Westwood out for two weeks

[Guest LondonOwl313]

2 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

He's the best goalkeeper in the Championship apparently

If that's the case and if there was no issue around his personality/temperament/fitness clubs would snap him up in a heart beat

e.g the clubs who have come down with parachute payments that everyone keeps crying about

 

Sorry but I'm not having it that a player supposedly 'the best in the championship' could be out of competitive football for a full year and not get snapped up.

Imagine if that was the best striker in the Championship? 

Or the best creative midfielder?

Or the best centre half?

 

 

Yes he does have fitness issues and is 36.. his distribution has never been the best but at his peak his shot stopping and organisational skills were probably the best in the league.

 

Another Championship club would have taken him I’m sure but I bet we weren’t prepared to release on a free and Chansiri probably wanted a fee.

 

So even if he’s only on £20k a week (probably more) and we wanted a million for him, that’s a £2m outlay for a player you’re going to assess season by season at his age. Not a huge surprise the move didn’t materialise.

 

If he leaves here on a free at the end of the season he’ll be a much more attractive proposition and will probably sign a year by year contract somewhere 

[FreshOwl]

3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

This is where I (without wanting to argue or cause offence) challenge this statement.

What have you seen in the last year (the last full calendar year) to suggest that he's 'still up there'?

 

 

You don’t lose talent in a year. Keepers notoriously age better and peak later in their career 

 

What I would say is that there’s been nothing to prove he’s not, and until then you’d have to assume he’s of a similar standard to what he was 

[cowl]

3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

I agree with your point about once another keeper comes in who's able that it will all die down

But I completely disagree with your point about loyalty. We've got people (not yourself) now trying to suggest to me that he doesn't repeatedly make blunders, or that he's not repeatedly injured.

Basically totally and completely disregarding the truth, what everyone has seen with their own eyes, and what we all know to be true

That's like knocking on everyone's front door, holding out a wooden spoon and saying 'this is a fork this is.. look... it's a fork'

That's purely down to loyalty and clinging desperately onto the past and still believing that Westwood is now what he was back then when Carlos was here.

Westwood isn't that person anymore.

The facts, the stats, the performances, the injuries, the blunders, the errors all show this - time and time and time again

 

It's time people stopped with the nonsense now and accepted it

Because we can all see what Westwood is really like now

It's such a sad end to his time with us but it really really does need to be the end of his time with us now.

 

There's mitigating circumstances though that are enough for people to hope still. (long time out so rusty, played twice in quick succession after so long out etc. — and it's the manager making these comments too, after all).

 

And hope's rather important for football fans after all.

 

While ever we have 3 keepers none of which are convincing, fans have little else but to hope the historically most able of the three can recover his form.

[@owlstalk]

Just now, mcmigo said:

 1.  Can Westwood overcome this injury and get to a level of fitness that means he can play as a number 1 for the rest of the season  

Question (as I don't know the answer without trying to find it) - what season/year was the last time Westwood did this?

[cowl]

8 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

He's the best goalkeeper in the Championship apparently

If that's the case and if there was no issue around his personality/temperament/fitness clubs would snap him up in a heart beat

e.g the clubs who have come down with parachute payments that everyone keeps crying about

 

Sorry but I'm not having it that a player supposedly 'the best in the championship' could be out of competitive football for a full year and not get snapped up.

Imagine if that was the best striker in the Championship? 

Or the best creative midfielder?

Or the best centre half?

 

The manager's talking up one of his players. That's all.

 

But in any case, even if it's not true now, there'd have been a strong argument to that it was at least true just over two years ago.

[daveyboy66]

Looking forward to Westwood playing in the u23's to get his fitness up like Pulis wants before they are back in the squad

[Guest LondonOwl313]

3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

Question (as I don't know the answer without trying to find it) - what season/year was the last time Westwood did this?

2018/19 he came in in December then from memory I think of our last 24 games he missed the second game back, then got injured in the warm up at Norwich and missed that plus Bristol City the week after. So managed 21 out of 24 last 6 months of the season

[@owlstalk]

1 minute ago, LondonOwl313 said:

2018/19 he came in in December then from memory I think of our last 24 games he missed the second game back, then got injured in the warm up at Norwich and missed that plus Bristol City the week after. So managed 21 out of 24 last 6 months of the season

 

 

Thanks mate


So what was the last season he played a full season without missing any games?

What year was that?

[mcmigo]

Pulis and the goalkeeping coaches have decisions to be made about which flaw in the goalkeepers causes least potential damage, or which of the below can be fixed most easily. 

 

1.  Westwood - if fit - has timing issues coming off his line

2.  Dawson - has issues on parrying shots to dangerous areas

3.  Wildsmith - has some positioning issues and occasional handling issues on shots close and low down.

 

Not easy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest LondonOwl313]

1 minute ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

Thanks mate


So what was the last season he played a full season without missing any games?

What year was that?

2016/17 he only missed a handful. Injured second half of 2017/18 then the last 3 seasons it’s hard to judge as half the time he was told to stay at home by the manager 

[@owlstalk]

Just now, mcmigo said:

 1.  Westwood - if fit - has timing issues coming off his line

 

And going off injured

[@owlstalk]

Just now, LondonOwl313 said:

2016/17 he only missed a handful. Injured second half of 2017/18 then the last 3 seasons it’s hard to judge as half the time he was told to stay at home by the manager 

 

So is the answer 'never' then?

He's never once played a full season for us without being injured?

[Guest LondonOwl313]

Just now, LondonOwl313 said:

2016/17 he only missed a handful. Injured second half of 2017/18 then the last 3 seasons it’s hard to judge as half the time he was told to stay at home by the manager 

Guess you could say that he played nearly a full year between December 2018 and November 2019 and that the fitness thing wasn’t a major issue 

[Guest LondonOwl313]

Just now, @owlstalk said:

 

So is the answer 'never' then?

He's never once played a full season for us without being injured?

He played 43 games for us twice.. id say that’s good enough as a fitness record but that’s 4 years ago

[cowl]

3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

So is the answer 'never' then?

He's never once played a full season for us without being injured?

 

I think this has probably been the case for more than at least half the squad for each season over the past—well, God knows how long.

 

In any case, we very rarely get more than one player who starts every game, and often times not even one.

[@owlstalk]

Just now, cowl said:

 

I think this has probably been the case for more than at least half the squad for each season over the past—well, God knows how long.

 

In any case, we very rarely get more than one player who starts every game, and often times not even one.

 

 

Very true and that has to be a massive contributor to our lack of success in recent times

[edwinowl]

1 hour ago, @owlstalk said:

You say that but our keepers keep throwing the ball into the back of the net

Can't be good for defensive confidence that

Neither wildsmith nor Dawson are good enough at this level. 
Westwood is 

[CircleSeven]

7 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

And going off injured

I do love a Westwood debate but find it difficult to get massively enthusiastic about him either way. 

I’m always surprised by how much passion there is one way or the other about him. 
 

At his best he was a good keeper and seemed to organise the defence well but his his distribution for me has always been mediocre and even at his best had a mistake or two in him 

 

But on the other side I’d rather he be available than not. Mainly as our other options are a bit poor also. As a minimum keep him fit and in the squad so he’s available for sale so we can at least get a few quid in for him
 

Seeing him go off injured after being stuck back in cold was to me the least surprising thing ever to have happened on a football field. 

Anyway. We need to buy another keeper if we possibly can. 
 

In my view Westwood in or out is neither as fantastic or problematic as say keeping Iorfa or Luongo fit  

 

Anyway, welcome back Kieron. Hope your groin feels better soon!

[mcmigo]

3 minutes ago, edwinowl said:

Neither wildsmith nor Dawson are good enough at this level. 
Westwood is 

Do you accept or not that Westwood has, over the past 18 months, not been as good at timing coming off his line ?  Is he still good enough with this issue in his game ?

[cowl]

3 minutes ago, @owlstalk said:

 

 

Very true and that has to be a massive contributor to our lack of success in recent times

 

The sad truth is that when you exclude Westwood's extended periods on the naughty step, his fitness record has been the depressing ‘normal’. And I reckon Hutchinson's was only probably slightly below (and actually very fit over his last season with us ironically enough). The problem with these two players wasn't the number of games they started though, but the number of games they finished.

 

But I've no doubt, injuries and general squad fitness has held us back massively. Yeah, we also find other ways to fail, but none more so than this, in my opinion.