TIM HOWARD THOUGH

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

No lad.

Costel Pantilimon?

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

My thoughts on Howard were that he was let back into the side too easy last season

He shouldn't have got back in while Robles was doing well

He should have had to wait for Robles to have a poor run and then earned his place back

That being said, I have no personal animosity to him whatsoever. What was he supposed to do in that situation? "It's okay boss, I don't want to play, let Joel keep going"?

 

[Pittsburgh Footy]

You've just said that even at his best Howard was perhaps not top 5 material. We want to be top 4, therefore we need a better keeper. Simple as that.

Absolutely. But we don't have a Top 4-caliber Number 10 and we are not deep with Top 4 caliber wings or centre backs, and last year Lukaku didn't perform as a Top 4 striker, all of which, IMO are more important areas to address from a cost/benefit perspective. We don't have the finances of Man City or Man U, and given the current situation, we need to focus our dollars where we get the most bang for our buck - and spending more on a GK right now isn't where we should spend

 

[MikeH72]

Because Robles isn't a patch on Howard. Like it or not...that's the truth!!

"three clean sheets" I'm sick of hearing that quote like it actually means something. Everyone wanted Robles burned alive up until those 3 games where he maybe showed he wasn't completely useless!

Howard's really not that bad. He makes mistakes yes BUT he also makes some outstanding saves. He's saved us many points which seems to get ignored in the hate for him.

Don't get me wrong. Upgrading him sometime soon would be great but I guess it's not easy, because he's not completely useless like most seem to insist.

Really? Funnily enough I can't recall that whatsoever in the last few years, at any point

 

[MikeH72]

Nice one for moving him back, i wanted to see what it would look like but don't have the photoshop skills (or however you did it).

95% of the goal isn't free? He's covering the near post(as he should from the way the ball was crossed) but he's not too close, he's able to dive and cover most of the other side of the goal but it's humanly impossible to cover all of it.

The ball is this side of the near post so if Pelle is gonna score at the far post there it's gonna have to be low and hard (or high and looping) and right in the corner, like i said, no keeper would be able to save that, but most shots across him he would be able to dive across and save them.

By being a couple of yards further out he narrows the angle and increases the chances of blocking the ball but gives himself less reaction time to dive. It's probably 50/50 as to which position is better, they both have positives and negatives, i prefer him standing at the X, you might prefer him in his actual position.

But having said all that, in your position he got lobbed and had to show outstanding athleticism to dive back and save it. In my position he simply catches it.

I just cannot see how he can be lobbed at his near post from 6 yards out and be in the right place. You just don't see that happening and for good reason.

This is all spot on. Every time I watch that save I never think "wow what a world class save", I just think it looks bizarre. Also, watch it again and note the little half-jump to his right just before the ball gets to Pelle. I mean, what is all that about? What is he actually trying to do?

 

[blue4eva77]

Really? Funnily enough I can't recall that whatsoever in the last few years, at any point

Behave lad. You're a known Howard hater fair enough, but stop talking utter bollocks for the sake of it. Only on the previous page there is clip of him saving a penalty at Villa park as an example....

You don't like him, we get it.

We are all in agreement that Howard is coming to the end of his career here at Everton and we need a replacement, just not at this moment in time.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Behave lad. You're a known Howard hater fair enough, but stop talking utter bollocks for the sake of it. Only on the previous page there is clip of him saving a penalty at Villa park as an example....

You don't like him, we get it.

We are all in agreement that Howard is coming to the end of his career here at Everton and we need a replacement, just not at this moment in time.

If Howard performs like he did last season would you still be of the opinion we didn't need to change him? For me him and Barry were the worst performers last season (apart from fringe players like Alcaraz Distin and Atsu), yet we're going into the new season with both seemingly keeping their first team spots. Insane logic. A keeper should have been the first purchase of the summer, you can reap a huge points uplift for little outlay. You can spend massive on a Lukaku who hasn't resulted in any points uplift. You cannot carry a poor keeper if you want top 4. You certainly cannot carry one of the worst in the league if you want top 4. The small margins will cost you eventually.

 

[MikeH72]

Behave lad. You're a known Howard hater fair enough, but stop talking utter bollocks for the sake of it. Only on the previous page there is clip of him saving a penalty at Villa park as an example....

You don't like him, we get it.

We are all in agreement that Howard is coming to the end of his career here at Everton and we need a replacement, just not at this moment in time.

People go on about 13/14 as if he was absolutely imperious, but they still forget him punching the ball in his own net at Stamford Bridge in the dying seconds and running 40 yards out his goal for no reason to get lobbed by Sturridge. And then there's the City game at Goodison where he'd blatantly taken a bung but I'll forgive him for that

 

[blue4eva77]

People go on about 13/14 as if he was absolutely imperious, but they still forget him punching the ball in his own net at Stamford Bridge in the dying seconds and running 40 yards out his goal for no reason to get lobbed by Sturridge. And then there's the City game at Goodison where he'd blatantly taken a bung but I'll forgive him for that

We're Everton and unfortunately unless things change off the field, we're never going to get a truly world class goalkeeper trotting out at Goodison, so we're pretty much going to always have a goalkeeper making the odd error or two. There is a fine margin between a world class keeper and a decent solid goalkeeper. Its also a position where the fickle fan remembers only the errors and not the decent saves and decent moments to judge the player.

For every error you bring up, the more balanced fan will mention a highlight to cancel it out.

 

[MikeH72]

We're Everton and unfortunately unless things change off the field, we're never going to get a truly world class goalkeeper trotting out at Goodison, so we're pretty much going to always have a goalkeeper making the odd error or two. There is a fine margin between a world class keeper and a decent solid goalkeeper. Its also a position where the fickle fan remembers only the errors and not the decent saves and decent moments to judge the player.

For every error you bring up, the more balanced fan will mention a highlight to cancel it out.

No one expects a world class keeper, just a competent one. Tim Howard is no longer competent unfortunately, as he proved on many, many occasions last season

Teams worse than us had keepers that did their jobs better than him

 

[blue4eva77]

If Howard performs like he did last season would you still be of the opinion we didn't need to change him? For me him and Barry were the worst performers last season (apart from fringe players like Alcaraz Distin and Atsu), yet we're going into the new season with both seemingly keeping their first team spots. Insane logic. A keeper should have been the first purchase of the summer, you can reap a huge points uplift for little outlay. You can spend massive on a Lukaku who hasn't resulted in any points uplift. You cannot carry a poor keeper if you want top 4. You certainly cannot carry one of the worst in the league if you want top 4. The small margins will cost you eventually.

It doesn't matter how he performs this upcoming season. His age suggests we need to look into a replacement, just not this summer. Other area's of our squad are in desperate need of an upgrade, desperate need. We seriously lack creativity at times, we're one serious injury away in Lukaku, Jagielka, Stones and Coleman for it to be a total disaster with Lukaku being the main one. Our club doesn't have the kind of money required to go out check every priority off in one sweep. We have to prioritize unfortunately and i personally would rather spend our very limited funds available on the more obvious area's of the squad before replacing Howard.

Robles is not the answer either. Maybe he comes of age and surprises a few but for what i've seen with my own eyes, he isn't a long term option.

 

[blue4eva77]

No one expects a world class keeper, just a competent one. Tim Howard is no longer competent unfortunately, as he proved on many, many occasions last season

Teams worse than us had keepers that did their jobs better than him

Many a player last season let our team and fans down though.

 

[MikeH72]

Many a player last season let our team and fans down though.

That is true, and I've picked on the likes of Barry as well. It all boils down to the fact the manager played those two way too often last season

 

[blue4eva77]

That is true, and I've picked on the likes of Barry as well. It all boils down to the fact the manager played those two way too often last season

Agreed. I also would of liked to have seen Robles a few more times and i think Howard should of earned his place back as Robles didn't deserve to be dropped, i get that and im with most on that.

Just don't agree with a few saying Howard has been poo throughout his time here, has never saved us points, is a liability and more. You'll always get the fan though that remember only the last things a player did; Howard on his career at Everton as a whole has been nothing less than an excellent goalkeeper.

 

[Saint Domingo]

It doesn't matter how he performs this upcoming season. His age suggests we need to look into a replacement, just not this summer. Other area's of our squad are in desperate need of an upgrade, desperate need. We seriously lack creativity at times, we're one serious injury away in Lukaku, Jagielka, Stones and Coleman for it to be a total disaster with Lukaku being the main one. Our club doesn't have the kind of money required to go out check every priority off in one sweep. We have to prioritize unfortunately and i personally would rather spend our very limited funds available on the more obvious area's of the squad before replacing Howard.

Robles is not the answer either. Maybe he comes of age and surprises a few but for what i've seen with my own eyes, he isn't a long term option.

Is disagree, before last season we were rarely in danger of getting relegated and it's not as though we had Lukaku for all those seasons, on the whole we had poor strikers who were often injured anyway. Lukaku got ten league goals last year, I would wager any of Mirallas Naismith probably even Long or McAleny hitting that number if you played them up top for 38 games. So Lukaku is hardly indispensable, we have ok cover upfront. By not replacing Howard this summer you're just writing off next season because with a good keeper and a good defence you can win things. Our midfield is a bit impotent but our forwards are useful. With a poor keeper you need a prolific front line and ours aren't at that level of scoring 2-4 goals a game to carry Howard. There's good keepers available this summer. Begovic just moved to sit on Chelsea's bench. There might not be next season so the same old line of 'we may as well keep tim' will get rolled out. He needs replacing now if we want any chance of top 4 or a trophy next season.