Originally Posted by
pineapple stu
Well again - the point I was arguing here was that you can't say Bazunu and Travers are saving the same number of shots, so they're both as good, while ignoring that one is playing in a higher division than the other. I did say I was arguing against bad statistics and bad evaluation, and not Bazunu per se.
Just to clear that bit up first.
I would broadly agree with your analysis. I was on holidays last month when that Liverpool v Norwich game was on, and I was talking to a Liverpool fan who was watching it, and he said Kelleher was "a class keeper" and didn't know how he wasn't starting for Ireland. OK, he's not going to be watching Bazunu, but I thought it was encouraging to hear a regular Liverpool fan describe him so positively. He was very impressive v Hungary as you say, and the Qatar game was a waste of time. He's in an awkward position at club level of course - and yet Wales have done reasonably well of late with Danny Ward in nets (15 games for Leicester in four years, all in Cups) over, say, Adam Davies, who gets game time a division lower at Stoke. It's not a fully like-for-like comparison, but regular training with a top Premier Division team (Liverpool or Leicester) is better than people give credit for I think. But of course it would be better if he was regularly starting somewhere.
Bazunu has huge potential, but I think people need to be more reasonable about where he's at right now. People were saying last year that he was getting rave reviews at Rochdale (but I could never find any), and lately they've been saying he's been faultless for us (but he clearly hasn't). There was hopes he could get a move to a Championship club this year, but that didn't happen (I wonder were Bournemouth ever interested?) So it might sound like I'm constantly giving out about the guy, but really I'm just trying to bring in some balance to things. I also do get the feeling that his luck for us is due a turn for the worse and we'll see something like his recent Portsmouth exploits.
But for November, possession is 9/10th of the law when it comes to keepers. It's certainly his spot to lose, but I'd like to see more rotation in the spring friendlies and in the Nations League, because it's far from clear at the moment who our long-term number 1 is going to be.