Shay Given

[Charlie Darwin]

Does Reina do that?

[gilberto_eire]

Take off the green glasses, made some good saves but was asleep for there first goal, have to do it for 90 minutes

Green glasses?, i only mentioned the save at the end in terms of saving them, it was a top drawer save.

Only saw the second half but he couldnt have been faulted for any of the goals.

How did he fall asleep for the first?, i shot from 20 yards into the corner
As a matter of fact he did well to close down Giggs who was in for a 1 v 1 and forced Giggs wide, have a word with the CM's as to why Fletcher and Scholes were standing ready to strike on the edge of the box.

Second was well placed into the far corner(off the post) from 6 yards and the 3rd was a free header from 5 yards (after he did well to deal with one 20secs earlier)

So if he's called into action 4 times,three times from 5 yards and a 3rd from 20 yards and manages to save one of them i don't see how he had a bad game.

http://www.betscout.com/soccer/match...anchester-city

[eaststand85]

As good a keeper as Shay is (and he is good) he does have a tendency to stay rooted to his line and sometimes keepers have to come and claim balls or punch balls away just to relieve pressure.

he did well to close down Giggs who was in for a 1 v 1 and forced Giggs wide, have a word with the CM's as to why Fletcher and Scholes were standing ready to strike on the edge of the box.

Take off the green glasses, made some good saves but was asleep for there first goal, have to do it for 90 minutes

Would agree that while Shay is a world class shot stopper and keeper generally the only slight fault with his game can be that he's sometimes reluctant to come off his line. However as Gilberto says he did very well to stop Giggs scoring in the build up to the first goal and couldn't have done anything more to prevent it so please take off the WUM glasses Manblue.

[ifk101]

Whoever was commentating the match last night said that Given could of come off his line in the lead up to the first goal. I thought so too but when they showed a replay of the goal's build-up from behind Given, it's clear that he made the right choice and did well in pushing Giggs wide. As for the actual goal itself, the shot took a deflection off the studs of a defender's boot and Given was left helpless.

[seanfhear]

Whoever was commentating the match last night said that Given could of come off his line in the lead up to the first goal. I thought so too but when they showed a replay of the goal's build-up from behind Given, it's clear that he made the right choice and did well in pushing Giggs wide. As for the actual goal itself, the shot took a deflection off the studs of a defender's boot and Given was left helpless.

I think Given could have claimed that ball if he had come out decisively.

[ifk101]

I think Given could have claimed that ball if he had come out decisively.

Given's starting position was on the edge of the box. When the ball is kicked to Giggs there are at least three City defenders around Giggs and Given is backing back towards his goal-line when Giggs receives the ball. Giggs somewhat miscontrols the ball with his first touch and it's then Given goes out to close him down. Given is backing away from the ball and then needs to move towards the ball, whilst Giggs is in full flight and running in the same direction as the ball. There's no way Givens could get to the ball - the only thing we could do was close the angle for a shot - which he did. There's no way he could have known that 3 defenders would fail to deal with a cross field pass so he was correct in moving back towards the goal when that long pass was played.

I'm more inclined to point the finger at City's defenders, although I do agree that Given can be slow off his line on occasion. But I don't think he was at fault here.

[jbyrne]

joe hart or given will be in the EPL team of the year as both have been outstanding all season. we can all analyse and be critical of the odd goal here and there that given conceded over the season but the protection in front of him is poor at best a lot of the time. this is bound to affect any GKs thinking during a match yet given has still been superb all season. its been said before but whoever in man city thought it was a good idea to sell dunne is an idiot

[tricky_colour]

http://footyroom.com/stoke-city-1-1-...-city-2010-02/

Whelan's goal, can't find his thread.
Struck it well.

[Charlie Darwin]

It wasn't a particularly brilliant strike. Given just had a shocker - he was at fault for the wrongly disallowed goal at the end too.

[Serb]

God, that was awful from Given. He got down early, he was right behind the ball when he got his hands to it, he just totally messed up the save.



Having said that, the defending right up to when Whelan hit the ball was comical. Touré was slow to get near him and ended up turning his back on the shot.

[yapster]

Given I feel is not as good as people make him out to be, some people say he is World Class but not by a long mile. A good EPL keeper and dependable 80% of the time. Has done really well for Ireland but I think he is becoming more error prone as the season goes on. He was stupid not to have left Newcastle at an earlier time and face it he has gone to another circus at Manchester City.

[SwanVsDalton]

If every keeper was put under this kind of ridiculous scrutiny, then every single one of them would look shoddy. Given, with Reina, has probably been the most consistent goalkeeper in the EPL over the last few seasons. And I think his shop stopping is second to none. Sure he's not perfect, he made a howler last weekend - but his howlers are really few and far between. Also for the entire duration of his career he's never had the privilege of playing behind a really decent defence. Unlike plenty of other overrated GK's.

[eaststand85]

Wenger must be kicking himself for not getting Given for Arsenal.

[theworm2345]

Shay just ****ed up his shoulder making a save. Does not look good.

[The Legend]

Yeah if we were going to the world cup, this would be a complete nightmare.

[elroy]

Horrible scenes, doesnt look good. Bringing out the oxygen isnt a good sign. Hope the prognosis isnt as bad as it looks.

[Charlie Darwin]

Yeah if we were going to the world cup, this would be a complete nightmare.

Maybe Thierry Henry could have filled in?

Makes it worse that he injured himself making the only save of that awful, awful match.

[SUB of the day]

Mancini looked genuinely concerned, Stephen ****** langer Ireland was laughing like a schoolboy.........

[Colbert Report]

According to the Independent, it is a "suspected broken shoulder".

Given was in extreme pain and it was hard to watch. His season is obviously over, let's hope he's good to go in time for the start of the season in August.

[Charlie Darwin]

Having seen it again, I wouldn't overstate the oxygen aspect. He took a bit but then he pushed it away. Still looks a nasty injury, but maybe not as awful as it looked.