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Niki - worth a thread after today.


The Constant Rabbit

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I watched it live and just watched it again over brekkie.

Niki:

The Good - 2 top-class saves,really really good, loud commanding voice, organises defence very well at corners and free kicks

The Best - FINALLY - one player has stepped up and taken control of distribution from the back.

After the usual 15-20 mins of playing the ball out to Baker or Kalas - often in our own penalty area, with the usual pointless result of 4 passes and a long hoof, Niki clearly had enough of it.

15 - 20 time he simply ignored one of ours coming into the area or 5 yrds outside to claim to ball, and gestured for them to push up. Every goal kick the same (unless there was a quick break on) - pushed the defence up to at least 5m before  the half way.

What a difference after that, we were able to actually link play and our mids weren't having to go box to box all game to support the strikers. More men in the middle, better passing, more shots. Hopefully LJ will ditch the playing out 5m into our own box as its plain stupid with the players we have.

The Bad - oh Niki maaaate!  Dropping a catch 8m out from goal with 30 secs left wasn't doing my Blood Pressure any good - and how lucky not to conceed a penalty. The ref completely bottled it.  From the Lansdown, it looked ok - but from the Atyeo Camera view which was shown 4 or 5 times - absolute nailed on penalty. The Fulham player could easily have been badly injured, as Niki just took him out at the knees BEFORE getting the ball back.

 

Overall though - a massive part of getting a point today, great game, as has for me won the starting place from Bentley.

Well played Niki, great game.

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15 minutes ago, SX227 said:

I watched it live and just watched it again over brekkie.

Niki:

The Good - 2 top-class saves,really really good, loud commanding voice, organises defence very well at corners and free kicks

The Best - FINALLY - one player has stepped up and taken control of distribution from the back.

After the usual 15-20 mins of playing the ball out to Baker or Kalas - often in our own penalty area, with the usual pointless result of 4 passes and a long hoof, Niki clearly had enough of it.

15 - 20 time he simply ignored one of ours coming into the area or 5 yrds outside to claim to ball, and gestured for them to push up. Every goal kick the same (unless there was a quick break on) - pushed the defence up to at least 5m before  the half way.

What a difference after that, we were able to actually link play and our mids weren't having to go box to box all game to support the strikers. More men in the middle, better passing, more shots. Hopefully LJ will ditch the playing out 5m into our own box as its plain stupid with the players we have.

The Bad - oh Niki maaaate!  Dropping a catch 8m out from goal with 30 secs left wasn't doing my Blood Pressure any good - and how lucky not to conceed a penalty. The ref completely bottled it.  From the Lansdown, it looked ok - but from the Atyeo Camera view which was shown 4 or 5 times - absolute nailed on penalty. The Fulham player could easily have been badly injured, as Niki just took him out at the knees BEFORE getting the ball back.

 

Overall though - a massive part of getting a point today, great game, as has for me won the starting place from Bentley.

Well played Niki, great game.

Thanks for mentioning his communication.  Someone asked me on Twitter whether I’d pick Niki and Dan if both were fit.  I said it was a tough call, but I sense Niki is the calmer of the two, but wondered who communicated best.  Kalas has looked excellent last two games, I wondered whether having Niki behind him is part of that?  I don’t know, could be just coincidence.

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17 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

Thanks for mentioning his communication.  Someone asked me on Twitter whether I’d pick Niki and Dan if both were fit.  I said it was a tough call, but I sense Niki is the calmer of the two, but wondered who communicated best.  Kalas has looked excellent last two games, I wondered whether having Niki behind him is part of that?  I don’t know, could be just coincidence.

No I agree.

Having a keeper (as you know from your playing days) who tells EVERYONE where to be and keep in that formation is huge.No looking around at where your team-mates are means you maintain concentration and helps you not 'lose your man' from crosses and set-pieces.

Niki does that well, and I think instills a bit more confidence that DB, who is a great shop stopper, but has become a bit flappy lately.

DB is a confidence player, and his has looked shot in the last 4-5 games. I dunno if you watch him after a clanger, but he has a full on rant at himself. I'm sure the defenders hear it - but he's nowhere near as vocal except at free-kicks with wall placement.

Niki for me now - DB long-term when he gets his head right again. 

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14 minutes ago, SX227 said:

No I agree.

Having a keeper (as you know from your playing days) who tells EVERYONE where to be and keep in that formation is huge.No looking around at where your team-mates are means you maintain concentration and helps you not 'lose your man' from crosses and set-pieces.

Niki does that well, and I think instills a bit more confidence that DB, who is a great shop stopper, but has become a bit flappy lately.

DB is a confidence player, and his has looked shot in the last 4-5 games. I dunno if you watch him after a clanger, but he has a full on rant at himself. I'm sure the defenders hear it - but he's nowhere near as vocal except at free-kicks with wall placement.

Niki for me now - DB long-term when he gets his head right again. 

I was lucky to play in front of a number of good keepers.  Not just good at the technical aspects of being a keeper, but great talkers too.  Not ranters at all, but “left shoulder Fevs, touch-tight Fevs, effin’ ell Fevs, just get rid of the thing” ?

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5 hours ago, Davefevs said:

Thanks for mentioning his communication.  Someone asked me on Twitter whether I’d pick Niki and Dan if both were fit.  I said it was a tough call, but I sense Niki is the calmer of the two, but wondered who communicated best.  Kalas has looked excellent last two games, I wondered whether having Niki behind him is part of that?  I don’t know, could be just coincidence.

I think we are very lucky in having two top class goalies available.

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I have felt sorry for him all season. Was solid last year and then for some reason Johnson was allowed to spend £2 million on Bentley plus the wages. A good signing if we needed a keeper but we didn’t. We should have had Niki competing with O’Leary or Wollacott. 

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We look more solid and calm with Niki playing at the moment.

Unless he has a complete mare and needs to be dropped, for me he stays in goal. Bentley has to earn his place back, and recently he has had a few "iffy" moments. He's a good keeper, and has saved us more times this season than I care to remember, but for me needs a spell out of the team now to prove he's not undroppable.

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The other important thing as a goalie is that when Niki does make a save he pushes the ball away from danger rather than right back into it. Bentley has made some great saves this season which have still led to goals as they go straight back to an opposition player. Not unreasonably that has frustrated Bentley as well and seems to have knocked his confidence.
 

Bentley probably has better distribution, especially his long throws but Maenpaa is the calmer goalkeeper, and the Kalas return to form may have much to do with having a goalkeeper he trusts and knows behind him. If we could only keep Baker on the pitch for more than 20 minutes at a time as well, we might have a consistent defensive set up that could stop us shipping so many goals, and give us a chance of the playoffs.
 

As much as I have bemoaned our lack of midfield ability and creativity, our major weakness is our defence and is highlighted by us having the only negative goal difference in the top half of the table. Admittedly the midfield has often been at fault there as well, as we have faced more shots than pretty much any other team in the division, which suggests it is more than the back 4/5 and the goalkeeper that have been the problem.

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1 hour ago, SuperRed said:

I have felt sorry for him all season. Was solid last year and then for some reason Johnson was allowed to spend £2 million on Bentley plus the wages. A good signing if we needed a keeper but we didn’t. We should have had Niki competing with O’Leary or Wollacott. 

Often wondered same the need Or necessity  to spend millions on a new keeper when the one  we had was decent in first place. I mentioned earlier post that LJ will now have a decision to make.  Niki to keep the shirt 

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2 hours ago, DT The Optimist said:

Often wondered same the need Or necessity  to spend millions on a new keeper when the one  we had was decent in first place. I mentioned earlier post that LJ will now have a decision to make.  Niki to keep the shirt 

Me too.

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Jojo has been the keeper on the bench since January as the home grown player, so Nikki has missed out, no reflection on Nikki though. LJ also said on interview that he prefers to not play under 21 games but have high intensity training sessions instead. End of last season he had a few injury issues (why O’Leary had some games and we signed the New Zealander) so not too surprised we signed Bentley. 
 

When we signed him I had never heard of him, but living in West Sussex, I know a couple of Brighton ST holders who said he was pretty good, very calm and reliable, unlucky not to have played more often. 
 

I  think he must be probably the best ‘reserve’ keeper in the Championship...... 

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I’m glad they stopped trying to play it out from the back. I don’t have the stats but I can’t remember the last time we didn’t play ourselves into trouble or end up in trouble and hoofing it up front anyway.
Building play from the back is all well and good if you have the players to do it. 
We haven’t and surely an expert coach would see that. Every away team know we can’t and they press us into mistakes. Glad they stopped doing it midway through the first half

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3 hours ago, SuperRed said:

I have felt sorry for him all season. Was solid last year and then for some reason Johnson was allowed to spend £2 million on Bentley plus the wages. A good signing if we needed a keeper but we didn’t. We should have had Niki competing with O’Leary or Wollacott. 

I think it was one of those signings where a really good player becomes available at the right age and the right price. We had been after him since before he joined Brentford and having both him and Maenpaa is a bonus imo.

FWIW I'd have Maenpaa as first choice this season - not sure if he'll be here next season given we have two younger keepers with great ability and potential in Bentley and O'Leary.

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4 minutes ago, screech said:

I’m glad they stopped trying to play it out from the back. I don’t have the stats but I can’t remember the last time we didn’t play ourselves into trouble or end up in trouble and hoofing it up front anyway.
Building play from the back is all well and good if you have the players to do it. 
We haven’t and surely an expert coach would see that. Every away team know we can’t and they press us into mistakes. Glad they stopped doing it midway through the first half

Think it's more how we don't have options to pass to, more than ability of our players.

On Maenpaa, I have said all season I prefer him over Bentley. Not sure if this Bentley injury is real. If so then I wonder what LJ does when both fit.

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3 hours ago, SuperRed said:

I have felt sorry for him all season. Was solid last year and then for some reason Johnson was allowed to spend £2 million on Bentley plus the wages. A good signing if we needed a keeper but we didn’t. We should have had Niki competing with O’Leary or Wollacott. 

Bare in mind Bentley has a better pedigree, has played more games yet being 9 years younger than Niki. Think people forget that. We’d maybe have Niki for one more season after this one so the signing was 100% necessary and £2m is a steal when you think of the dross we’ve spent £2m + on recently. 

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Bentley has been brilliant for the best part of the season remember. I like and rate Niki alot, but I've seen some comments on here that are a bit way of the mark on DB.

Bentley is still a good contender for player of the season, or have we all forgotten all those 1 v 1 saves and all the other stuff already?

Seems like some have.

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56 minutes ago, marcofisher said:

I do think we have an interesting issue with goalkeepers next year. I think now O’Leary has a years loan under his belt, he has the talent to dislodge whoever is the number 1 goalkeeper next year if he is not sent on loan again. 

For me, it’s quite simple (not saying I’m right though ?), we go:

- Bentley and O’Leary (Gilmartin providing cover and coaching whilst JoJo gets another loan), release Niki (as much as I rate him)

- Mäenpää and O’Leary (ditto above) because we’d had good offers for Bentley 

No need to keep Bentley and Mäenpää imho.

 

47 minutes ago, JonDolman said:

Think it's more how we don't have options to pass to, more than ability of our players.

On Maenpaa, I have said all season I prefer him over Bentley. Not sure if this Bentley injury is real. If so then I wonder what LJ does when both fit.

Macca said he was back in training last week during his interview.  Anyone see him at the game?  He didn’t do the keeper’s warm-up with Pat and Rene...which Niki has done when not in the 18.  Not trying to stir, but wonder whether there was truth in the bust-up.

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2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

For me, it’s quite simple (not saying I’m right though ?), we go:

- Bentley and O’Leary (Gilmartin providing cover and coaching whilst JoJo gets another loan), release Niki (as much as I rate him)

- Mäenpää and O’Leary (ditto above) because we’d had good offers for Bentley 

No need to keep Bentley and Mäenpää imho.

 

Macca said he was back in training last week during his interview.  Anyone see him at the game?  He didn’t do the keeper’s warm-up with Pat and Rene...which Niki has done when not in the 18.  Not trying to stir, but wonder whether there was truth in the bust-up.

I reckon he probably isn't injured and I believe LJ has often used niggles as a made up reason to drop someone so nothing more is made of it.

The only other thing with that though is players would not want loads of made up injuries on their record. So who knows.

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39 minutes ago, AppyDAZE said:

Bentley has been brilliant for the best part of the season remember. I like and rate Niki alot, but I've seen some comments on here that are a bit way of the mark on DB.

Bentley is still a good contender for player of the season, or have we all forgotten all those 1 v 1 saves and all the other stuff already?

Seems like some have.

I believe that since the arrival of baby Bentley Daddy’s performances have been a little bit below his high standards.

It’s great to have two top keepers with the young guns coming on in leaps and bounds . 

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Overall Niki is a better keeper. In this day Bentley may seem better as he is a better footballer but I'd have niki all day long. Capable of making the saves Bentley does but importantly gets the ball away from the danger zone when he does save. Communicates much better and apart from that dodgy moment I'd say better at claiming balls. His long throws are pretty handy as well which makes up for his lack of passing ability. 

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1 minute ago, paul_fox said:

Overall Niki is a better keeper. In this day Bentley may seem better as he is a better footballer but I'd have niki all day long. Capable of making the saves Bentley does but importantly gets the ball away from the danger zone when he does save. Communicates much better and apart from that dodgy moment I'd say better at claiming balls. His long throws are pretty handy as well which makes up for his lack of passing ability. 

It’s a bit funny really, but throughout Bentley’s really good form, as I’ve always rated Niki, I thought it would be good to get him back.  But you feel a bit “dirty” suggesting it, if you know what I mean!!!

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