Southampton’s goalkeepers have not been in superb form this season and the seemingly ‘larger then life’ appearance of new recruit Artur Boruc gave the club further cause for concern. So which of the current crop deserves the number one position?
Southampton have been playing something of musical chairs with the goalkeeping position at the club this season. It has been a difficult season for them and after the start Kelvin Davis had dropping him seemed the only option. He struggled at the start of this season with his near-post seemingly having done something to annoy him considering the amount of distance he was leaving between himself and said post.
Forget the fact last season he made some blinding saves in the Championship, a performance against Leeds United was particularly impressive as his goalmouth was bombarded with projectile missile like peppering’s from The Whites.
So the young Argentine Paolo Gazzaniga stepped in to replace him and it gave the young Argentine a chance to shine at St Marys. The former Valencia trainee began to remove Ross Flitney from the Gillingham goalmouth in 2011-12. At 6ft 5ins he is a spectacular physical specimen for a 20-year-old. He seemed to fair OK, with the odd stereotypical Latin American boo-boo thrown in now and again. He seemed to have decent reaction times and an impressive range of delivery so giving him the chance to succeed Kelvin Davis, who at 36 is coming to the end of his career anyhow and using Davis as an excellent learning tool for ‘Gazza’ to cement himself a place in the first-team.
However they brought in Artur Boruc; the controversial Polish stopper was an impressive stopper with Old Firm side Celtic even if more than once he might have said the wrong and deliberately inciting remark in relation to Old Firm rivals Rangers. However on first sight you could see that the goalie looked more like the rolly-Poley-goalie. Bloated is the kind word for what has happened to Boruc since his hiatus from football post-release from Italian side Fiorentina.
He seemed to have a ropey debut at best, leaving Nigel Adkins in a rather mystifying decision point. Now he has three goalkeepers; one is only 20-years-old and lacks first-team experience; one is 36 approaching the advent of his career and since the end of last season his abilities seem to be in decline; the other is nowhere near first-team fitness, to the point where it is physically visible.
But while Nigel Adkins will obviously have to make a decision what do the fans think of the situation?
So Southampton fans get in touch… Davis, Gazzaniga or Boruc… who would you play?
image: © mischatuffield
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