West Bromich Albion are once again stuck in a relegation scrap, Roberto Di Matteo made sure he did not say fight, as it only becomes a fight once it is mathematically impossible to survive. WBA have history here; the team the term 'yo-yo' club was invented for finally seemed to have reached a level of respectability and sustainability - at the moment there are four worse teams than them in the Premier League, and on the evidence seen in games either as a team or by individuals, the team have shown enough ingenuity and nuance to survive this season. You want to call winning 3-2 at Goodison Park a scrap, go to Upton Park every week. There is a team scrapping for survival. Go and watch Wolves give every team a goal in the first 5 minutes; that is suicidal. WBA have conducted themselves with merit; unfortunately the results over Christmas and the new 2011 have not been kind, five straight defeats extending the run to 6, they have not won since December 6th (3-1 at home to Newcastle, the game that got Chris Hughton the sack) and they are now out of the FA Cup suffering defeat at the hands of Reading of the Championship, maybe not a shock on the scale of Stevenage over Newcastle, but still not anticipated.
And so prompting a change or a shake up, Di Matteo has decided to drop his goalkeeper, and former England No.1, Scott Carson with the excuse, 'he has made a few mistakes over the last few games' one highlighted was a soft header by Simon Davies in the 3-0 defeat at Craven Cottage, that gave Fulham the lead. It seems unfortunate, and somewhat knee-jerk to drop Carson from the home game against Blackpool; Carson has made a few mistakes in his career; most notably when he conceded the first goal against Croatia in 2007 that meant England failed to qualify for Euro2008. Like that night, I feel the finger of blame is being hastily pointed at Carson - yes he has had a notable mare, but things have not gelled for WBA for sometime and they have not been taking the opportunities when presented to them.
When they eventually got a penalty against Man.Utd; Peter Odemwingie decided to not even hit the target after sending Kusczak the wrong way - a symbol of how bad things have become, they cannot score when giving the chance. The point is though has Di Matteo thought about dropping his Nigerian striker to the bench as a lesson, or told him to take penalties until he can score with his eyes closed.
This is indicative of the modern day football club - workmanlike professionals seeking perfection mixed in with tinkering managerial styles. Carson is just another of the young England goalkeeping professionals who are in the spotlight and whose mistakes are highlighted to the nth degree by analysis and rolling coverage. Name a recent England keeper and you will remember a mistake; Ben Foster had an almighty mare at Upton Park on Wednesday somehow letting Carlton Cole's most powerful shot in with a mixture of complacency and being wrong footed. Chris Kirkland, for so long the future is now at Leicester after so many injuries, Robert Green, well we all saw it and even Joe Hart fumbled a cross that led to Leicester's equaliser on Sunday night. Even two stalwarts, David(s) James and Seaman are remembered more for their howlers than their long service and determination to seek that perfection. David Seaman's international career ended in Asia, because he fluffed a cross from Ronaldinho that he should have kept out, unfortunately because that was the winning goal he got the blame, people forget about the poor attempted tackle by David Beckham which led to Brazil's equaliser.
I would not mind if Carson was being replaced by a suitable replacement, but does Boaz Myhill fill Baggies fans with confidence; the manager has been clever by doing it for a home game, knowing that the loyal support will be right behind the newly instated no.1 but it could fly up in his face if Blackpool maintain their impressive away form this Saturday. As there are only ever one goalkeeper on a starting XI and teams are defined by their results; if they concede, the goalie gets the brunt of complaints. Being a Tottenham fan, you have to admit Gomes has more mistakes than blinders, even blinding mistakes sometimes.
Most goalkeepers have extreme confidence and self-belief in their ability, however, more and more this intent of placing the blame at their doorstep can only be detrimental to the performance of our young goalkeepers, it is starting earlier. When our U21s lost 4-0 to Germany in 2009, a terrible forewarning to the following summer when the team of Ozil and Muller ran rampant, the blame was placed at Scott Loach, who was undone by a cruel deflection for the first goal. 4-0..must be the goalie's fault I hear you cry. However, maybe Di Matteo should look round the changing room at other under-achieving players, maybe a new purchase in the transfer window will bring results - but to drop a goalkeeper, who has had some fine performances this season, is not so much knee-jerk as naive.
Boaz Myhill
Peter Odemwingie
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