Simon Mignolet

[kingfunk]

It's ridiculous to blame the keeper for every goal we have conceded. The nature of the attacking football we now play naturally leaves us defensively weaker at times.

3 games away from our first title in donkeys years and people having a go at our keeper who has made more important saves than **** ups

[ronanm]

Should get begovic in and be done with it!

[Red_Polo]

Despite the reckless abandon we play with, it's not like we've conceded many more goals this season anyway. 1 more with three games to go. If anyone's laying that at having Mignolet instead of Reina, I'm lost for words.

[john316]

Should get begovic in and be done with it!

- he's the same kind of goal keeper. People just want change for changes sake at times.

[kingfunk]

Despite the reckless abandon we play with, it's not like we've conceded many more goals this season anyway. 1 more with three games to go. If anyone's laying that at having Mignolet instead of Reina, I'm lost for words.

it's absolutely ridiculous. Some people will find anything to satisfy their moaning needs.

[Leyton388]

Look if we win the league this year we can't have a moan about the Mig as he would be the first keeper to do it in 24 years.

[RedReet]

As expected, the point is being clearly missed. If we can't debate that we might have some issues at the back and funnily enough the keeper might be part of this, then what's the point?

[Norbs]

Who's the worst keeper to gain a winner's medal? Bartez?

[Exiled_red]

Mignolet is still relatively young for a GK, he's a good shot stopper, but other areas of his game need working on, we knew this at the start of the season (and most people seemed happy about it). It's obvious that we've been working on these weaknesses and there have been some mistakes but that is inevitable, I don't see the point in getting rid of him and starting again with someone else, in fact it seems somewhat rash to me.

[Fredo]

Barthez was a great keeper I thought.

[RedReet]

Mignolet isn't a bad keeper, but he definitely hasn't transformed our team as people want you to believe and he can definitely be improved upon if the club tried.

He's done enough to earn another year at least, but he does need to improve certain areas.

[Norbs]

Barthez was a great keeper I thought.

That's kind of my point. If you look at the list of first choice keepers they're all very good. You don't win the league with a bad keeper and so maybe we shouldn't be so harsh on ours

[john316]

There is nothing wrong with discussing areas for improvement but it quickly turns into "Sell Him, he's rubbish, if we had kept Pepe Reina we'd have conceded less goals...."

I'm sure people used to laugh at David De Gea and he's now a top keeper. Mignolet moving from a small club like Sunderland with no expectations to a huge club has been a titanic move for him. His 'faults' can all be improved but elite shot stopping is something keepers seem to have or don't have. He's one of the best around at the position so us spending another **** load of money improving a strength of the team would be utter folly IMO. Spend it on just acquiring more talent for the squad.

[Red_Polo]

As expected, the point is being clearly missed. If we can't debate that we might have some issues at the back and funnily enough the keeper might be part of this, then what's the point?

If you can't stop conflating poor defensive record with poor goalkeeping record, then you're right there is no point. It's pretty disingenuous use of stats, clearly more than a keeper's ability affects the goals conceded column.

The responses you received go directly against that point, which you made in the larger part of your post...

for such a great shot stopper, what good is that if he's letting in more goals than Reina ever did? He's already conceded more than Reina ever did in a full season and this will be our worst defensive record since James was back in nets, which has to be a bit of a a concern. I know excuses can be offered and some of them are fair, but if a keeper is supposed to be a better shot stopper then you'd expect to concede less goals, otherwise what's the point?

Everyone knows we haven't been up to scratch defensively, it's not news. Pointing out the flaws in your argument aren't ignorance of that in any way, it's just a valid criticism of a lousy use of stats.

[RichC]

We defend as a team and blaming the keeper for the goals is wrong, he's had a few ricks but so have the entire back line at some point during the season.

The way we play leaves us open to more chances for the opposition hence the defence and keeper are worked harder and there will be from time to time mistakes.