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Sam Johnstone


StefanAVFC

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2 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Was furious when he got fouled by Bent on Saturday. 

He got away with it because it was a foul, but he went up so cautiously and tried to punch it even though it was dropping right on top of him.

Any keeper worth his salt would have gone up and claimed that. And if bent had the audacity to challenge him then he's get bounced off.

So weak.

Was it a foul? Haven't seen any replays of it, but in real time it just look like he completely misjudged it and went down crossing his fingers.

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3 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said:

Was it a foul? Haven't seen any replays of it, but in real time it just look like he completely misjudged it and went down crossing his fingers.

Yeah i think it was. Bent jumped into him.

No excuse though. It was a really weak jump and why he was trying to punch it there I don't know.

With his arms raised he's about 9 foot tall, there's no way he's going to lose an aerial battle with any striker.

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Made a great save and really seemed to grow in confidence after that. Even left his line! His long kicking is abmysal though. Everyone lines up in a group and he kicks it away from them. He also doesn't know when to release the ball qyicklu. Second half green was screaming for it a few times and it was delayed.

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He was infuriating last night, first half especially. He'd get the ball, Baker would show for him short in acres of space and Johnstone would just wait until Baker was marked and then launch it up the pitch. Most of the time to nobody in particular. but even when he hit Kodjia, he wasn't winning it.

 

It does annoy me on goal kicks though that we don't even pretend to want it short. Everyone goes to the halfway line. Every defender.

Even if you have no intention of passing it short, keeping players in your half offering those options would draw some of their players out of midfield and make it easier to win the ball for us.

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4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

He was infuriating last night, first half especially. He'd get the ball, Baker would show for him short in acres of space and Johnstone would just wait until Baker was marked and then launch it up the pitch. Most of the time to nobody in particular. but even when he hit Kodjia, he wasn't winning it.

 

It does annoy me on goal kicks though that we don't even pretend to want it short. Everyone goes to the halfway line. Every defender.

Even if you have no intention of passing it short, keeping players in your half offering those options would draw some of their players out of midfield and make it easier to win the ball for us.

Pah, tactics are over rated. Lump it up the park and hope!

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29 minutes ago, Grasshopper said:

Guzan says Hello

Remember Bosnich's kicking?

Burridge?

oh dear

I don't remember Burridge but I remember the other two just fine.

Johnstone's distribution is comfortably worse than either of those.

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10 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

I don't remember Burridge but I remember the other two just fine.

Johnstone's distribution is comfortably worse than either of those.

Yep. His pass completion of the last 3 games? 19%, 20% and 19%. Which is both damning of his kicking and his lack of willingness to play it out quicker and shorter.

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Why did we break the bank on 3 different strikers and then scrimp on 2 young keepers? I just don't get the logic, it doesn't ever seemed to have been explained why Bruce and co. decided to go with Johnstone 

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24 minutes ago, skarroki said:

Why did we break the bank on 3 different strikers and then scrimp on 2 young keepers? I just don't get the logic, it doesn't ever seemed to have been explained why Bruce and co. decided to go with Johnstone 

^^^^^^^ This - I just don't get it.

Bruce has a reputation for preferring old players - Was Johnstone really the only keeper available in Jan ? 

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10 hours ago, villakram said:

Criminal in this day and age for a keeper not to be able to kick properly. Get rid in the summer. Really, really should have stuck it out with Gollini.

Thing is, he doesn't even have to be good at kicking.

On Tuesday he had at least half a dozen instances of having a defender calling for the ball, yards away, in acres of space, and he chose to wave them away and punt it upfield to nobody.

He could have just rolled it out.

 

He's terrified of making a mistake. 

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23 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

He's terrified of making a mistake. 

I think you are right. He looked fairly confident when he first came into the side but I think the fact it took almost two months for us to win a game really got to him. Aside from the Forest goal he hadn’t really made any diabolical errors leading to a goal but I think he has gradually gotten more hesitant, rooted to his line, and overly cautious in terms of his distribution. He is also unwilling to catch a ball more often than not choosing to punch out.

On Tuesday the crowd were getting on his back a bit which I think does no good. Last two games he has made a couple of very good saves so hopefully that, combined with winning a couple of games and  keeping a couple of clean sheets will see his confidence improve and he will start to play it out short more often.

As things stand today though I wouldn’t see him as our long term goalkeeper.

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1 hour ago, skarroki said:

Why did we break the bank on 3 different strikers and then scrimp on 2 young keepers? I just don't get the logic, it doesn't ever seemed to have been explained why Bruce and co. decided to go with Johnstone 

Without the blunders of both Gollini and Johnstone this season we'd probably be in play off contention right now.

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1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Thing is, he doesn't even have to be good at kicking.

On Tuesday he had at least half a dozen instances of having a defender calling for the ball, yards away, in acres of space, and he chose to wave them away and punt it upfield to nobody.

He could have just rolled it out.

 

He's terrified of making a mistake. 

Welcome to Aston Villa.

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