Nick Pope

[PauloGeordio]

6 minutes ago, Dan Gleebals said:

7 games until the window opens, so plenty of time to see how Dubs is getting on.  I would personally stick with what we have unless he is having a howler.  Somehow I think he will really want to step up and prove himself again.  The whole team is really playing for each other, so think he will give a good account of himself. 

Plus all training focused on him being No1! 

[Smal]

If Dubs is anything like any of the other guys who've stepped in for injuries then he'll have a point to prove and he'll be better than we've ever seen him before. 

[samptime29]

Dubs is a good keeper. I think he will be fine.

[frankpingel]

Aye he'll (Dubravka) do a Lascelles and we'll be fine. 

[nufc123]

I have faith in Dubravka, but Pope is out probably for the season, and if Dubravka picks up any injury we are in big trouble.

[madras]

2 hours ago, nufc123 said:

I have faith in Dubravka, but Pope is out probably for the season, and if Dubravka picks up any injury we are in big trouble.

Karius can carry us.

[nufc123]

29 minutes ago, madras said:

Karius can carry us.

Thats a big risk if Dubravka is out for a large spell with something.

[Lush Vlad]

I remember Burnley fans saying he does really well saving with his feet.  Seen some fans complain about it this season and it is a bit unorthodox.  But when you see Raya last night and Ederson against Son at the weekend.  Where they don't get down quick enough and it goes through them, it makes sense considering he's such a lump and so tall.

 

Anyway, I'm interested to see how Dubravka does.  A brilliant keeper to have as your number 2 and no doubt he is better with his feet.  So I'm not worried about him coming in and doing well between now and the end of the season.  I certainly don't think we need to look at a keeper in January.  As I'd say Karius is superior to most team's third choice.  But I do think some people have easily forgotten how much better Pope is as an out and out keeper.  Regularly makes really difficult saves look routine.

 

It will be a good tester for the future to see if having a keeper that is so much better on the ball is worth the potential trade-off of losing those often point saving stops.  Dubs was spraying it about at Old Trafford in the cup and you'd imagine the back 4 will have a lot more confidence using him as that extra man. 

[The College Dropout]

It's the getting crosses and coming off his line to sweep up for me. Getting crosses relieves so much pressure and reduces opposition chances. Even against Man U there was 1 headed chance Man U had that Pope probably comes and collects/punches and the chance never materialises.

 

Dubs is a good shot stopper but he's rooted to his line. He needs to be more proactive to be a good replacement.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by The College Dropout

[MrRaspberryJam]

2 minutes ago, The College Dropout said:

It's the getting crosses and coming off his line to sweep up for me. Getting crosses relieves so much pressure and reduces opposition chances. Even against Man U there was 1 headed chance Man U had that Pope probably comes and collects/punches and the chance never materialises.

 

Dubs is a good shot stopper but he's rooted to his line. He needs to be more proactive to be a good replacement.

 

 

 

Don’t think we’re playing any different style of play now than we did in the season Howe took over when Dubravka was our no. 1. Can’t remember Dubs being panicky or rooted to his line too badly during that time?

[Lush Vlad]

I always thought he was very proactive in the box, before his knee injury.  Certainly looked a bit shaky when he came back, which is understandable.  But it's been ages since the injury now and everyone else seems to have improved ten fold under Howe.  So I'm just going to assume Dubs will be the same until I see differently. 

[Cf]

He's sorted it out lately but there was a period where I felt blind panic whenever Pope came off his line because he was continually getting it wrong. 

[The College Dropout]

4 minutes ago, MrRaspberryJam said:

Don’t think we’re playing any different style of play now than we did in the season Howe took over when Dubravka was our no. 1. Can’t remember Dubs being panicky or rooted to his line too badly during that time?

Statistically - the 2 biggest differences between Pope & Dubs were - Pope did/does far more actions outside the box/distance of actions (Pope is in the 95th percentile in the big 5 leagues). And Pope stopped far more crosses (in the 80th percentile). Dubs was lower midtable for both. This is while Pope was at Burnley. And Pope is a better shot-stopper.

 

This is why I thought Pope would be a significant upgrade straight away. Eye test, he always looked solid and commanding. Statistically, he's a better shot-stopper, more commanding of his box and proactive off his line.

 

Dubs needs to close the gap on crosses and sweeping up. We rarely see Pope 1v1 because the ball needs to be perfect to avoid him sweeping it up. The shot stopping, it is what it is I guess.

 

 

Stats from last season for Pope and 21/22 for Dubs. Pope stops 25% more crosses than Dubs. The distance of defensive actions and the number of defensive actions outside the box is way up. The stats were similar when Pope was at Burnley and Dubs had 2/3 of a season under Howe.

[huss9]

14 hours ago, The College Dropout said:

It's the getting crosses and coming off his line to sweep up for me. Getting crosses relieves so much pressure and reduces opposition chances. Even against Man U there was 1 headed chance Man U had that Pope probably comes and collects/punches and the chance never materialises.

 

Dubs is a good shot stopper but he's rooted to his line. He needs to be more proactive to be a good replacement.

 

 

 

hopefully training with pope will have improved him.

[54]

 

[OCK]

Understand Craig Pope peeking his head through every hospital window in North Tyneside. 

[Cf]

Well I thought we'd be ok with Dubravka but he's hardly covered himself in glory tonight. 

[Sima]

Surely five months is up by now.

[WideopenMag]

Gonna be a massive miss.

[timeEd32]

I was near the front of the line complaining about his kicking and some of his decision making coming out of the area (which seems to have regressed badly since the Liverpool sending off), but the last week has been pretty eye opening. I knew Pope was a much better shot stopper, but the gap between him and Dubravka is pretty startling. 

[WideopenMag]

10 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

I was near the front of the line complaining about his kicking and some of his decision making coming out of the area (which seems to have regressed badly since the Liverpool sending off), but the last week has been pretty eye opening. I knew Pope was a much better shot stopper, but the gap between him and Dubravka is pretty startling. 

Yeah this tbh don't know what you've got till it's gone for some people I think. He's brilliant.

[Yorkie]

I know there's more going on and I may be simplifying the issue but I think we've probably underestimated this bloke's contribution to our entire set-up. The difference in shot-stopping is one thing but it can't be a coincidence that our defenders have lost their confidence and structure since he exited the side. Aside from a half against Milan we've not played well since he got injured. 

[TheBrownBottle]

Just now, Yorkie said:

I know there's more going on and I may be simplifying the issue but I think we've probably underestimated this bloke's contribution to our entire set-up. The difference in shot-stopping is one thing but it can't be a coincidence that our defenders have lost their confidence and structure since he exited the side. Aside from a half against Milan we've not played well since he got injured. 

The back line are clearly missing him as sweeper-keeper.  It’s chaotic without him in there

[Menace]

The way that injury happened still makes me angry - so out of context, so unnecessary. Ah well.

[Yorkie]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

The back line are clearly missing him as sweeper-keeper.  It’s chaotic without him in there

 

Yep. It doesn't let him off the hook but there's a chance that Trippier's Everton howlers don't happen with Pope in there. If you assess the impact of each injury we'll probably look back at Pope's as the worst.