YES! Silly season finally gets punctuated with a footballing topic. I've never been so glad to see a Bart vs Darryl debate although more on Fossett's Farm might be worth discussing...
Whilst readint rhough this, I've been racking my brains on games where I can remember Griemink being culpable for goals and putting in bad performance.
1) He struggled against Luton, but then the whole team struggled against Luton. Still, point stands.
2) Against Macclesfield, a mi$%&* clearance went straight to midfielder Whittaker who tucked the ball in to the unguarded net from about 40 yards. Of course this was our first win of the season so the points cost argument doesn't really stick here.
3) Not at all certain, but possibly Boston away when we lost 2-0. Need some confirmation on this cos I wasn't there but listened to it. He may not even have played.
So, as we can see, he's not exactly 'safe hands' for 50 games or perhaps 30 as was the case. Please, TTK or wiggy, give any more examples you can think of and we can hang Bart's entire back catalogue of mistakes out to dry.
BUT
Please don't get us started on Darryl's mistakes. It's obvious that you rate him highly as a keeper, in fact you seem to think he's good enough to be, what, top 6/7 in the Premier$hite as Royce was at his peak (Charlton at home to Man United sticks in the mind). To me, that seems absurd, but that's my opinion and yours differs.
This season, Bart was superb as we resurrected our season after the poor start and Darryl has been superb in the second half of the season bar the occasional blip.
For me, the biggest single improvement in Darryl's game has been his mentality at dealing with crosses or perhaps, more broadly, his new willingness to leave his line. Ok, it got him in trouble at Boston (H) and the playoff final but in my eyes it was at least positive to see him coming off his line. I've no doubt that the coaching staff have drummed this in to him and genuine competition has forced him to adapt his game. Great.
Darryl, however, is not great at coming for crosses and this will, most likely, never change. His flaws are based on three key areas:
1) His lack of height. It's banded around like a joke but if he was a foot taller, he'd be a MUCH better keeper and the latter two probably wouldn't be a problem.
2) Poor decision making. The key part about coming for balls or leaving your goal line in general is to make the correct decision. If you won't get the ball, you have to protect your goal line. Bentley one in the final was an example. Wilson one in the final was just poor handling but the correct decision. Kiely, mentioned earlier in this thread is usually fantastic in this area.
3) Lack of spring. If you're not tall enough but want to be dominant in the air, you need a good leap. Darryl's isn't bad but it certainly isn't great. Barthez, mentioned earlier, has a tremendous leap and this helps him greatly dealing with crosses.
All this stuff about people not having played the game and not creditable to exercise an opinion on the matter is ridiculous.
