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The Shay Given thread


RotaxMax125

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Have you ever sat behind the goal with Given in it? Or Guzan for that matter?

His mouth barely opens when setting up a wall?

https://www.youtube....1u5zYOKI

How you described Given, which I very much disagree with (Given has been a top keeper for over 10 years) is exactly what Guzan is doing now. Given was never one for the media, so I'm not sure where that's coming from.

15 goals in 3 games is not near good enough I'm afraid.

I said he barely opens his mouth when he sets up a free kick as a slightly humourous way of saying he doesn't talk to his defenders much generally.

As for the media, I'm talking about the teams he's been associated with, mainly the Geordies but theres also long been the Irish lobby behind him to. The Geordies are beloved by the media and that gave Given a limelight that only shone all the brighter on him with Newcastle being so poor defensively for years that even a crap keeper would be bale to make a few saves from the camera (something Shay has never been above anyway). A considerable section of the Irish fanbase also liked playing him up and the media was happy to lap that up and spout it back out too. Thus he garnered a reputation as being better than he really ever was, because week in week out MOTD was showing Newcastle getting tonked and him pulling off 15 saves and Sky was sucking him off every Geordie game they showed.

He has never organised his defence, he stands there with his mouth welded shut 90 minutes at a time, never leaving his line leaving his defence to deal with everything. Even doing a Friedel/Guzan esque 'AWAY' whenever the ball comes to the box helps as it tells your defenders 'Don't rely on me to get it, you need to'. Given doesn't. When he does come off his line he is hopeless with anything in the air (I genuinely cannot remember him catching a cross, ever) and he also must surely be the most lobbed keeper in the league, I seem to remember him having a couple of years at the end of his time with the Geordies where he got lobbed about 5 times a season and it's happened a fair bit since.

I've never believed he's that good of a keeper. He's a shot stopper and little more, and even his reactions have gone now. We were idiots to buy him and pay him like we do, and he'd solve nothing now. Not that anything needs solving, Guzan's one of the few bright lights at the moment. Possibly only bright light.

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Given is a has been and should never have been brought in on a ridiculously long contract. Hopefully, there will be some mug out there (come on Harry, you know you want another keeper) who will take him off our hands in January.

Guzan has been fine and is far more vocal than given credit for!

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If the defence let a striker go streight through them you can't blame Guzan if the striker scores ?!

What we need is a steadieng influnce at the back and to play 4 at the back NOT 3 as we have done against Chelski,Spurs and Wigan.

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I feel he is best as our number 2 and will be sold in the summer IMO.

He still has 2 cup runs he still needs to play a big part in though and to be fair on him if we make the lge cup final then he should keep his place and not dropped like Guzan was in our last final.

.

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I think it will be Given still for the Cup. Will be interesting if we do make the final though, what the mindset of Guzan would be. Obviously it must have hurt big to have been dropped for the final a few years back, and a part of me wonders if Guzan would even step aside and tell Lambert to let Given play it, knowing how much it sucked from experience. Very unlikely, I know, but just a thought.

Edited by LockStockVilla
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I don't recall saying that we was in the League Cup Final.

However, just for clarification, I will amend my comment.

I believe that Guzan will play in the League Cup Final if we manage (over 2 legs) to beat a team that are 3 divisions below us.

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I never said it's unlikely that we'll make it. I fully expect us to make it, but saying "Guzan will play in the final" kind of implies it's a certainty.

Thankfully I think Lambert will make sure the players don't approach the games with a complacent attitude.

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