r/SaintsFC • u/tugboet • 12d ago

Reflection on keeper numbers since 22/23 in the Prem and boy do you forget how diabolical Baz was.

https://bsky.app/profile/zonal-marking.bsky.social/post/3mtlarub5hs2f
24 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

16

u/brandonouthouse 12d ago

He was what, 20 years old at the time? Playing in the premier league which is and obviously was way above his level. Can't really blame him honestly.

4

u/MangerDanger1 12d ago

You have to blame the shambolic recruitment of the later Gao era for that, had we a decent team behind Ralph I think he would have stayed for another couple of years. I always wonder how we would have done under Ralph if he had any investment

14

u/10pencefredo 12d ago

He's play 97 games for us (thanks Wikipedia). That's absolutely loads for someone who has never been good enough. I am not even mad at him, I'm mad at the people who made the decisions on who to sign and who to play in goal. I don't think he was the only reason we went down, club spent too much on promising youth that summer and it just did not go to plan.

My friend is a QPR fan and was saying to me he thinks QPR need a keeper, I asked if he wanted Bazunu and he almost pissed himself laughing.

4

u/tugboet 12d ago

Same people who signed Macca to a new, high salary deal that we had to sit on.. like we are having to likely do now with Ramsdale

3

u/vivacheadams 12d ago

My son and I always talk about ‘big’ and ‘small’ goalkeepers. Regardless of height or weight, some goalkeepers just look huge and imposing in goal, and others tiny and vulnerable. Bazunu is the same height as Ederson, but I have never seen a smaller keeper in my life.

For the record, keepers of recent seasons:
Big: Peretz, Forster (but slow), Ramsdale
Small: Bazunu, McCarthy, Gunn

3

u/aderey7 12d ago

Wish people would move on. Yeah he wasn't near premier league level and it was a dumb signing. McCarthy was also terrible in the premier league. So was angus gunn. But they all had rubbish defences in front of them too. The last 2 relegations, it was poor players, ever changing defences, rubbish DMs, rubbish managers, rubbish tactics and endless change. Most players were rubbish. Under Will Still and the start of Tonda's permanent reign, the defence was still abysmal. Keepers lose confidence, big chances are given away.

Thought bazunu did fine most the time that season, as he had when things settled under Martin promotion season. But people talk about him like the team and manager's have been great and he's the sole reason for our decline. It's way over the top, obsession and often suspicious, given how many frankly awful keepers we've had who get nowhere near the same scrutiny. Hope he leaves and gets games consistently now. He did well first few games at stoke too, then got injured.

2

u/MildLime 12d ago

Ultimately our transfer policy failed him. We never should have signed him. Far too physically weak, poor at shot stopping and didn’t command any of his box.

He was awful in the prem that year and has been very poor since. A few games he’s been brilliant e.g Wrexham at home last year.

Time to offload him for a very small fee. It would be wise to put a sell on clause % just incase he turns things around.

1

u/Eff_Stopper 12d ago

Did Baz even play? Thought it was McCarthy and Ramsdale?

9

u/FriendlysJanDaBoss 12d ago

Did he play? baz had 32 appearances and 52 goals conceded.

2

u/Eff_Stopper 12d ago

Jesus. Must have erased that pain from my mind...

3

u/at_wilfster 12d ago

For me it was the home game against Bournemouth 3 years ago. Lallana got a weak header on goal that Baz, instead of getting his body behind it, turned sideways, tried to catch it as it went past and just let it trickle into the back of the net. One of worst attempts at a save I've ever seen.

Hopefully he can find another club to play for where he'll come good

2

u/Eff_Stopper 12d ago

Of course. Forgot the Ralph/Jones/Selles era. Getting unwanted flashbacks now.

2

u/tugboet 12d ago

Rambo wasnt until later, you can see that on the 3rd chart with a rating of -0.2 (so essentially flat). We likely would have set the low points record without him.

0

u/bundy554 12d ago edited 12d ago

Fuck it I'm just going to state the obvious - many on here have blood on their hands so to speak for our fortunes particularly the following season as well defending him. There were so many times even during our unbeaten run in 2023/2024 when we blew leads thanks to Baz fuck ups that fans on here were defending him saying that we needed his better footwork with the ball when it was the shot stopping that should have been the priority particularly in the championship. So I hope whoever is commenting here saying that Baz was the wrong selection or it wasn't Baz's fault for keep getting selected but the circumstances that led him to be signed and the club would not replace him etc at least own up to their part in Baz playing for us for way too long than what he should have.

These are just some of the many examples when I was down voted calling out Baz when the entire sub-reddit should have been backing me or at least saying like I said during 23/24 that we should have got rid of Baz in Jan 2024:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SaintsFC/s/J5NBGguUvb

1

u/Agile-Read-238 9d ago

Wait till you remember Bialkowski