught at our goal.

That's my reasoning for the game.As for the season - he ain't Brad Friedel. Nor is he a top 6 keeper. But given the organisation in front of him and our suicidal defending I think it's hard to judge where Robbo is at in terms of level.

Not getting into the stats debate but given our defensive record is so absymal, our lack of clean sheets, the team selections and the tactics employed I do wonder how ANY keeper would fare and what their stats/results would be like. I'd be interested to see what Brad's stats were like for the latter part of souness/start of hughes reign looked like. I wonder in part if Robbo's weaknesses are highlighted in part because of the way we play - for example the lack of cover on the wing probably results in a lot more crosses an area Robbo is weaker at.

When all said and done, a good number of England caps, a CL semi final, and a career (till now) in the premiership shows the lad is no donkey. Whether we've a manager who can get the best out of him remains to be seen. As I posted in my match report I'd much rather get left back and right mid sorted before we consider the keeper situation at all.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

I agree Scott.

The only thing I disagreed with FLB about, was that you can't judge 'keepers by stats. Judge 'em by their mistakes.

if that was the case Reina and Hart wouldn't be anywhere near as highly rated.

Robbo has always looked sketchy imo, even with a settled defence.......at Spurs I noticed he wasn't as good at shots from outside the box and dealing with crosses and he's still bad at that, together with his other previously mentioned weaknesses....I'd have rather have kept Bunn but obviously nobody in the Prem was willing to sign Robbo, and I don't blame them for that.

[thenodrog]

I've always thought Robinson was overrated as a keeper from the off and said so many times on here, unfortunately my comparison was directly with Brad Freidel. However on a similar vein in his defence it must be a hell of a difference playing behind any 2 from Nelsen, Jones and Samba compared to the likes of Dann and Handley.

[den]

if that was the case Reina and Hart wouldn't be anywhere near as highly rated.

What's that mean?

Oddly, just after I posted the comments about judging a keeper by the number of mistakes he makes [something I picked up during a comparison by an ex pro keeper during the debate about Banks and Tony Waiters about 40 years ago -when Waiters was probably the most athletic of the pair and made many fantastic stops, but Banks's positioning was so good that he didn't have to make anywhere near the same amount of spectacular saves], Friedel was on TV discussing this same subject. His views were that most - and he stressed most - keepers were decent enough shot stoppers. It makes sense that if they weren't, they wouldn't have got that far in the game, it's a basic technique. He thought that the defining feature about a keeper was his decision making. The higher up the leagues you go, the less time you have to make the decisions None of that shows up in stats, which is exactly what I'm trying to say. Looks like me and Brad at least are on the same wavelength. If a keeper isn't making mistakes he's playing well. I compare this against an outfield player who can make few mistakes during a game but in fact have a real stinker.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

My point was that if keepers are classed as how good they are exclusively by their mistakes then people wouldn't rate Hart and Reina.....Hart loves to parry the ball back into the 6 yard box which I first noticed when he was at Birmingham and he makes more mistakes that lead to goals than your average keeper imo.....although Hart is young and he will eventually make less and less mistakes as he gets older.....he will undoubtedly become a top-class keeper but he isn't one yet.

Reina is an excellent shot stopper the majority of the time although he is extremely sketchy from crosses and set pieces and I've never really rated him highly....he is another one who makes too many mistakes, it's just most of them go unpunished....watch a Liverpool game and count the amount of times he rushes off his line before going back again.

I don't think statistics should be used in many football discussions/arguments but it's clear that Robinson has quite a few weaknesses that have cost us often in the past.

[DE.]

Reina is horrendously overrated. As of late the man is a total liability.