I think you'll find Kalu is in the right area and if the keeper doesn't touch it he should score but let's leave it there
Careful, remember that is my first cousin once removed you are talking about there. (Mrs Keighley and I thought his hairstyle was a bit odd but then we have known him since he was a baby).
So basically if the goalkeeper either didn't exist or just entirely refused to do his job at all then it would have bounced through to Kalu to score. Fantastic! A bit like insisting any shot on target would have gone in if the goalkeeper didn't touch it.
Or put another way, if the keeper hadn't dived to tip the ball away leading to the goal, Kalu would have scored.
Tough times for the BedWetters. Used to be "we're heading for League 1" now it's "Sarr's cross that directly lead to a goal was a poor ball, actually"
So, again, if the keeper had stayed rooted to his line, not done his job at all and ignored the ball and entirely allowed to find its way through to Kalu.
Doesn’t really matter unfortunately. He has such high frequency for serious errors that any benefit is quickly offset. Keith Dublin has some great games for us a well, but you knew what was coming.
So, again, keeper was forced to come off his line to palm the ball away because it would have otherwise reached Kalu. No one would expect him to just stay on his line and just allow it to reach Kalu, other than you ?
18M for Gray and he couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo. He had a small purple patch during our FA Cup run but I don't think i've ever seen such an inept footballer at controling a ball. Sarr was over priced and was almost certainly a luxury purhase at the time. We all know that money that could of been spent elsewhere in the side but it's history now. I still think we might sell Sarr in January if the right price came in for him, especially if his form continues to be up and down after he returns from the WC where he will undoubtably play above himself.
What? My entire point is that he did come for it, as any keeper should, but made a mess of it because he was slow to react, his starting position was awful and he palmed it straight to one of our players. A competent goalkeeper would have claimed it. Saying "oh but it would have reached Kalu" means absolutely nothing unless you're expecting the goalkeeper to be so incompetent that he just let's it drop in at the near post, doesn't come for the ball at all and just let's it pass him to the back post. It's not a good cross because it may have been heading for Kalu if the goalkeeper was somehow even more incompetent in dealing with it than he actually was. The fact is it's a cross that didn't directly reach or go really anywhere near any of our players, and we ended up scoring because rather than claiming the ball, the keeper had a complete nightmare and effectively gifted us a goal. Tell me how I'm wrong again and it's an assist, by the way? ... No?
I’ve just fractured my arm and am a little bit high on pain relief but I think the answer to the Sarr question is this. - Did we overpay for him? Yes, significantly. - Is he still a footballer who has the ability to change a game in a blink of an eye? Yes, he has done on many occasions. - Does he tend to frustrate us in equal amounts? Yes, he definitely does. - Did the cross lead to a goal and was it in a dangerous area? Yes it was. - Could he have done more on the night? Yes he could. - Am I glad he is playing for us instead of a divisional rival? Yes, many other championship clubs would give their right leg for a player like him. - Is it his fault we overpayed? No it’s not. Summary - I think we ought to cut him a little slack from time to time.
Yeah thought he did OK. Worrying how he seems to have lost a yard of pace, though wouldn't be the end if the world most games in this league.
Thought he did alright although Im not sure whether some of the wavering of notes was nerves or deliberate vibrato.
He’s 16 and has certainly never played to that many people live before (let alone all those watching on Sky). And he is a Watford fan, to boot. I think he was initially nervous, yes, but he got better as it went on. I think the latter part was definitely vibrato.
Not knowing if he was 16 or 80, I thought he did fine, now knowing he is only 16 I think he did extremely well and you, his family and all that know him should be extremely proud!
You are absolutely correct in your judgements, let’s say we paid 500k for him and everyone would be singing his praises, it’s not our money, it not our call on who we buy, we have the pleasure of watching a player who is going to the World Cup playing for our team, I don’t remember that happening when I started watching Walker, Welbourne and Williams!
?? No one expected the keeper to leave it !! That’s the point. The cross was so good that he had to go for it but it was far enough away from his reach that he couldn’t collect it and was then unlucky that it went straight to Pedro.
God, this really is just completely delusional nonsense. Sarr dropped a cross to the near post where no one actually was and the keeper dealt with it extremely poorly by palming it off in a completely different direction to our striker - who the original ball was going absolutely nowhere near - to score. It was "far enough away from his reach" because his starting position for and reaction to the cross was appalling. It was bad goalkeeping. If you really think a ball in that didn't actually land in the vicinity of any of our players was "so good" then there's no helping you. Once again, as I, others on here and punditry last night who aren't seeing it through rose tinted glasses said, a proper goalkeeper comes and claims that ball comfortably. It wasn't "unlucky", it was woeful goalkeeping from Reading's back up keeper, and definitely not some sort of unstoppably fantastic cross.
Based on your description above you are clearly talking about a different cross. Talking of punditry, listen to the “punditry” on the video clip “oh what a ball” and Skysports who praised the cross. Not a chance the keeper just “comes and claims” it. He was just unlucky he could only push it out to Pedro.
No, there's not a chance Reading's second choice keeper comes and claims it, because he made a mistake and his starting position and reaction to the cross were appalling, leaving himself with no choice but to fling himself at it desperately and fumble it to Pedro. Any competent goalkeeper does, though. It was blatantly bad goalkeeping and insisting he was just unlucky is ridiculous. You actually thought it counted as an assist, so I think I'll probably not take much notice of your opinion on this one.
You need to have a word with both the sky tv and WFC commentators too then as they both praised the cross. I didn’t say it was a “direct assist”, the keeper touched it, but clearly without that cross there’s no goal so Sarr deserves credit. I’d agree with you if it was a lofted ball that the keeper came for and dropped. Look we aren’t going to agree, it’s subjective, so no point in wasting more time on this. I appreciate you see it differently to me and the video & TV commentators.
You said "Of course it was an assist as I'm sure all the official "non-Nath" stats will show", which is flat out wrong. No stats will show it was in any way an assist, because it factually wasn't.
Why the **** are people arguing about Sarr's cross? Like many of his crosses he just slung it into an area and a decent keeper would have gathered it easily. That guy who came on for Reading was absolute gash, as was Sarr last night again.
Ok. “Proper teaser of a delivery that Bouzanis(?) has to try and intervene” per Sky but you’re probably right. Awful cross that he should have just come out and caught.
It being a supposed "teaser of a delivery" still doesn't mean that the goalkeeper shouldn't have done far better with it than he did. If you know anything about goalkeeping you can see his starting position is poor and he's then palmed straight to our player. Two mistakes. We've not scored because Sarr has dropped some sort of worldy, undefendable cross straight to one of our forwards head/feet, we've scored because the Reading keeper failed to deal with it competently and pushed the ball - that was nowhere near any of our players in the box - straight out to our striker.
Yes I don’t know why all keepers don’t always just wander out and gather all his crosses easily, and so eliminating all of his assists. One of football’s great mysteries.
