O’Leary

[The Bard]

1 hour ago, Lew-T said:

I still think Nige is trying to steer Bents away from the side in the hope of somebody coming in for him in the summer. 
 

Bents is a big asset to us but as he’s a GK, Nige can probably get away with it. Especially as Max is a decent enough back up. If Bents goes meaning we can keep Semenyo or Massengo longer than so be it.

He's an asset that we will probably have to sell in the summer.  On next year's accounts he is a cost of £500k for his fee and about £750k wages.  If we can get a fee of £500k to £1 million and he gets a comparable deal elsewhere, we can go and get an alternative number 1 and save money as well as tying Max down for a few more years.  Someone to compete with Max for the number 1 shirt over the next 3 or 4 years.

I think Nige has decided Bentley's not worth what we pay, that we can't afford to offer him anything in the region of what he currently gets for a new deal.  Maybe the club started negotiating an extension with Bentley's representatives and they were miles apart?

It would be best to get as much for him as we can and trust our judgement sourcing a cheaper replacement who will hopefully turn out a better player in the longer term.  It's the sort of medium to long term, strategic management we needed as opposed to the haphazard player collection of recent seasons.

If Bentley comes back in for the last 10 games or so, it wouldn't surprise me.  Allow him to get back to form and get noticed so we can get the best price for him having had a good, long, look at O'Leary.

 

[Rich]

On 10/02/2022 at 06:09, Numero Uno said:

I would have rested him last night but credit to him he had his best game from a goalkeeping perspective (shots, crosses and the like, forget the distribution) since coming back in the side imo. Positive last night.

Sadly I was unable to attend this match due to ill health, first time in decades. Unfortunately I was only able to watch on Red Button and then only the second half (damned Virgin TV). Not had time to come onto the site since so please excuse the late response.

Also excuse me for offering a different perspective on the situation, one based only on what I saw, without the benefit of replays, match reports and OTIB comments.

If we're really assessing Max and claiming this was his best game since coming back into the side, would it be  fair to say that he wasn't tested in the same way as in the previous games?

Although according to match facts Reading had eighteen shots, only four were on target and mostly from distance. I base this question on what I saw in the 2nd half, what the reports state and others confirm that, the first half was quite uneventful. Our goal never came under threat until the latter stages of the game. I did see one occasion where the ball was there to claim, should have been claimed but, wasn't. It's fair to say he did all that was expected of him apart from that. I suppose it's similar to a striker that's had an indifferent/poor game but, scores a 90+ minute penalty, did he play well?

 

We could claim to have the best keeper in the world if, he only had tame shots from distance and within arms reach and, crosses to catch where he faced no challenge from a striker. Reading play in a different way to the teams Max has previously faced, apart from QPR, both having an emphasis more so on pass and move. The others being Blackpool, Preston, Luton, Cardiff, Fulham x2, all mix it up and are also good at being direct. 

Unfortunately, we also have to play those type of teams that compete closer to goal and pump crosses into the danger zone. I'm of the opinion that Max is not as well suited to that type of opposition than Bentley is at this moment and, I don't think he ever will be. I also think this is the weaker side of DB's game, if it weren't then I doubt he'd be here. Looking at the league table, there are at least sixteen teams that are a threat from set pieces and crosses into the box, obviously increasing the threat of goals against, the others playing a more technical expansive game.

I've just seen some brilliant photos on the City Facebook page, there's quite a few of keepers diving at the feet of strikers, and leaping to either catch or punch the ball in close proximity to strikers and defenders alike. If you stay on your line as Max usually chooses to do, we'll continue to concede from the resultant goal attempt, as opposed to preventing that attempt. I doubt we'll ever see pictures of Max in those situations.

Not his Dad are you?

 

[Rich]

21 hours ago, The Swan and Cemetery said:

Not sure he gets that much abuse, but fair to say he gets criticised and I’d definitely be in that camp. Think it’s ambiguous between Dan and Max and in my view, neither look up to what we’d ideally like, but whether or not getting someone better is viable, not sure. A decision might need to be made around the team deliberately setting up to counteract an individual GK’s weaknesses. My starter for 10 in terms of their ‘jobs to be done’ and recent form:

shot stopping: DB better, but increasingly prone to push the ball out, rather than away

crosses/dominating box: both poor, maybe Dan slightly less poor

organising defence in front of them: both poor

sweeper-keeping: Max better in terms of both positioning (Dan very likely to be tethered to his 6 yard box when lots of space in front of him) and distribution. But not outstanding.

DB of previous seasons definitely ahead, but seems to have regressed (think maybe a similar pattern at Brentford?). If he can get back to the form he’s shown in the past, Dan being number one sounds fine and dandy, but if he can’t, think we need a new keeper. 

in fairness to both of them, it takes a few to tango and whilst maybe they’re not imbuing the defence with confidence, it’s unlikely that they’re feeling they’ve a rock solid set up in front of them. Under performance, injuries, relatively small squad, all contributing. 

Fair assessment in my opinion. I feel NP is giving Max a few games to really assess what he's seen on the training pitch.

[MarcusX]

On 10/02/2022 at 08:15, Super said:

He didn't really have many saves to make and the ones he did were all straight forward.

He made a great save in the second half albeit already offside but he didn’t know that