Keeper

[South Coast White]

I have not been confident with Leno for quite some, ok he can make some great saves as we've all seen, however, we have also seen how horrendously poor he is at set pieces and un particular corners.
He has no command in his space, very poor punching power.
I for one would be happy to see a replacement. £120000 a week is way over the top for him.

[KentFulham]

I have not been confident with Leno for quite some, ok he can make some great saves as we've all seen, however, we have also seen how horrendously poor he is at set pieces and un particular corners.
He has no command in his space, very poor punching power.
I for one would be happy to see a replacement. £120000 a week is way over the top for him.

It is daylight robery, at this stage I would rather Lacomte

[mancwhite]

  We missed out not getting Kellegher from Liverpool- very experienced from a young goalkeeper and reasonably priced

[itombomb]

The stats are pretty clear that Leno isn't an elite keeper. He makes the odd great save, but also has his share of howlers, is very slow off his line to take control of things (both from set pieces but also in open play), and his play with the ball at his feet (or in his hands in transition) isn't good enough at this level - slows down our play and counter-attacks constantly.

But he is a "good" PL keeper, so to upgrade on him you need to spend quite a lot of money (even allowing for the fact the replacement may be on a much lower wage) - and the question is where do we most need to upgrade in the Summer. In terms of bringing in upgrades to the XI, I probably have GK third in the queue behind CM and Striker.

[hopper]

Personally don't think it's knee jerk. The signs have been there for a while. Lack of clean sheets, conceding the most shots from outside the box by a considerable distance last season, weak on set pieces, poor distribution.

He can make some great 1 on 1 stops, and he provides experience and stability in that position. But I've been unconvinced by his performances for quite a long time. Can't think of that many games in last few seasons where he was the figure that won us points.

[deadcowboys]

When does his contract run out, I doubt anyone would want to buy him.

[Neil D]

He made several mistakes today. His passing was extremely dangerous and put us under pressure and he's done this frequently in recent games. No way that's a foul for their second goal. it's poor poor goalkeeping

I agree with the first point   It may be that Silva wants the ball played out from the back but if there's no safe option he should just hoof it up field.  Maybe the defenders are at fault for giving him better options.  As for poor goalkeeping for the second  goal - he's entitled to expect better support from his defence.

[WolverineFFC]

The stats are pretty clear that Leno isn't an elite keeper. He makes the odd great save, but also has his share of howlers, is very slow off his line to take control of things (both from set pieces but also in open play), and his play with the ball at his feet (or in his hands in transition) isn't good enough at this level - slows down our play and counter-attacks constantly.

But he is a "good" PL keeper, so to upgrade on him you need to spend quite a lot of money (even allowing for the fact the replacement may be on a much lower wage) - and the question is where do we most need to upgrade in the Summer. In terms of bringing in upgrades to the XI, I probably have GK third in the queue behind CM and Striker.

Club can do better, but can also do much worse. Leno is not a top half GK at this point, but getting someone better is not easy as you say.

I think the club should be exploring options, but it should be down the pecking order investment wise. I'd put it 4th, behind ST and CM, but also RB. I believe Castagne is fading and with Tete's health that position concerns me more than GK at this time.

[Angus Telford]

Club can do better, but can also do much worse. Leno is not a top half GK at this point, but getting someone better is not easy as you say.

I think the club should be exploring options, but it should be down the pecking order investment wise. I'd put it 4th, behind ST and CM, but also RB. I believe Castagne is fading and with Tete's health that position concerns me more than GK at this time.

Sums up my view.

Funnily enough I could say the same on other threads about Silva.

Think they're both among the better keepers/managers we've had, but may have a mid-table ceiling.

[copthornemike]

Leno is a top level keeper, but not perfect so let's have some rationality here.
Compare the keepers yesterday - the second Everton goal was down to Leno unfortunately, but not helped by his defence or its organisation. In contrast Pickford played an important role in ensuring we did not get more than one goal despite our first half security.
Expect teams to press Leno more in the next few games when the ball is passed back. Everton changed their tactics in the second half and targeted him with one player pressing aggressively to force him onto his right and another two positioned to receive a hurried pass out. Worked a treat.
However for close range shots or closing down he is amongst the best.
Serious comment - he is not getting any younger. Has he been to see a top sports optician to run a battery of reaction tests?

[Mullers OG]

I haven't seen enough of Lecomte to have a sensible opinion as to whether he should play ahead of Leno. Leno looks short of confidence and hasn't been up to his past standard.

Lecomte has played many games for good clubs.  His distribution in the Middlesborough was excellent and a huge improvement on Leno. We may all be in a better position to judge after Stoke.

[Chi_FFC]

But he is a "good" PL keeper, so to upgrade on him you need to spend quite a lot of money (even allowing for the fact the replacement may be on a much lower wage) - and the question is where do we most need to upgrade in the Summer. In terms of bringing in upgrades to the XI, I probably have GK third in the queue behind CM and Striker.

He isn't a "good" PL keeper though, and hasn't been for a few seasons now. He's one of the worst shot stoppers in the PL. He's poor on set pieces (he was so soft on Everton's second yesterday). If we had even a roughly average PL keeper we'd have conceded ~4 fewer goals so far this season  (and Leno's on a pace to make that ~6 over the course of the entire season). The stats pretty clearly show that GK has been our weakest performing position since the start of last season.

Now with that being said I agree he's almost certainly going to be our starting keeper for one more season. With the contract he's on we just can't afford to replace him. He's been bad, but not so bad that we simply have to bring someone else in. But make no mistake, if he was an outfield player (a position where we'd have more depth) performing like he's been performing, he'd have been benched long ago.

[v]

I had to go back and rewatch the second Everton goal in slow motion to see exactly what was going on with Leno.

There is a bit of holding but no way near enough for a foul on the keeper. Leno needed to command his area more. As it was, when the corner came in, he was caught floundering behind their forward and as helpless as a turtle on its back 🤦

That's not a good look for any keeper, especially a Fulham one.
He'd have been better advised to push O'Brien out of the way to get to the ball and wait for the ref to blow for a foul.

Leno doesn't fill me with confidence whenever the oppo get a corner. Usually punches it out, hardly ever catches it (fair enough, it's coming in at speed) but yesterday his attempted punch over and through the Everton player just looked pathetic.

You've gotta be stronger, Berndt, stronger !💪

[Ronnief]

I was watching the keepers warm up and the first cross in practice was punched out by Leno. Not very impressed. However Leno is a far better keeper than Lecomte. The best keeper for distribution is McNally but he is very young and inexperienced. Best keeper who we've got is Leno 

[MickTheBeard]

We are playing our football at Portuguese league standard alright the top few are a good standard the rest is not.premiership standard is higher and tougher.Why we are growing we need to be tougher to adjust to compete till we reach that standard.But till then we must be tougher and stronger to survive but unfortunately this team is weak with ability or a very few who tough with no brains to survive  if we carry on relegation is on the cards,even we specialise in small development boys, let's go and beat up fulham on Saturday.

[Jim©]

Compare it to everton similar size club to us Pickford is so much better.

No question about that. He led the PL in the goals prevented stat last season and is leading it this season as well (4.5 goals prevented). Bernd was 17th of 19 last season and 19th of 21 so far this season (-4.9 goals prevented). He's been a real weakness for us the last few seasons.

He should go, at least for the game on Wednesday for his embarrassing error v Everton. Sunday league stuff at best.

Also, the stats above show that he's let in almost 5 goals more than he should have this season. Last season we conceded a third of all Prem goals from outside the area.

[bill dando]

Leno is what he is a back up goalkeeper for a top club,don't rate him never have,OK with his legs on occasions.Looks like a Niemi,Schwartzer situation.Yes I hope Areola will be available at end of season !

[v]

Leno is what he is a back up goalkeeper for a top club,don't rate him never have,OK with his legs on occasions.Looks like a Niemi,Schwartzer situation.Yes I hope Areola will be available at end of season !

Areola might be just the ticket to keep competition going for the N⁰1 shirt.

Problem is Hammers will need to drop, that's a big 'if' 🤔

[alfie]

Compare it to everton similar size club to us Pickford is so much better.

No question about that. He led the PL in the goals prevented stat last season and is leading it this season as well (4.5 goals prevented). Bernd was 17th of 19 last season and 19th of 21 so far this season (-4.9 goals prevented). He's been a real weakness for us the last few seasons.

He should go, at least for the game on Wednesday for his embarrassing error v Everton. Sunday league stuff at best.

Also, the stats above show that he's let in almost 5 goals more than he should have this season. Last season we conceded a third of all Prem goals from outside the area.

I can't remember who it was that was on Leno but all he had to think about was stopping Leno anyway he could, Leno on the other hand to think about the player on him, are there other players behind him/running in, is the ball going front,middle or back post.

[H4usuallysitting]

I'd better get warmed up