Nick Pope

[Dr Jinx]

For where the club owners said they want to go with the club I think nearly every current squad player will be replaceable by the time we get there.

 

Pope is an excellent shot stopper although he does have a rare lapse of judgement. I don’t mind that.. he’s human. 98% of the time he’s more than decent.

 

The only thing which would make me say anything negative about him is that his distribution is poor for this level. He just doesn’t pass the ball well and his long kicking is weak and aimless. As a pro getting paid more in a week than maybe I do in a year, the fact he hasn’t put any effort (or at least any effort that’s worked) or time into leg strengthening and conditioning is annoying. It would make a massive difference to how he could strike the ball. He’s got proper skinny legs.

 

I’m sure there’s a way of doing it where he can stay nimble yet improve massively on it.

[mondonewc]

59 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

He’s becoming a scapegoat on here. 
 

The punch wasn’t great. But he did punch it fairly far and not into a dangerous area. 
 

The actual defending was awful.  But it’s Pope that’s getting the stick. 

But that’s not a mistake. It wasn’t great keeping but he punched it out the danger zone. 

What would he be a scapegoat for? We are doing amazing, few if any thought after two years that we'd have got this far so quickly, and very few I believe genuinely think we're going to become the new Man City within the next couple of years, it's clearly not realistic, we are on a long journey and there'll be many highs and lows to come. Personally, I think it's fine to discuss who we should aim to improve on to make those next steps, 100% we should be supporting the players we have, not berating them if they make one mistake and such nonsense like that, but having a discussion of how we can improve seems reasonable to me. People will have different opinions on what's the best approach to get us to where we want to be, if like myself you want to mainly focus on improving the first 11, which of course also improves the squad overall, then it's very difficult to make an argument that Pope shouldn't be high up on that list. 

[mondonewc]

1 hour ago, SteV said:

And that’s kinda the crux of it. 
 

To get someone with the actual keeping ability of Pope but who also has good/very good distribution, you’re either trying to unearth someone that isn’t really established at major club/league, which I always think is a massive risk with a keeper, or you’re looking at a £40-£50m outlay.

 

Maybe there’s other alternatives like getting lucky with someone’s contract/clause, or bringing in someone older who’s probably short-term like a Navas, or that ilk, but barring that, I expect Pope to be here for the foreseeable, and that’s fine with me FWIW.

We just paid 30+ million twice to add two backup players to the squad, albeit with the hope of both having high future potential, I can't see why we wouldn't then happily pay 50-60m for the right goalkeeper if we can find him, in such a crucial position. 

[TheBrownBottle]

1 hour ago, SteV said:

And that’s kinda the crux of it. 
 

To get someone with the actual keeping ability of Pope but who also has good/very good distribution, you’re either trying to unearth someone that isn’t really established at major club/league, which I always think is a massive risk with a keeper, or you’re looking at a £40-£50m outlay.

 

Maybe there’s other alternatives like getting lucky with someone’s contract/clause, or bringing in someone older who’s probably short-term like a Navas, or that ilk, but barring that, I expect Pope to be here for the foreseeable, and that’s fine with me FWIW.

A goalkeeper is the second most important position to get right after a centre forward, for me.  Spending £50m+ to get the right one wouldn’t be a worry. 

[The Prophet]

This lad perhaps?

[SteV]

6 minutes ago, mondonewc said:

We just paid 30+ million twice to add two backup players to the squad, albeit with the hope of both having high future potential, I can't see why we wouldn't then happily pay 50-60m for the right goalkeeper if we can find him, in such a crucial position. 

Yeah, maybe. I just don’t think Howe would feel that spending would likely be a pretty sizeable chunk of our budget on a goalkeeper is the way to go in the short term.

 

[SteV]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

A goalkeeper is the second most important position to get right after a centre forward, for me.  Spending £50m+ to get the right one wouldn’t be a worry. 

It’s not that I think we’d never spend that on a keeper, it’s more I can’t see us doing it anytime soon whilst we build our squad and navigate FFP.

[wyn davies]

1 minute ago, TheBrownBottle said:

A goalkeeper is the second most important position to get right after a centre forward, for me.  Spending £50m+ to get the right one wouldn’t be a worry. 

I'm not aware of any club paying large sums for a keeper in the same vein neither do they pay large sums for a defender yet a striker scoring 30 a season then the world's your oyster. It appears to be that clubs don't think of keepers as the most important as they appear lo be less flexible in the sell on market.

[TheBrownBottle]

2 minutes ago, SteV said:

It’s not that I think we’d never spend that on a keeper, it’s more I can’t see us doing it anytime soon whilst we build our squad and navigate FFP.

Aye, I think you’re right, though I do think that a great keeper is worth more points per season than a great centre half etc 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, wyn davies said:

I'm not aware of any club paying large sums for a keeper in the same vein neither do they pay large sums for a defender yet a striker scoring 30 a season then the world's your oyster. It appears to be that clubs don't think of keepers as the most important as they appear lo be less flexible in the sell on market.

Yep, and it doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny. 

[mondonewc]

14 hours ago, Lush Vlad said:

Not really looking so much at the current starting XI. But I think there are areas we should be spending money on before a new keeper, 100%. 

A midfielder who can play the deeper role in Howe’s system. As we currently only have one that can and I believe he is on record about wanting to play further forward. We certainly get caught out of late between the midfield and defence and all. Brighton, Dortmund, last night on the counter. 
 

A striker. Seeing as Isak has not stayed fit consistently since joining. Wilson has always had injury problems, supposedly can’t play two a week and will be 32 next season. 

 

An upgrade on/competition for Almiron. 
 

A centre back to rotate with Botman and Schar. 
 

In time, as we evolve. Of course Pope will get replaced. But I still think it is easier said than done when you look at keepers that have come in or moved around the league. As you will be upgrading some of his deficiencies, like his passing and kicking. But not necessarily the actual keeping the ball out of the net part.  

Apologies as convo moved on little but just to follow up... 

 

Regards a DM, it would be interesting if thats the plan after splashing out on Tonali. We are pretty stacked for midfielders for the to be a priority.

 

Think for both this and striker point you suggested, its super important to get the balance right and have 20-22 players feeling there's genuine competition for places. Let's say we sign a striker, what would you have in mind? We play with one Striker so its going to cause a major problem for example if Wilson thought be was 3rd in the pecking order, dont think he would accept that and nor do I think we want to risk losing him at this stage when he's doing an amazing job for us and still crushing. 

 

I agree we want an upgrade in Miggy position, think Miggy/Murphy combo makes new #1 GK role slightly higher priority but no strong opinion on that. 

 

I would imagine next season Hall will be a lot more involved and thus Burn becomes good option for backup CB.

 

I don't have a huge depth of knowledge on GK's outside of the Premier League, but I'm sure there's enough top class GK's who we can attract to the club that we could find one who's right to upgrade the position, with Pope hopefully staying as backup. 

[Lush Vlad]

13 hours ago, mondonewc said:

Apologies as convo moved on little but just to follow up... 

 

Regards a DM, it would be interesting if thats the plan after splashing out on Tonali. We are pretty stacked for midfielders for the to be a priority.

 

Think for both this and striker point you suggested, its super important to get the balance right and have 20-22 players feeling there's genuine competition for places. Let's say we sign a striker, what would you have in mind? We play with one Striker so its going to cause a major problem for example if Wilson thought be was 3rd in the pecking order, dont think he would accept that and nor do I think we want to risk losing him at this stage when he's doing an amazing job for us and still crushing. 

 

I agree we want an upgrade in Miggy position, think Miggy/Murphy combo makes new #1 GK role slightly higher priority but no strong opinion on that. 

 

I would imagine next season Hall will be a lot more involved and thus Burn becomes good option for backup CB.

 

I don't have a huge depth of knowledge on GK's outside of the Premier League, but I'm sure there's enough top class GK's who we can attract to the club that we could find one who's right to upgrade the position, with Pope hopefully staying as backup. 

 

Not necessarily an out and out DM, as I'm not sure Howe wants that type of player.  But it would be nice out of all of the midfielders, if more than one of them was competent as the 6, as I believe everyone now calls it.  Perhaps one that is more defensive minded than Bruno, too.  As I think we lack solidity in there against top sides or teams like Brighton who are really good on the ball and manipulating space.  

 

I think you could possibly get a forward who could also play a wide position, or the vice versa.  Liverpool for example always seem to have a fairly fluid front three and players capable of covering across all three forward positions.  I was hoping we were going to target a wide forward type in the summer.  But after the Barnes signing and Gordon the window before.  That was always unlikely, even a backup type would have cost a few quid. 

 

It was always going to be a risk relying on someone who has proven throughout his career, can't stay fit and another striker who has had injury troubles since signing.  If you are looking at a starting quality player good enough to cover two positions, then this wouldn't be cheap, of course.  Thinking someone like Nunez or Jota sort of money.  I don't really care about squad balance when it comes to this position.  We need more than two players capable of playing up front and it's pretty obvious for anyone to see.  Even more so at the minute with the ridiculous situation we are in and so many games coming up in a short space of time. 

 

Almiron, see above, I guess.  But I couldn't disagree more.  I think this area needs upgrading/more competition far more than the GK position.  

 

Small sample size, but Burn was absolutely rancid against Brighton at CB.  Howe seems reluctant switching him to CB, as well.  Regularly brings Lascelles in, instead of Targett and shifting Burn inside.  So I'm not sure I agree with your assessment there.  I also think we could do with a younger RCB with a bit of pace, the same as Botman.  That said, Schar does seem to be getting better with age, the sexy fucker. 

 

I think as we are now finding out.  With the amount of injuries you get over a season and the rotation that is required at this level.  Getting 2-3 starting quality outfield players would improve us much more at this stage of our progression as a team.  Than replacing Pope for a keeper who isn't shit at kicking and may or may not be better at keeping the ball out the net. 

[The College Dropout]

Burn's no longer 3rd choice CB and probably shouldn't be considered one. We need another genuine first choice CB. All top teams usually have at least 3. Lascelles as 4.

[Lush Vlad]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzWWwFNIqc1/?igshid=d2QyZ3B4b3NzZTIw
 

Love this.
 

I also thought he was decent tonight. I always feel like he makes really hard saves look routine because of his footwork to get across and his massive wingspan. 
 

Dave is a top bloke. Was chatting to him at a local game the other week. Absolutely loves the Toon and getting up there on the beers. 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2023 by Lush Vlad

[vic]

What is it with Nick Pope making saves with his feet,the 2nd goal should have been saved if he uses his hands.

[Groundhog63]

Was going to post this in the Membership thread and ask where they gets their tickets from, stopping "real" fans going but I'm in a good mood 

 

 

[jack j]

Done more aways than half them who went to dortmund to be fair to the auld couple

 

 

[Checko]

While my man can trap a ball further than many can kick it, he is very good at stopping the little ball from going into the big net.

[RUHRLYASLEEVESUP]

Beaten near post for 1st, all over the gaff for 2nd, need upgrade in January imo 

[Lush Vlad]

Him and Miley were the only ones that come out with any credit. Sums it up, really. 

[Jordan]

Great game today. Can’t stop them all and faced enough tonight that a couple were going to get through. 

[Holloway]

Top drawer shot stopping

[rickyprickles]

1 hour ago, RUHRLYASLEEVESUP said:

Beaten near post for 1st, all over the gaff for 2nd, need upgrade in January imo 

Micey.

[nufc123]

MOTM

[Klaus]

1 hour ago, RUHRLYASLEEVESUP said:

Beaten near post for 1st, all over the gaff for 2nd, need upgrade in January imo 

 

Agree that he should have done better/been positioned better for this.