Since he signed for us, and was absolutely awful, SJ has generally improved season by season. His errors have cost us quite a few points, yet some of his performances have also saved us a point or two. He is a much better goalkeeper now.
His improvement, alongside that of Bartley and Townsend has been a major factor in our improved defending of late. I also think that the extra defensive cover provided by Yokuslu has had a big part to play as well, perhaps giving SJ that extra fraction of a second or that half yard less of space to defend.
SJ's performance last night was pretty much faultless and he deserves credit for it especially a very good penalty save and some good instinctive catching instead of flapping. As a goalkeeper of the present style I would say he was certainly of middle prem. standard.
Personally I much prefer keepers who command their six yard box and the best ones often take the ball on or around the penalty spot. Most often catching or at the very least punching the ball with power away from danger, not patting it back into the ruck. SJ along with most modern keepers does not do this and stays well on his line, or even comes from behind it. It seems that it is the modern thinking, but I have consistently criticised the catching and holding of high crosses aspect of SJ's game, and I, along with his defenders no doubt still feel anxious when the ball is crossed into our box. Although SJ and Bartley do now seem to have come to some sort of compromise about dealing with these. Still as I said it was a very good performance last night and SJ played a key role on the result. Well played Sam
