Nick Pope

[TBG]

Bring back hanging.

[Holloway]

That pic shows the roar he did right in the middle of that incident, I noticed it on the replay watching the match. But weird I thought, looked like he was about to take the player out for a second, like the Salah incident

[Ronaldo]

4 hours ago, Mattoon said:

Pope needs to be taken out of the firing line for his own sake, seems a bit shot at the moment, much like after the sending off against Liverpool. He also needs to know hes not automatically No.1 and be made to fight to get his place back. I have no doubt hes still a class keeper, he just needs a bit of a shake up.

Love to know how a ‘shake up’ is going to make him a more composed and able (with his feet / decision making) goalkeeper, mind. It’s not like he’s unmotivated or inexperienced.

 

 

[Optimistic Nut]

12 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Love to know how a ‘shake up’ is going to make him a more composed and able (with his feet / decision making) goalkeeper, mind. It’s not like he’s unmotivated or inexperienced.

 

 

 

It's absolutely criminal that in 3 and a half years he's not learned how to at least be average at kicking a football. Surely after training he'd have improved if he just spent half an hour with an academy lad practicing pinging a ball, or having someone pressing him and him passing out wide. Negligence if he's not at least tried. 

[Lush Vlad]

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

It's absolutely criminal that in 3 and a half years he's not learned how to at least be average at kicking a football. Surely after training he'd have improved if he just spent half an hour with an academy lad practicing pinging a ball, or having someone pressing him and him passing out wide. Negligence if he's not at least tried. 

Fucking hell. Bored of repeating myself on this. But his kicking has and always will be atrocious. At Bury Town when he came into the first team. He had to practice goal kicks for ages and ages. As he couldn’t even take one properly. It got slightly better and has actually improved a lot since he got to the Prem, believe it or not. 
 

It says a lot that someone so bad on the ball. Has made it to the top level as a keeper. It’s just a shame that his strengths in other areas are waning or in some cases, becoming weaknesses. 

Do people honestly think coaches and Pope himself haven’t tried to improve his shit kicking over the years? It’s not as if they’ve just thought “yeah. It’s crap. No point trying to improve it at all.”  

 

He just has a horrible technique and that gets even worse when under pressure. 

[Ellis H]

“You can choose the wrong wife but not your Goalkeeper and Striker" - Antonio Conte

 

Buying a high level goalkeeper and adding Wissa would help so, so much.

[Holloway]

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

It's absolutely criminal that in 3 and a half years he's not learned how to at least be average at kicking a football. Surely after training he'd have improved if he just spent half an hour with an academy lad practicing pinging a ball, or having someone pressing him and him passing out wide. Negligence if he's not at least tried. 

When he was out with the popped shoulder I was convinced they would have had him working on improving his footwork, seeing him on his return completely dashed that expectation

[Lush Vlad]

Pope was like 29-30 when he signed for us and his kicking has always been atrocious. How are people thinking an injury or half an hour here or there are going to suddenly make him ok on the ball  

[Holloway]

4 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Pope was like 29-30 when he signed for us and his kicking has always been atrocious. How are people thinking an injury or half an hour here or there are going to suddenly make him ok on the ball  

Well if he has an arm injury and is out for months and he spends literally all his training hours on footwork it's reasonable to expect some sort of improvement ? 

[Optimistic Nut]

11 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Fucking hell. Bored of repeating myself on this. But his kicking has and always will be atrocious. At Bury Town when he came into the first team. He had to practice goal kicks for ages and ages. As he couldn’t even take one properly. It got slightly better and has actually improved a lot since he got to the Prem, believe it or not. 
 

It says a lot that someone so bad on the ball. Has made it to the top level as a keeper. It’s just a shame that his strengths in other areas are waning or in some cases, becoming weaknesses. 

Do people honestly think coaches and Pope himself haven’t tried to improve his shit kicking over the years? It’s not as if they’ve just thought “yeah. It’s crap. No point trying to improve it at all.”  

 

He just has a horrible technique and that gets even worse when under pressure. 

 

Up until he signed for us, being good at shot stopping and crosses was probably enough to get by. I'm not having it that you can't improve through repetition, he hasn't improved AT ALL in 3 and a half years at a club who are competing at the very top. He's lucky he only had Dubravka competing with him for the bulk of his time here. 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2025 by Optimistic Nut

[oldtype]

Learning how to kick in training, in controlled, low-pressure situations is easy. If Nick Pope showed up for a kickabout at the local park he’d be hitting fifty yard pinpoint passes like Beckham and would generally look like the best footballer you’ve ever seen.
 

Learning how to kick in in-game conditions is much harder.

[Hudson]

3 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Up until he signed for us, being good at shot stopping and crosses was probably enough to get by. I'm not having it that you can't improve through repetition, he hasn't improved AT ALL in 3 and a half years at a club who are competing at the very top. He's lucky he only had Dubravka competing with him for the bulk of his time here. 

 

 

 

He has improved over his career though 

Going from fucking awfull, to shite.

 

The game and the role of goal keepers has change massively in the last 10 years, he just doesn't have any base level skill to evolve. 

[Lush Vlad]

4 minutes ago, Holloway said:

Well if he has an arm injury and is out for months and he spends literally all his training hours on footwork it's reasonable to expect some sort of improvement ? 

2 minutes ago, Optimistic Nut said:

 

Up until he signed for us, being good at shot stopping and crosses was probably enough to get by. I'm not having it that you can't improve through repetition, he hasn't improved AT ALL in 3 and a half years at a club who are competing at the very top. He's lucky he only had Dubravka competing with him for the bulk of his time here. 

 

 

 

Why would his technique all of a sudden improve? He obviously got as far as he could a long while ago. His kicking has and always will be crap, like I said before. 
 

Why can’t Joelinton learn not to blast it over the bar when he is outside the box? Why can’t Gordon hit a shot off the deck? Why can’t Bruno kick a ball harder witj a different technique? Why can’t Murphy improve his first touch under pressure? 
 

Like it’s that simple at the top level through the logic of ‘just practice more.’

 

Basically he has the ability of a semi-pro keeper when it comes to kicking and his other skills have got him this far. Although even that’s possibly generous. As his brother is actually alright on the ball  

[TheBrownBottle]

He’ll start vs Everton 

[plenum]

Never mind his kicking skills. The rushing outfield (Haaland, Aubamayang) and his urge to punch the ball off his line is much more worrying/horrific imo.

[TBG]

STOP THE POPE.

[Holloway]

3 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Why would his technique all of a sudden improve? He obviously got as far as he could a long while ago. His kicking has and always will be crap, like I said before. 
 

Why can’t Joelinton learn not to blast it over the bar when he is outside the box? Why can’t Gordon hit a shot off the deck? Why can’t Bruno kick a ball harder witj a different technique? Why can’t Murphy improve his first touch under pressure? 
 

Like it’s that simple at the top level through the logic of ‘just practice more.’

 

Basically he has the ability of a semi-pro keeper when it comes to kicking and his other skills have got him this far. Although even that’s possibly generous. As his brother is actually alright on the ball  

We don't know how much time he's actually spent on trying to improve it though. do we? I mean he can't get any worse, he literally has clown size 12 s yellows on. If they've put any onus on it and he's a hopeless case I'd fuck him off out of it. Don't agree with your practice can't improve your ability level when it comes to kicking a football .

[Kilcline]

17 minutes ago, oldtype said:

Learning how to kick in training, in controlled, low-pressure situations is easy. If Nick Pope showed up for a kickabout at the local park he’d be hitting fifty yard pinpoint passes like Beckham and would generally look like the best footballer you’ve ever seen.
 

Learning how to kick in in-game conditions is much harder.

This, he was out on the pitch at HT during an England game at Wembley last year and some of his passes and touches were outrageous, had to ask my lad how many pints I'd had! 

[Lush Vlad]

2 minutes ago, Holloway said:

We don't know how much time he's actually spent on trying to improve it though. do we? I mean he can't get any worse, he literally has clown size 12 s yellows on. If they've put any onus on it and he's a hopeless case I'd fuck him off out of it. Don't agree with your practice can't improve your ability level when it comes to kicking a football .

Well I do know, actually. Feel free to DM me if you’re that arsed. 
 

If you don’t think every goalkeeping coach and team he has been apart of. Won’t have looked to improve his kicking. Well, I don’t know what to say  In a data driven era, of marginal gains, analytics, sports science and whatever else. You think they just let him crack on and he doesn’t realise his kicking is naff and they don’t work on it?! 

 

I never said you can’t improve through practice and repetition, did I? I mentioned that he has obviously reached a point where he can’t get any ‘better’ (  ). 
 

As someone else alluded to. It’s then the game situations, pressure, panic, mental block or whatever. That means it gets even worse. Along with the fact it is highlighted more as the game has evolved and keepers are expected to join in with passing moves. 
 

 

[Holloway]

34 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Well I do know, actually. Feel free to DM me if you’re that arsed. 
 

If you don’t think every goalkeeping coach and team he has been apart of. Won’t have looked to improve his kicking. Well, I don’t know what to say  In a data driven era, of marginal gains, analytics, sports science and whatever else. You think they just let him crack on and he doesn’t realise his kicking is naff and they don’t work on it?! 

 

I never said you can’t improve through practice and repetition, did I? I mentioned that he has obviously reached a point where he can’t get any ‘better’ (  ). 
 

As someone else alluded to. It’s then the game situations, pressure, panic, mental block or whatever. That means it gets even worse. Along with the fact it is highlighted more as the game has evolved and keepers are expected to join in with passing moves. 
 

 

Ok mate 

[TK-421]

Watched the 'Geordie Journos' YT video last night, and they mentioned something I'd forgotten about.

Pope's first clanger this season was actually in the pre-season match at Celtic, when he came rushing out of the box and the ball bounced over him, leaving the forward to go past him and tap into the empty net. 

I'd totally forgotten about that one.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2025 by TK-421

[Ronaldo]

Groin injury apparently. Ramsdale needs to take this chance.

[RUHRLYASLEEVESUP]

4 minutes ago, Ronaldo said:

Groin injury apparently. Ramsdale needs to take this chance.

Did a lot of running midweek, understandable, hope its not too serious 

[Casey]

Nee way. Never look a gift horse in the mouth but what are the chances. Goalies rarely get these kind of injuries.

[Danh1]

No way is he injured mind. Glad to see Ramsdale start regardless.