Questionable goalkeepers

[cswhitlock]

So I have no doubt it’s a split camp but I for one don’t think that Bentley is good enough after yesterday and previous performances since joining…we believed we had a potential England keeper…I have always thought very differently….he definitely does not make me feel happy when he is on the team sheet…His distribution has improved but he doesn’t command his box and was at fault for the second goal…Discuss 

[Joe hicks]

14 minutes ago, cswhitlock said:

So I have no doubt it’s a split camp but I for one don’t think that Bentley is good enough after yesterday and previous performances since joining…we believed we had a potential England keeper…I have always thought very differently….he definitely does not make me feel happy when he is on the team sheet…His distribution has improved but he doesn’t command his box and was at fault for the second goal…Discuss 

I wonder if out inability to defend our 6 yrd box is partly due to his lack of dominance in the area! 

[grifty]

16 minutes ago, cswhitlock said:

So I have no doubt it’s a split camp but I for one don’t think that Bentley is good enough after yesterday and previous performances since joining…we believed we had a potential England keeper…I have always thought very differently….he definitely does not make me feel happy when he is on the team sheet…His distribution has improved but he doesn’t command his box and was at fault for the second goal…Discuss 

I think it's split in terms of you and a few other lunatics and everyone else if you don't think Bentley is good enough for the championship.

[Merrick's Marvels]

23 minutes ago, cswhitlock said:

So I have no doubt it’s a split camp but I for one don’t think that Bentley is good enough after yesterday and previous performances since joining…we believed we had a potential England keeper…

Did we?

I remember thinking - why are Brentford, an infinitely better organised club than us in terms of transfer policy, getting rid of their highly-rated goalkeeper?

Decent player, happy enough with him, but I think we know why now.

[BTRFTG]

Bentley's command of his box is non-existent, but I think you're pushing it somewhat to blame him for the second yesterday. Atkinson was ground-rooted, powder-puff in the challenge (hopefully a one-off.) T'was that which cost us.

Bentley's a decent shot-stopper, as he proved last year, problem being he gets too much practice in that respect. Better sides tend to opt for dominant keepers who control balls into the box and who aren't constantly mounting a rearguard action.

Certainly Pearson needs to sort Bentley's movement and catching pronto, else long-term he won't be any form of solution.

[BigTone]

I would be of the opinion that in DB we have the keeping position well covered especially with the back up of MO'L.

We have more pressing issues elsewhere I think.

[Fordy62]

This place just gets more and more ridiculous. 

[GrahamC]

10 minutes ago, Fordy62 said:

This place just gets more and more ridiculous. 

Absolutely.

We have about 8 other problems to solve before we start to look at a goalkeeper who is one of our best 2 players & could comfortably play in a top 8 side.

[Lrrr]

If Bentley could command the box he’d be a premier league keeper, at our level we need to accept players will have gaps in their skill sets and do what we can to improve/cope with their poor ones. People need to remember how many great games he had last season, yes he had a few clangers/but his ‘goals’ saved vs poor ones conceded works out about level 

[Supersonic Robin]

Bentley, like most Championship players, does have some slightly weaker areas to his game. As others have said, he could probably command/control his box slightly better, and he does have a mistake in him. Conversely, in terms of shot stopping, he's significantly above average in the context of Championship. 

It's perhaps fair to say that our fans can be guilty of overhyping him a bit - is he a future England goalkeeper, or even the best GK in the Championship? Probably not. 

However, is Bentley "good enough" for a Bristol City side who are likely aiming for a lower midtable finish this season? Absolutely. In fact he's much of the reason that we still find ourselves in the Championship this season!

There are much more pressing areas for improvement in our starting 11.

[sunningdalered]

I think you've got your answer. Apart from a few who can't see any shortcomings in his game, the majority are seeing his inability to command the box, or come for pretty much any high ball into the box, as the trade off for his shot stopping ability. I feel he also slows play a bit too much at times, but, hey, I look forward to the time when upgrading the goalkeeper is a luxury that we can afford. 

[MarcusX]

1 hour ago, BTRFTG said:

Bentley's command of his box is non-existent, but I think you're pushing it somewhat to blame him for the second yesterday. Atkinson was ground-rooted, powder-puff in the challenge (hopefully a one-off.) T'was that which cost us.

Bentley's a decent shot-stopper, as he proved last year, problem being he gets too much practice in that respect. Better sides tend to opt for dominant keepers who control balls into the box and who aren't constantly mounting a rearguard action.

Certainly Pearson needs to sort Bentley's movement and catching pronto, else long-term he won't be any form of solution.

Isn’t being a good shot stopper like the minimum requirement for a keeper? Has any keeper ever been called a poor shot stopper? If so, he’s probably not playing much

[Northern Red]

Without Bentley's performances last season we'd now be playing in League One. He's not flawless, and if he was then he wouldn't be playing at this level for us.

The reaction to adversity on this forum is an absolute ******* joke.

[Maltshoveller]

Mercer or Heaton he is not

But more than good enough for a poor championship club

We have bigger problems than our keeper

[Northern Red]

2 minutes ago, Maltshoveller said:

Mercer or Heaton he is not

But more than good enough for a poor championship club

We have bigger problems than our keeper

As @RalphMilnesLeftFoot mentions above, there were plenty who used to criticise Heaton when he was here.

[RedM]

I just saw, via my social media following daughter, that Bentley has just become a Father again, early hours of Friday I believe. Wonder if he faced a late dash up to Boro in this case?

Judging by what usually happens I’m expecting his form to become a bit unsettled as he adjusts.

Congratulations, btw Dan if you are reading this. 

Edit: And if he is considered not good enough, are the stories of his Agent trying to secure an upwards move for him all false then?

[cswhitlock]

2 hours ago, Fordy62 said:

This place just gets more and more ridiculous. 

Because I have an opinion and I see flaws ? It was a question based on the goal conceded yesterday and to gauge opinion…thought that was the point of a forum? For each to discuss their personal view…it’s not ridiculous at all to ask a valid question 

[frenchred]

Fwiw while I don't believe Bentley is one of our better keepers when compared to previous incumbents, he is more than adequate for the present, we have other far more reaching problems to sort out

[Pezo]

I would argue that goal keep is the 1 position on the pitch we have covered. If anyone thinks that goalkeeper is the area we should be looking at upgrading before others then I would say your watching a very different game to me. 

[glynriley]

Blimey. He's not exactly Allison Becker. But he's not Alison Moyet either. 

[Waffleflap]

He doesn't command the box as much as he should but our defenders should be doing better. I think we need a better left and right back and a decent striker first . 

[GrahamC]

1 hour ago, Maltshoveller said:

Mercer or Heaton he is not

But more than good enough for a poor championship club

We have bigger problems than our keeper

Neither of them did anything for us.

Mercer was injured for the vast majority of his 3 years, so played just 25 league games & I can remember a few howlers (one at Luton) in that very small sample size. Because he saved a few penalties in the run to the JPT final & allegedly decked Steve Jones, he’s seen as far better than he was.

People forget Heaton arrived on a free from Cardiff after a move to Watford fell through, admittedly he played in a poor side but he wasn’t any great shakes in his year with us.

He did go on to have an excellent spell at Burnley which clouds people’s judgment, but he was actually dropped for Gerken at least once that season.

[Ronnie Sinclair]

No better or worse than what we've had in recent years - nearly every goalkeeper we've had over the last 30 years has been critiqued at some point (i.e. 'Basso was a clown', 'Phillips was a flapper', 'Welch is Mr. Magoo' etc etc).

The only truly shit ones were Kite, Marinovic (shudder), James and Parish.

[AppyDAZE]

We have DB to thank for the fact we are still playing in the Championship this sesason

Player of the season 20-21, and not many could argue with that.

Short memories.

 

[Redandproud]

4 hours ago, grifty said:

I think it's split in terms of you and a few other lunatics and everyone else if you don't think Bentley is good enough for the championship.

Said that for a long time,not championship type keeper,nor is O'Leary,

[BS4 on Tour...]

Short memories abound - Bentley is good enough for Bristol City - I appreciate crowds being allowed back into football stadia has perhaps resulted in an outpouring of emotion and relief - but some of that has seemed to manifest itself in unrealistic expectations .... there were even some on here maligning the fact our fantastic new training facility is not as good as Leicester City’s training centre - good grief, I’d like to leave the ‘unrealistic comparisons’ to the annoying nephew squatting vultures up the road ...

[The Swan and Cemetery]

As others have pointed out, Bentley is far from perfect and hence is at Ashton Gate rather than Parc des Princes or the Etihad. However he’s good enough to be a long way down the list of concerns. That said, if we understand the things he’s less good at it, it makes sense to reduce his exposure to those things and therefore more effort/structure to stop crosses/avoid daft free kicks, seems like a decent addition to the our ‘top 5 things to get better at’ list. 

[grifty]

40 minutes ago, Redandproud said:

Said that for a long time,not championship type keeper,nor is O'Leary,

Then you are one of the few lunatics.

[LondonBristolian]

Repeating what others have said but a player who is excellent at every aspect of his game would not be with us.

Bentley makes a few mistakes but saves us far more points thane costs us and I honestly think we would have been down without him last season.

I look at the team at the moment and we lack a natural right back, effective wingers and a striker who can actually play in the system the manager wants to employ, plus there are still question marks about if we can control the midfield and we don't yet know how our second-choice left back can perform at Championship level.

As with any Championship club, all our players could theoretically be upgraded at some point but goalkeeper is very definitely eleventh on my list of positions we need to improve. 

[Redandproud]

42 minutes ago, grifty said:

Then you are one of the few lunatics.

So I'm a lunatic because I expressed my opinion, shocking statement,grow up,