7 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

What is Zouma doing there?  He just let the ball roll right to Walcott.

Our back 4 has been complete shambles today, I don’t know how you can blame Kepa for much of any of it.

No that's hugely unfair. Zouma realised the ball was gone and that the play had changed to a defensive one. If he went chasing then Walcott would have skipped passed him. 

Kepa has had a howler, that's all on him. The first goal is another example of a header going in on the 6 yard line whilst kepa is rooted to the spot. 

He just isn't premier league quality for me

 

4 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

No that's hugely unfair. Zouma realised the ball was gone and that the play had changed to a defensive one. If he went chasing then Walcott would have skipped passed him. 

Kepa has had a howler, that's all on him. The first goal is another example of a header going in on the 6 yard line whilst kepa is rooted to the spot. 

He just isn't premier league quality for me

 

There’s a scapegoat every season.  Last year it was Jorginho.  This year it’s Kepa.  It should be our defense this year, but for some reason, they are free of blame and it’s all on Kepa.

7 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

There’s a scapegoat every season.  Last year it was Jorginho.  This year it’s Kepa.  It should be our defense this year, but for some reason, they are free of blame and it’s all on Kepa.

I've consistently said we need a new left back and I'm not sure why tomori has been benched for Christensen. He's not looked at it for the three games he's started. Rudiger needs to come back.

But kepa is a problem and the fans pretending he isn't is getting more and more confusing. 

Our defence is hopeless but Kepa has been atrocious can’t play out from the back at all and puts massive pressure on our defensive set pieces by not coming out and catching the ball. 

I was pretty frustrated when we shelled out 70million for him. I get we were in a bind with having sold Courtois...but that was always an exorbitant fee, especially for a keeper who wasn't linked to any other clubs at the time (I know Real had been there in the previous window). I wished at the time we'd have given Bulka a shot. It would have been risky, but I thought he had the talent to take that chance. I do understand the hesitation there....it was probably too big a risk...but to go and spend that fee on a goalkeeper of Kepa's size and build was baffling. If we didn't think we could get a good keeper at a reasonable price, we should have signed someone cheaper and use them as a stop game until we had a chance to explore the market more. Kepa was bought in to help Sarriball...playing from the back..one problem...his passing just isn't very good. He has no command of the area...and despite his shot stopping being his best skill...he finds a way to not stop any shots.

 

The worst part of it. Because we threw away 70million for him, there's absolutely no risk of him being replaced, because no-one would get close to paying a decent fee where we could recooperate a significant portion of our outlay. So we'll be stuck with him. I wanted to like him. I've been waiting game after game to see some big improvement in his game, but he just doesn't seem likely. I hope he proves me wrong.

Ideally if Zouma was ready, he would have gathered steam and run into the ball in stride and carried on with the ball forward. Also, Had Kepa been more cognizant, he would never have just kicked the ball there without even checking on Zouma. There would have been no 3rd goal. I dont think our defense is built to play from the back or is consistently in sync with each other.

Kepa has been sh*t this season, nobody can deny that. But I can't blame him for the goals conceded today.

1st goal = Christensen losing another aerial dual.

2nd goal = Zouma tries to clear and just boots it up in the air. Christensen losses yet another aerial dual.

3rd goal = Kepa passes out to Zouma, Zouma forgets his brain again, lets the ball go past him, Everton win it back and score from some more horrible defending without a single player throwing their bodies in the way to block the ball.

Edited December 7, 20196 yr by Scott Harris

Kepa has actually made decent saves this season though I do think we need a better keeper next season.

Atrocious. Willy is a poor number 2 in my opinion but Frank has to be thinking about picking him. His distribution was poor all game. Twice he nearly played us into trouble in the first half and he didn't learn his lesson. That last goal, the ball goes through his legs, with his feet rooted to the spot. His feet are always rooted to the spot when the opposition score. It's unbelievable. Their first goal, he can come out and punch that clear with ease, it's hanging in the air on his six yard line, just come out and take control. Instead, the same old story with inevitable results. It's a lot of money we've paid for a number 2 keeper but that's exactly what we've done. He's not good enough. In English football, you have to be good on crosses. He's not an elite goalkeeper. A good one, that can play for a good side, but not good enough for a top side. Frank will be looking to strengthen in the summer. I think his patience is wearing thin.

In hindsight maybe we should have kept the 70m and properly assess the situation. 

At the moment Kepa is not doing himself any justice. He was growing at one point then he just stopped.

2 minutes ago, Deino said:

In hindsight maybe we should have kept the 70m and properly assess the situation. 

At the moment Kepa is not doing himself any justice. He was growing at one point then he just stopped.

We didn't have time, we didn't have a goalkeeper. Going with Caballero for a full season would have been a disaster.

Simply just not good enough.

When I watch Liverpool, Allison is a commanding man at the back.  The confidence flows through the defense (just look at the goalkeeper woes from past few years).  Kepa is like a lost boy on the pitch for us.

Just now, Scott Harris said:

We didn't have time, we didn't have a goalkeeper.

 

We had loads of time. We knew Courtois was going long before he did. He didn't sign a contract.

MIght want to keep this guy a call. Bring him in for a season or two before you find a better long term keeper

Keylor Navas

 

 

I defended him a few games ago and said that we should give him a season before selling him but at this rate I think we need to at least but another keeper to challenge him.

He had a better game than Pickford...at least.

13 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

We didn't have time, we didn't have a goalkeeper. Going with Caballero for a full season would have been a disaster.

We had enough time to scout players as backup if Courtois left. We had at least a year to find a better alternative rather than the flavor of the month.

2 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

He had a better game than Pickford...at least.

Pickford won though...

5 minutes ago, Deino said:

We had enough time to scout players as backup if Courtois left. We had at least a year to find a better alternative rather than the flavor of the month.

That wasn't the point you were making though. You were saying we should have just kept the 70m and assessed things, I was just pointing out that we didn't have time to assess things any further. We had to make a signing there and then. Whether it was the right signing or not is a different matter, but the money had to be spent because we needed to sign a goalkeeper.

Edited December 7, 20196 yr by Scott Harris

36 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

Kepa has actually made decent saves this season though I do think we need a better keeper next season.

Every keeper in the league has made great saves, were not talking about the good points, the dont count for anything when your'e drowning in mistakes.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Kepa has been sh*t this season, nobody can deny that. But I can't blame him for the goals conceded today.

1st goal = Christensen losing another aerial dual.

2nd goal = Zouma tries to clear and just boots it up in the air. Christensen losses yet another aerial dual.

3rd goal = Kepa passes out to Zouma, Zouma forgets his brain again, lets the ball go past him, Everton win it back and score from some more horrible defending without a single player throwing their bodies in the way to block the ball.

1st goal was on the defensive line.. AC was already occupied by DLC.. the other striker made the late run.. while zouma instead of taking a commanding positioning was ambling back and to compound Kante made no attempt to block the run.. 

I'm not going to blame him solely for that goal. Zouma was simply not prepared to receive the pass, for whatever reason. It's a bad pass but if he was actually paying attention it would have been salvageable. 

The goal just sums up the lack of leadership/communication in that back line. It's hard to single out Kepa for the entire defence being bad, 

Even if you can releive him of all blame for all goals and just say its the defence, that doesn't account for the complete lack of domination he has in his own 6yd box for set plays.

I wish we could find the stat that shows the average distance that the keepers come out for corners. i would be shocked if Kepa isn't bottom.

9 minutes ago, Remodez said:

It's hard to single out Kepa for the entire defence being bad, 

 

I don't understand posts like these. Who's singling him out for the entire defence being bad? Zouma and Christensen are getting loads of stick, and Dave is a little.

 

Kepa is having a sh*t season. Should we all pretend different?

This is totally the wrong league for a keeper to not to even command his 6 yard box.

You can get away with that in Spain maybe, but in the EPL it turns into a major downside for your defence.

He doesn't impress me that much with his feet either, thats what he uses for his sloppy passes.

So, IMO, he has weak wrists, is sloppy with his feet and doesn't command his box - that's 3 fundermentals flaws in his game!

That actually doesn't leave a lot to praise him about.

Edited December 7, 20196 yr by 2211