Gavin Bazunu G Southampton b.2002

[pineapple stu]

I'm reminded though of the posts that defender Travers after conceding nine against Liverpool last year. It was all the defence's fault, and Travers couldn't be blamed for any of the goals. Bournemouth saw it differently and went straight out and bought Neto.

Yes the Southampton defence is...iffy. But Bazunu has his share of the blame. His keeper stats were the worst in the PL last year by a long way. Southampton's new owners' policy seems to be to buy young and sell at a profit. Salisu, Livramento, Diallo, Lavia - young players all sold in pre-season. Celeta-Car, Perraud, Lyanco, Bella-Kotchap - all out on loan (I don't know is there an option to buy). Mostly to decent clubs too (Lyanco and Diallo to Qatar the exception). Ward-Prowse, an England international, gone too, not surprisingly. But no-one came in for Bazunu. That's a slight concern in and of itself.

I think posts saying everyone else is to blame are unhelpful really. And yes, he's 21, etc. But having dropped down a level, you'd like to see an improvement. I thought Stutts' post was a very good analysis of the sort of improvement we'd like to see but aren't yet. And the howlers are still there, as we saw in pre-season - the one against Göztepe was as bad as you'll see unfortunately. That'll put the jitters in any defence

[Jolly Red Giant]

I'm reminded though of the posts that defender Travers after conceding nine against Liverpool last year. It was all the defence's fault, and Travers couldn't be blamed for any of the goals. Bournemouth saw it differently and went straight out and bought Neto.


Yes the Southampton defence is...iffy. But Bazunu has his share of the blame. His keeper stats were the worst in the PL last year by a long way. Southampton's new owners' policy seems to be to buy young and sell at a profit. Salisu, Livramento, Diallo, Lavia - young players all sold in pre-season. Celeta-Car, Perraud, Lyanco, Bella-Kotchap - all out on loan (I don't know is there an option to buy). Mostly to decent clubs too (Lyanco and Diallo to Qatar the exception). Ward-Prowse, an England international, gone too, not surprisingly. But no-one came in for Bazunu. That's a slight concern in and of itself.


I think posts saying everyone else is to blame are unhelpful really. And yes, he's 21, etc. But having dropped down a level, you'd like to see an improvement. I thought Stutts' post was a very good analysis of the sort of improvement we'd like to see but aren't yet. And the howlers are still there, as we saw in pre-season - the one against Göztepe was as bad as you'll see unfortunately. That'll put the jitters in any defence

In the situation that Bazunu was in last season - and so far this season - stats are pretty much irrelevant. When your defenders do not defend - ever - then the goalie stats are always going to look bad. Trying to judge where a player is at using algorithms is a fool's errant without looking at the bigger picture.


Also - I am not saying that Bazunu doesn't carry some of the blame - I think a big weakness in his game is that he doesn't command the box - he is not vocal enough and he doesn't bully defenders into doing their job properly as a goalkeeper really has to do. I also think he needs to work on his ability to deal with crosses - as I said - coming for a cross for the first goal was an option. But I am not a goalkeeping coach - and I am sure the coaches he works with know what he needs to do. But the big problem at Southampton - and Russell Martin has stated this - is not Bazunu who he regards very highly - it is the other ten players on the pitch in front of him which is why Martin went out and got Holgate and Harwood-Bellis in the last few days.


Now - remember this - Gavin Bazunu is 21 years-old. There are only 3-4 goalkeepers in the PL that are under 30 years of age - and only one under 25 year of age - and he shipped 5 goals yesterday as well (in a team that is much better defensively than Southampton) - two from shots outside the box and one just inside the box (and he had a clear sight of the ball for all three shots - indeed all five shots he let in) - and he was openly at fault for at least one if not two of the goals. In the Championship its a little different - about half the goalies are under 30 - but, outside of Bazunu, only five of them are under 25 and the youngest is two years older than Bazunu.


You say that nobody came in for Bazunu - that is not a surprise - for two reasons - 1. Southampton were sh*te last year and nobody knows for sure who was at fault for it - and - 2. he is 21 years old and as I pointed out - he is the second youngest goalkeeper in the top two divisions in England (and the other guy has only played 3 games in the PL and already let in 11 goals). Managers hate young goalkeepers - in part because it is difficult for young keepers to order much older and more experienced defenders around the place, they don't command the box like a goalkeeper needs to do - and they can be inconsistent.


Gavin Bazunu is a tremendous goalkeeping prospect - he has the potential to be the best goalkeeper that Ireland has ever produced. But unfortunately he is in a bad situation at the moment - and all we can do is hope it gets better. He is in the second year of a five year contract which ties him to Southampton and its fortunes for at least a couple of years. He does seem level-headed and to be a mature young man - he does have the confidence of his manager - and hopefully he will come out the other end and fulfill his potential.

[JR89]

Brightons keeper is actually 21 and two months younger than Bazunu too I believe JRG

[pineapple stu]

In the situation that Bazunu was in last season - and so far this season - stats are pretty much irrelevant. When your defenders do not defend - ever - then the goalie stats are always going to look bad. Trying to judge where a player is at using algorithms is a fool's errant without looking at the bigger picture.

Ah that's not true though. Save percentage - way lower than anyone else. PSxG (the stat explicitly designed to measure keepers, not forwards or defenders) - something like 15 goals more than expected let in. Or take it the human way, and as Stutts said there were games there that were set up for the keeper to keep his side in it, but he never did.

You say that nobody came in for Bazunu - that is not a surprise - for two reasons - 1. Southampton were sh*te last year and nobody knows for sure who was at fault for it - and - 2. he is 21 years old

But Southampton were ****e last year and yet Salisu (centre-back, 24) went to Monaco, Livramento (full-back, 20) to Newcastle, Lavia (defensive mid, 19) to Chelsea, Bella-Kotchap (centre-back 21) to PSV. So why did all those young defensive players get transfers and Bazunu didn't? Any of those moves would have been an excellent move.

Yes, he's young and a prospect - but that doesn't mean we should blithely turn a blind eye to his faults

[Jolly Red Giant]

Ah that's not true though. Save percentage - way lower than anyone else. PSxG (the stat explicitly designed to measure keepers, not forwards or defenders) - something like 15 goals more than expected let in. Or take it the human way, and as Stutts said there were games there that were set up for the keeper to keep his side in it, but he never did.

There is no doubt that Bazunu was impacted by how bad Southampton were last year - it would affect anyone - and being in a bad team impacts a goalkeeper more than anyone else on the team because they are the ones picking the ball out of the net. But the problems that Southampton are having in defence this season are the same as last season - giving the ball away in dangerous areas, not tracking the runners and not making any effort to close down shots from outside the box. Bazunu was dropped after a 3-3 draw at Arsenal where none of the goals were his fault and he made two outstanding saves in the game. But it was probably right to pull him - just so he didn't have to deal with any more of the crap that was on the pitch in front of him.

In the 32 games that Bazunu played in the PL he let in 56 goals - that is 1.75 goals per game. Alex McCarthy replaced him for the last 6 games and let in 17 goals - 2.83 goals per game - and McCarthy didn't have that idiot Jones coaching the team.

But Southampton were ****e last year and yet Salisu (centre-back, 24) went to Monaco, Livramento (full-back, 20) to Newcastle, Lavia (defensive mid, 19) to Chelsea, Bella-Kotchap (centre-back 21) to PSV. So why did all those young defensive players get transfers and Bazunu didn't? Any of those moves would have been an excellent move.

Salisu played 22 games last season - Livramento played 2 games last season (he had an ACL) - Lavia (a midfielder) played 29 times - and Bella-Kotchap played 24 times. Only Lavia was a regular in the team - and Salisu and Bella-Kotchap were regularly dropped as the three different Southampton managers tried to solve the defensive problems that Southampton had. Lavia was the class act in the Southampton team last year - so it is not a surprise that he left. Newcastle might have forked out £32m for Liveramento - but it wasn't based on what he did last season. Bella-Kotchap was shipped out on loan to get his wages off the books. PL teams do not buy goalkeepers because of their potential - they bring goalkeepers with potential through their academy - there is no point forking out millions for a young goalkeeper to sit on a bench - it just doesn't happen. Indeed most PL teams have an experienced goalkeeper behind their already late 20s and early 30s (or in some cases late 30s) starting goalkeeper. Furthermore - nobody should go to Chelsea - its an absolute basketcase and Ponch has his work cut out there. Newcastle have four goalkeepers - all north of 30 - with PL experience in spades.

You are not comparing like with like in any of these situations.

Bazunu is currently starting in front of a goalkeeper with nine years and 135 games of PL experience in Alex McCarthy. If Bazunu was the problem then McCarthy would be playing - and remember - managers hate young goalkeepers.

By the way - its the same reason why nobody would fork out £25m for Kelleher - you don't pay that type of money for a young goalkeeper with limited experience (unless you are Burnley and you get caught up in the hype of an U-21 competition). The mistake Kelleher made was signing a five year contract in 2021 - but maybe he hopes to replace Alisson in a couple of years.

Yes, he's young and a prospect - but that doesn't mean we should blithely turn a blind eye to his faults

Who is turning a blind eye - he is 21 years old - he is a goalkeeper that will not be at the peak of his game for another 10 years. Of course he has faults - but that does not mean that he is not a damned good goalkeeper in the here and now. As I already pointed out he is the second youngest goalkeeper in the top two divisions of English football (and in my opinion a better goalkeeper than the guy who is younger than him - and who could end up being responsible for Burnley getting relegated - don't think it will happen as Kompany knows what he is doing and Trafford will have a decent defence in front of him). There is a reason why Bazunu is actually being selected - because he is good enough for the job - otherwise, as I said, McCarthy would be in the team.

[Jolly Red Giant]

Brightons keeper is actually 21 and two months younger than Bazunu too I believe JRG

Steele is the first choice keeper at Brighton. De Zebri - who I think is a damned good coach - has made a daft decision to rotate his goalkeepers depending on the opposition. It also helps Verbruggen that he will be in a team with a decent defence, and that has such an attacking threat that their opponents are often on the back-foot. Verbruggen is a good young goalkeeper - like Trafford and Bazunu - but he was largely at fault last week when Brighton has 80% possession against West Ham and still let in 3 goals - in my opinion Verbruggen should have stopped two of them or at least made a damned better effort to stop them. It is much easier to be a young goalkeeper in a team that is performing very well - than it is in a team fighting relegation and having the crowd hurling abuse because they don't want to see their team go down.

[pineapple stu]

I really can't agree with much of this.

But the problems that Southampton are having in defence this season are the same as last season - giving the ball away in dangerous areas, not tracking the runners and not making any effort to close down shots from outside the box.

But they also have the problem that their keeper doesn't make many saves. You can see the save stats here - for a range of clubs, good defences and bad defences, attacking and defensive, counter-attack and possession. He's down at a 50% save rate - there's only one keeper in the league with a worse record. The average is about 70%. That's a big difference. Or take the PSxG - which is a measure of the keeper, not the defenders, because again it takes as the starting point that the shot has already come in - and he's on -3.3. That is, he's conceded three goals more than you would expect an average keeper to save.

Both those stats were similar last year (54% save rate, lowest in the league for players with more than I think 10 games, and conceded 16 goals more than expeccted), so you can't just overlook that part. They're way off where they need to be.

In the 32 games that Bazunu played in the PL he let in 56 goals - that is 1.75 goals per game. Alex McCarthy replaced him for the last 6 games and let in 17 goals - 2.83 goals per game - and McCarthy didn't have that idiot Jones coaching the team.

That just means he did better than McCarthy. Not a great marker.

Salisu played 22 games last season - Livramento played 2 games last season (he had an ACL) - Lavia (a midfielder) played 29 times - and Bella-Kotchap played 24 times. Only Lavia was a regular in the team - and Salisu and Bella-Kotchap were regularly dropped as the three different Southampton managers tried to solve the defensive problems that Southampton had. Lavia was the class act in the Southampton team last year - so it is not a surprise that he left. Newcastle might have forked out £32m for Liveramento - but it wasn't based on what he did last season. Bella-Kotchap was shipped out on loan to get his wages off the books. PL teams do not buy goalkeepers because of their potential - they bring goalkeepers with potential through their academy - there is no point forking out millions for a young goalkeeper to sit on a bench - it just doesn't happen. Indeed most PL teams have an experienced goalkeeper behind their already late 20s and early 30s (or in some cases late 30s) starting goalkeeper. Furthermore - nobody should go to Chelsea - its an absolute basketcase and Ponch has his work cut out there. Newcastle have four goalkeepers - all north of 30 - with PL experience in spades.

A young keeper being less useful than a young defender is a fair point, but you can't keep lumping blame on the defence when the players go to clubs like Newcastle, PSV and Chelsea. Yes, there were issues, but again, it wasn't all on them.

Who is turning a blind eye

I think you are. You dismiss the goalkeeping stats even though they take the defence into account. You absolve him of blame for any of the five goals against Sunderland even though pretty much all the rest of us are saying he should have stopped the third and probably on balance should have kept out one of the others (the 30/70s Stutts mentioned). McCarthy may well end up in the team soon unfortunately, given Bazunu's form this season is the same as the form that caused him to be dropped late last season.

[ifk101]

He didn’t have a good game. He wasn’t purely “at fault” for any of the goals but an international standard goalkeeper would be expected to make a difference for goals 2 and 3. Not resulting in goals but there were saves where he needed to show greater strength in parrying the save away from danger areas (a save from a free kick in the first half comes to mind here). Not ideal preparation for our games.

As for the other Irish players on show, Smallbone didn’t have an influence on the game and Manning was shockingly bad – a liability when put on the back foot.

[Diggs246]

There is too much debate on his age
If your good enough you play
Doesn't matter if your 19 or 37.

It's 11 men v 11 men.

Sure he will get better but that's no good for us at the momentum

Tbf he's been good for Ireland ( but not excellent)

I think stutts 30/70 philosophy is an excellent way to look at it. He doesn't save enough of them.

I actually think he is very slow to get down for the 2nd goal as well.

[pineapple stu]

I actually think he is very slow to get down for the 2nd goal as well.

I was thinking that actually - I hadn't noticed it took a deflection until Stutts mentioned it; you can't really see it from the main camera angle. But it's clear from the camera behind the goal - and it actually moves the ball that bit closer to him, so an easier save in theory. But he doesn't get a hand on it. Reminds me a bit of the two goals against Armenia where again he was slow to get down to shots from distance.

Looks like he's getting plenty of practice at them at least, so hopefully it's something that'll be smoothed out sooner rather than later.

[Stuttgart88]

I was thinking that actually - I hadn't noticed it took a deflection until Stutts mentioned it; you can't really see it from the main camera angle. But it's clear from the camera behind the goal - and it actually moves the ball that bit closer to him, so an easier save in theory.

Surprised you see it that way as an ex-keeper tbh. His immediate reaction would have been not to dive at all as the shot was clearly going wide, then only on seeing the deflection would he have seen the need to dive. I don't think he could have been expected to get a hand on it, unlike goal 3 and the second (only imho) at home to Armenia.

[Stuttgart88]

It certainly shouldn't be nil in any case. Don't know where you saw that?

I didn't! I was just saying that I assumed a shot going wide would have an XG of zero!

Speaking of XG, I saw Celtic's XG stat late in the Rangers game yesterday and it was a very low number, despite several clear breakaway chances and square balls that just failed to get a touch. I just didn't recognise the XG number against the actual goals i'd have expected given the quality of chances.

[pineapple stu]

I didn't! I was just saying that I assumed a shot going wide would have an XG of zero!

Ah, ok. The "shot going wide" bit isn't really relevant (as is my understanding). For evaluating keepers (PSxG), the shot either goes wide or it doesn't. In this case, it didn't go wide. For evaluating forwards (XG), it's the shot that's being evaluated, and how often you should score from where it's taken. So it might be 30% chance of scoring, 50% of a save, 20% of going wide - so an XG of 0.3.

Surprised you see it that way as an ex-keeper tbh. His immediate reaction would have been not to dive at all as the shot was clearly going wide, then only on seeing the deflection would he have seen the need to dive. I don't think he could have been expected to get a hand on it, unlike goal 3 and the second (only imho) at home to Armenia.

I'm not sure how far wide it was going - and the fact it wasn't given as an own goal suggests the initial shot may even have been on target. (Seeing as an own goal is generally given only when a defending player deflects a off-target shot into the net - as Crafty has mentioned before). Either way, it looks close enough to me that it's one you'd want to cover to be sure? In that case, if he's diving to cover his post, then the deflection towards him should help him.

[Stuttgart88]

I think trusting years of watching and playing football trumps any algorithm imho. It looked to me like it was wide enough to for Bazunu's reflex reaction being to recognise that it was wide and the deflection was late enough to excuse him not getting down in time. They're the only two factors that matter here imho. I'm sure Baz's weight would have shifted to his left immediately the ball was hit but I think he'd have known immediately a dive wasn't necessary, not a fully committed one anyway. The deflection was absolutely key to that goal going in.

[Thewhitepele]

Am I the only one that is now beginning to come to suspect that Travers may actually be the best of our three international goalkeepers? Looks better than Bazunu currently and who knows if we will ever know how good Kelleher is.

[pineapple stu]

I think trusting years of watching and playing football trumps any algorithm imho.

But when you talk about 30/70 saves, isn't that just the exact same algorithm?

And if the shot was wide, why wasn't it given as an own goal? (And I don't know if it may yet get changed)

I'm not sure I'd have been comfortable letting that one go. But then I'm not a pro keeper and have less judgement in that regard. It also seems, looking at the replay from behind again, that after the deflection towards Bazunu, there's spin on the ball which takes it away from him again and that won't have helped.

[Stuttgart88]

But when you talk about 30/70 saves, isn't that just the exact same algorithm?

You reckon XG/PSXG is just a middle-aged bloke making a subjective judgment?!

But anyway, we're splitting hairs to a degree. I was surprisingly disappointed at the divergence between XG and my own XG across a couple of games at the weekend so I'm not sure I'll
ever be won over by it, and I was disappointed by Bazunu's performance even if we can go into the weeds analysing every movement.

Did anyone see Rice's winner against Man U yesterday? I was wondering if we'd be saying that was a should have saved or a might have saved. I think it was at least a missed opportunity for Onana to be a hero, but I kind of felt that despite the deflection it sat up well for a save.

[pineapple stu]

You reckon XG/PSXG is just a middle-aged bloke making a subjective judgment?!

Nope - but I reckon it's the first iteration surely? The stone age effort to the high tech, but the same line of evolution.

[Jolly Red Giant]

I really can't agree with much of this.

But they also have the problem that their keeper doesn't make many saves. You can see the save stats here - for a range of clubs, good defences and bad defences, attacking and defensive, counter-attack and possession. He's down at a 50% save rate - there's only one keeper in the league with a worse record. The average is about 70%. That's a big difference. Or take the PSxG - which is a measure of the keeper, not the defenders, because again it takes as the starting point that the shot has already come in - and he's on -3.3. That is, he's conceded three goals more than you would expect an average keeper to save.

Both those stats were similar last year (54% save rate, lowest in the league for players with more than I think 10 games, and conceded 16 goals more than expeccted), so you can't just overlook that part. They're way off where they need to be.


That just means he did better than McCarthy. Not a great marker.


A young keeper being less useful than a young defender is a fair point, but you can't keep lumping blame on the defence when the players go to clubs like Newcastle, PSV and Chelsea. Yes, there were issues, but again, it wasn't all on them.


I think you are. You dismiss the goalkeeping stats even though they take the defence into account. You absolve him of blame for any of the five goals against Sunderland even though pretty much all the rest of us are saying he should have stopped the third and probably on balance should have kept out one of the others (the 30/70s Stutts mentioned). McCarthy may well end up in the team soon unfortunately, given Bazunu's form this season is the same as the form that caused him to be dropped late last season.

1. I did not absolve him of blame for all five goals - go back to post #839 where I said he should have saved the fifth one - I also suggested that he could have done better for a couple of the others, but I don't think he would have saved them.

2. You may be right - Martin may put in McCarthy - but if he does it will be to protect Bazunu, not because of his form. And things will get worse for Southampton with McCarhy in goals if Martin doesn't sort out the team's defending (and giving silly balls away).

3. You accuse me (and others) of ignoring the stats - I would suggest to you that ignore everything but the stats. Statistics based on algorithms have their place - but soccer is not like American Football (or other sports where they actually demonstrate how good or bad a player is).

So far this season Bazunu has let in 12 goals in five games - lets look at them (the highlights of these games are all up on youtube) -

Sheff Wednesday - 2-1 - goal from a corner from the left - hit to the back post where a Wed player, relatively unchallenged, heads it back across the goalmouth - the striker, unchallenged hammers it from 10 yards out into the bottom left hand corner.

Norwich - 4-4 - and Bazunu made several good saves in this game.

first goal - winger goes down the right-wing with no Southampton player within 15 yards of him - has oceans of time to pick out the cross. Bazunu is positioned properly close to the near post - the ball is crossed to the back post and three Southampton defenders stand watching as a Norwich player jumps unhindered and heads into the net as Bazunu attempts to scramble across the goal.

second goal - shot from outside the box left of the circle - three Southampton defenders around the striker and none get any challenge in (Bednarek turns his back and actually steps out of the way of the ball) - the ball flies across in at the right-hand post past Bazunu at full-stretch.

third goal - a corner - Bazunu is correctly positioned. Four Southampton defenders ball watch as a Norwich player comes in from the 18yard line and has a free header that loops over an outstretched Bazunu into the top left corner.

disallowed goal - free kick from 25 yards. Bazunu is protecting the left side of the goal. Going to attribute some blame here - there are only two Southampton players in the wall - with two Norwich players behind them and then a gaggle of players to block Bazunu's view (he should have had four players in the wall) - Bazunu sees it late but goes full stretch to make a save pushing the ball out to the right of the goal - none of the Southampton players react - Bazunu scrambles to get back on his feet and forced the Norwich player to cross rather than shoot - where it is tapped in by Ashley Barnes with little or no challenge from the Southampton defenders (indeed one of the Norwich players gets in his way).

fourth goal - Norwich player out on the left-wing glides past two defenders and has an ocean of time to cross into the box from 35 yards out - only two players in the box - the ball goes past the Norwich player to the defender, who promptly passes it back to the striker who hammers the ball into the bottom left corner from 12 yards out.

Plymouth - 2-1 - the midfield and defence let a Plymouth player gallop down the right-wing and cross the ball without a challenge. The Southampton defenders stand looking as a Plymouth player gallops to the near post and wallops the ball into the net from 5 yards out. No hope of any goalie stopping it.

QPR - 2-1 - a shot from outside the box, with again no Southampton player closing down the strike - it goes through three players into the bottom right-hand corner with Bazunu at full stretch. Not a hope of saving it.

Sunderland - 0-5 - I have gone through these already. But a couple of quick comments - it doesn't make any difference if the deflected shot was going wide - a deflection will always throw off the goalkeeper - many don't even move when there is deflection and it trickles in beside them.

There is a pattern - Bazunu is taking up the correct positions - the defenders are not - several goals are shots from outside the box into the bottom corners and I suspect that opposition players are being told to shoot from distance because the defenders are making no effort to close down and the shooter has all the time in the world to set themselves up for the shot. Bazunu is not playing poorly - neither is he playing particularly well - but that is primarily down to the positions his defence is putting him in.

You can claim that Bazunu doesn't save as many shots as other goalkeepers - the problem is that the shots are out of his reach (and out of the reach of most other goalkeepers in the PL or Championship). The main problem is with the Southampton defence and midfield who don't track players, don't defend corners, don't make any attempt to block shots and are completely disorganised. Now - I would attribute some of the blame here to Bazunu (although most of it rests with the coaches) - I don't think Bazunu is vocal enough at ordering his defenders around and he doesn't f*ck them out of it when they f*ck-up. But think about a 21 year old goalkeeper challenging an experienced defender (Bednarek) with 150 PL games under his belt and 50 international caps. The 'if he is good enough, he is old enough' doesn't apply to goalies - they have far more responsibility for stopping goals than any other player on the pitch and younger goalkeepers have far more difficulty ordering older experienced defenders around and berating them when they are at fault.

I could go through every game played so far and critique the goalkeeper for every goal scored so far in the PL and Championship (I am not going to) - but I guarantee you that I will find plenty of mistakes for keepers that are not receiving anything like the same criticism that Bazunu is getting.

Now - despite everything - Southampton are currently 7th with 10 points from 5 games and are only 3 points behind leaders Preston. They do have two tough home games after the break - Leicester and Ipswich - but they are a decent team - and if Martin sorts out the defending they still have a good chance of being promoted (can't see Preston lasting and Ipswich have a small squad - so their biggest threats will be Leicester, Norwich and possibly Hull. If Martin doesn't address the defending then they will ship a load of goals but probably will still be floating around the play-off spots because they will score.

[Diggs246]

1. I did not absolve him of blame for all five goals - go back to post #839 where I said he should have saved the fifth one - I also suggested that he could have done better for a couple of the others, but I don't think he would have saved them.

2. You may be right - Martin may put in McCarthy - but if he does it will be to protect Bazunu, not because of his form. And things will get worse for Southampton with McCarhy in goals if Martin doesn't sort out the team's defending (and giving silly balls away).

3. You accuse me (and others) of ignoring the stats - I would suggest to you that ignore everything but the stats. Statistics based on algorithms have their place - but soccer is not like American Football (or other sports where they actually demonstrate how good or bad a player is).

So far this season Bazunu has let in 12 goals in five games - lets look at them (the highlights of these games are all up on youtube) -

Sheff Wednesday - 2-1 - goal from a corner from the left - hit to the back post where a Wed player, relatively unchallenged, heads it back across the goalmouth - the striker, unchallenged hammers it from 10 yards out into the bottom left hand corner.

Norwich - 4-4 - and Bazunu made several good saves in this game.

first goal - winger goes down the right-wing with no Southampton player within 15 yards of him - has oceans of time to pick out the cross. Bazunu is positioned properly close to the near post - the ball is crossed to the back post and three Southampton defenders stand watching as a Norwich player jumps unhindered and heads into the net as Bazunu attempts to scramble across the goal.

second goal - shot from outside the box left of the circle - three Southampton defenders around the striker and none get any challenge in (Bednarek turns his back and actually steps out of the way of the ball) - the ball flies across in at the right-hand post past Bazunu at full-stretch.

third goal - a corner - Bazunu is correctly positioned. Four Southampton defenders ball watch as a Norwich player comes in from the 18yard line and has a free header that loops over an outstretched Bazunu into the top left corner.

disallowed goal - free kick from 25 yards. Bazunu is protecting the left side of the goal. Going to attribute some blame here - there are only two Southampton players in the wall - with two Norwich players behind them and then a gaggle of players to block Bazunu's view (he should have had four players in the wall) - Bazunu sees it late but goes full stretch to make a save pushing the ball out to the right of the goal - none of the Southampton players react - Bazunu scrambles to get back on his feet and forced the Norwich player to cross rather than shoot - where it is tapped in by Ashley Barnes with little or no challenge from the Southampton defenders (indeed one of the Norwich players gets in his way).

fourth goal - Norwich player out on the left-wing glides past two defenders and has an ocean of time to cross into the box from 35 yards out - only two players in the box - the ball goes past the Norwich player to the defender, who promptly passes it back to the striker who hammers the ball into the bottom left corner from 12 yards out.

Plymouth - 2-1 - the midfield and defence let a Plymouth player gallop down the right-wing and cross the ball without a challenge. The Southampton defenders stand looking as a Plymouth player gallops to the near post and wallops the ball into the net from 5 yards out. No hope of any goalie stopping it.

QPR - 2-1 - a shot from outside the box, with again no Southampton player closing down the strike - it goes through three players into the bottom right-hand corner with Bazunu at full stretch. Not a hope of saving it.

Sunderland - 0-5 - I have gone through these already. But a couple of quick comments - it doesn't make any difference if the deflected shot was going wide - a deflection will always throw off the goalkeeper - many don't even move when there is deflection and it trickles in beside them.

There is a pattern - Bazunu is taking up the correct positions - the defenders are not - several goals are shots from outside the box into the bottom corners and I suspect that opposition players are being told to shoot from distance because the defenders are making no effort to close down and the shooter has all the time in the world to set themselves up for the shot. Bazunu is not playing poorly - neither is he playing particularly well - but that is primarily down to the positions his defence is putting him in.

You can claim that Bazunu doesn't save as many shots as other goalkeepers - the problem is that the shots are out of his reach (and out of the reach of most other goalkeepers in the PL or Championship). The main problem is with the Southampton defence and midfield who don't track players, don't defend corners, don't make any attempt to block shots and are completely disorganised. Now - I would attribute some of the blame here to Bazunu (although most of it rests with the coaches) - I don't think Bazunu is vocal enough at ordering his defenders around and he doesn't f*ck them out of it when they f*ck-up. But think about a 21 year old goalkeeper challenging an experienced defender (Bednarek) with 150 PL games under his belt and 50 international caps. The 'if he is good enough, he is old enough' doesn't apply to goalies - they have far more responsibility for stopping goals than any other player on the pitch and younger goalkeepers have far more difficulty ordering older experienced defenders around and berating them when they are at fault.

I could go through every game played so far and critique the goalkeeper for every goal scored so far in the PL and Championship (I am not going to) - but I guarantee you that I will find plenty of mistakes for keepers that are not receiving anything like the same criticism that Bazunu is getting.

Now - despite everything - Southampton are currently 7th with 10 points from 5 games and are only 3 points behind leaders Preston. They do have two tough home games after the break - Leicester and Ipswich - but they are a decent team - and if Martin sorts out the defending they still have a good chance of being promoted (can't see Preston lasting and Ipswich have a small squad - so their biggest threats will be Leicester, Norwich and possibly Hull. If Martin doesn't address the defending then they will ship a load of goals but probably will still be floating around the play-off spots because they will score.

Gavin is this you?