The "Zak Steffen" watch

Canyoudigit said:
Unfortunately keeper's tend to be remembered for the mistakes they make and steffen does make quite a lot.
Could you imagine him doing that in a play off final at Wembley?
Makes the blood run cold that thought.
He's one of the most frustrating keepers ever because the customary howler apart he's a really good keeper.
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Keepers are like weather forecasters. When they get it right, no one remembers, when they get it wrong, no one forgets!
 
He's been generally pretty good apart from the odd error. Some of his distribution is brilliant so a bit of a mixed bag on that front.
I find it amusing that so many get in such a panic when he's in possession yet he's so relaxed
 
Like I said last week this is steffen and you either take the good with the negatives because he’s not going to change his style.

As others have said carrick seems happy enough with it.
 
It was a costly error by two players. The pass would've been OK if Mcnair had been more alert to it, but I wouldn't be slating either of them for it. That's how we play and it's normally effective/good to watch. Our forwards hit the post twice, costing us two goals. People are much quicker to get all melodramatic when the costly error is defending rather than attacking which, logically, makes little sense as the result is about goals scored vs goals conceded.

In other words, get behind your team instead of moaning abut them. Then you won't appear to be like one of those appalling parents on the touchlines at junior football matches.
 
RilloRed said:
I don’t want to Slate him , but he needs to improve his execution of simple passes if he is to have a top level career .
Get his head over the ball and concentrate on exactly where he wants to pass the ball .
Focused rather than casual .
I want him to improve that for his sake and ours .
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Well put.
Me too, carrick took the blame in his interview so that will do for me as I trust him to make the best decision in the interests of the club , fans and the team
 
The thing is, this is still a new way of playing for most keepers in teams playing out from the back. A bit like when the back pass rule came in, keepers who weren’t trained to deal with them from a younger age struggled for a while.

Every keeper is making mistakes across all leagues when playing it out from the back, even at the top end of the EPL. That is the reason why Carrick takes reponsibility when there is a mistake because he is asking him to play that way.

In years to come keepers from a young age will be trained to play much more with their feet as well as their hands so you will see fewer mistakes.
 
Scrote said:
I think you very much see what you want to see.

Other than the poor ball to McNair (and I'm of the opinion that whilst it was definitely Steffen's error, McNair is the weak link in this style of play at the moment) Steffen was solid.
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Are you sure you're not seeing what you want to see when it comes to McNair?

There's no way McNair is the weak link to this style of play, he's far more suited to it than Fry. We seem to have improved in how we dominate sides since McNair came in too. And have conceded fewer goals.

Fry is the better defender, that's clear but that's a different matter. Sometimes it's what's better for the team overall than individual strengths. McNair helps us keep and move the ball a lot better which reduces the amount of defending we have to do. But when we do have to defend he's not as solid.

That's probably part of the conundrum for Carrick. But a "nice problem to have" as they both give us something different in a positive way.

Agree re: Steffen mind.
 
The amount of criticism he gets absolutely baffles me.
Yes I get his pass to Mcnair was poor, however it works both ways, mcnair was on his heels and allowed it to slip past him.
It happens. Every other pass was calm, collected and on target.
He also was calm collecting the ball from crosses, punches were decent and he pulled off a decent save in the second half.

He's a massive improvement on what's came before him.

Problem is before betenelli we were spoilt with fantastic goalkeepers time and time again.

Even our best made mistakes, The big Aussie literally spilt the ball into the net in a cup final!
 
Good job that the Cardiff header bounced over the bar when Steffan came and got nowhere near the cross, otherwise we'd be talking about 2 goalkeeper mistakes giving 2 goals (and maybe 2 points) away.
 
Here is the quote from Michael Carrick in the "Match-Day Thread" Media Conference prior to the Watford game:

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Zak Steffen?
An unfortunate reporter made the comment that Zak had come "under srutiny" and was met with an instant reply:
"Not from me!
I dont know why (!?)".
Carrick wants the team to play through the pitch and be fluid in its approach.
"Zak is a big part of that. He starts our attacks off....".
"I`ve got no problem with Zak."

fmttmboro.com

* The Unofficial "Official". Boro v Watford. Match-Day Thread *

Its that time again>>>> Is Zak "under srutiny" (?) - "Not from me! I dont know why? I`ve got no problem with Zak"! [Michael Carrick] Six days is a long time in football and much can happen. Whats done is done: that appeared to be the message yesterday from Michael Carrick in his Media...
fmttmboro.com fmttmboro.com
 
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BoroPhil said:
couldn't disagree more really - he is key to the way we start our attacks and Carrick said as much after the match.
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I think that's Carrick saying the right things , I don't believe him though.
RilloRed said:
I don’t want to Slate him , but he needs to improve his execution of simple passes if he is to have a top level career .
Get his head over the ball and concentrate on exactly where he wants to pass the ball .
Focused rather than casual .
I want him to improve that for his sake and ours .
Click to expand...
100% agree. He could really improve and iron out these mistakes easily.
 
Not many, if any outfield players complete all of their short passes. We can't expect that from a goalkeeper.

It's clearly instruction from Carrick to build from the back, so any criticism should be aimed at the system too.

Obviously he can improve but if he never made any mistakes he wouldn't be in this division, that's for sure. I'm happy to take the risk with the reward. I don't think he'll be here next year whatever happens if the reported wages are accurate.
 
He's being asked to play by passing out from the back. Asked by Carrick, who can do little wrong it seems. Hoofing it long to the other sides defenders is not part of the game plan. With this tactic comes the dangers such as the error we saw in the last game. The upsides are better than the downsides.

Yes Staffan has made a couple of mistakes, but does not deserves criticism IMO.
 
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