Gavin Bazunu G Southampton b.2002

[Jolly Red Giant]

Which is a foul. “Standing in his way” equates to impeding his movement. And that’s a correct observation. The attacker positions himself in front of Bazunu before the ball is in play and within playing distance, and the attacker doesn’t attempt to play the ball. He is deliberately standing in Bazunu’s way to impede his movement – a foul.

He wasn't just standing in his way - he pushed back into Bazunu to stop him advancing towards the ball (as well as holding his jersey).

[Jolly Red Giant]

Interesting that the same was the case in the previous match against Birmingham too. What looks an unstoppable (well, except by Farquharson maybe) shot is only made look that way because Bazunu was on his near post for a central shot, so he's offering the whole far side of the goal up. There's a screenshot posted on the Southampton forum (and normally I hate screenshots, but as a positioning point in time this one seems appropriate). File is quite wide so putting the link in instead.

I disagree with this - the screenshot does not tell the story. From behind the goal you can see that Bazunu was positioned where he would have expected the shot to go - indeed a Birmingham player had made a break towards the near post and the high percentage ball would have been a near-post shot or a pass to him at the near post. Grey hit it perfectly (because he had the time) - high into the opposite top corner and bending in.

[tetsujin1979]

Highlights from the West Brom game

[Jolly Red Giant]

With all the criticism being focussed on Bazunu - it is worth noting that Killian Cahill has had two nightmare games for Orient in the past week.

[tetsujin1979]

One of those saves (assuming you're referring to the three saves from I think successive corners) was a block from Manning, not a save from Bazunu. The first one was a good save alright. Then he's too weak for the second goal (from a cross, of course). There's no foul there for me; just someone standing in his way.


Interesting that the same was the case in the previous match against Birmingham too. What looks an unstoppable (well, except by Farquharson maybe) shot is only made look that way because Bazunu was on his near post for a central shot, so he's offering the whole far side of the goal up. There's a screenshot posted on the Southampton forum (and normally I hate screenshots, but as a positioning point in time this one seems appropriate). File is quite wide so putting the link in instead.

Drops to the bottom of the Championship in terms of PSxG performance - and that's even allowing for the fact that Southampton's open defending leaves him facing tougher shots than almost every other keeper.

The highlights from the Birmingham game are here, the goal screenshotted is at 1:13

Bazunu is possibly too close to the near post. Not sure if he should be either, I'm not a goalkeeping coach. The shot is at a good height for a save, it doesn't loop over him, but is struck ferociously - there's precious little time for him to react at all.
Downes (wearing number 4) has left Gray a lot of space to move into as well, despite not marking anyone himself. By the time he reacts, and charges out, Gray is already setting up for the shot. Turning his back isn't a good look either.

[Eirambler]

I'd agree that he was fouled for the second goal last night. But, as a general point, he's just not a commanding keeper in his penalty area - he's also not an imposing figure - maybe not a lot he can do about that but it's a problem.

In terms of commanding his area I remember he used to fly out after everything back in his first season at Southampton when they were in the EPL, but he'd miss a lot of what he went for. He's maybe gone too far the other way now. Maybe he's being told to stay put unless he's certain he can get to the ball.

Either way there seems to be a number of areas he needs to improve on, including positioning across his goal line, command of his area (both hopefully coachable) and how fast he gets his body down to low shots to his left (possibly not fixable).

[pineapple stu]

Bazunu is possibly too close to the near post. Not sure if he should be either, I'm not a goalkeeping coach. The shot is at a good height for a save, it doesn't loop over him, but is struck ferociously - there's precious little time for him to react at all.

He doesn't follow the play as it comes infield either - in fact he takes a step closer to the near post.

It's definitely a good shot and you have to give the attacker credit. In fact I think it's an interesting one from an xG point of view. fbref scores the initial chance - that is, the position as the attacker is lining up the shot; the xG - as 0.03, or a 1-in-30 chance of a goal. And we've all seen those shots fly over or drop just wide of the far post or into the keeper's hands or whatever.

The shot that is taken, though, (the PSxG) is scored 0.19 - so the attacker has created a much better chance than average out of that position. And that stacks up - partly because the shot is on target of course, but also because it's well struck and towards the corner. Credit to the attacker there.

But that still says the keeper should be saving it four times out of five. Yet it looks an unstoppable shot - Bazunu is at full stretch after all. So how does that stack up? Obviously one option is xG and PSxG are nonsense, but football clubs are spending too much time and money on them for that argument to really stack up. The other option then is Bazunu is badly placed - he's giving the whole far side of the goal as a target, and if he'd been in a more central place for the shot, he'd have given himself a much better chance of stopping it. In fact, the Birmingham keeper saved two similar shots in the same game precisely by following the play infield, side-stepping to adjust his position, making him closer the shot when it comes in. Bazunu doesn't do this.

Again, I don't believe xG/PSxG down to the second decimal place, but I think that's an indication of the value of the stat - it'll force you to look at a chance more critically and see something which otherwise might have been covered up by saying "Nothing the keeper could have done about that". And when that's then aggregated over the course of the season to date and you get a stat saying he's on balance conceded three goals more than he should have, then you can make a general judgement call (he's again one of the worst performers in the league" without having to get down to which goals exactly he was and wasn't to blame for. It's more marginal than that - obviously, at the top level. But the margins are key for all that.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Jaysus - with all this xG and PSxG - are we in a computer simulation ?

[Jolly Red Giant]

In fact, the Birmingham keeper saved two similar shots in the same game precisely by following the play infield, side-stepping to adjust his position, making him closer the shot when it comes in.

seriously - the Birmingham keeper was at fault for all three goals - he was particlarly bad for the second one.

in both instances you reference the Southampton striker was under pressure from a Birmingham defender and the shot was closer than the one Bazunu conceded.