Steffen

[Norman_Conquest]

I actually agree with you Midlands. A few people need to take the Rose tinted specs off here I think. First and foremost it's a brilliant header, would he have saved it? Who knows? probably not. However that doesn't diguise from the fact that he's not ready to even attempt to make the save as he's too busy giving the Hull player a shove. How can anyone not see this? It's not as if the Hull player is all over him. In his way yes but he's not even looking at the ball as it goes past him.

I dont mind Steffen by the way and like I say he's probably not even cost us a goal here as he may not have saved it anyway. It's him being distracted enough to not even attempt to make the save that's the issue here or at least even see which direction the ball is heading.

Other teams will have noticed that and will use it to their advantage.

 

[TheYorkshireTerrier]

There are 2/3 players who are more to blame than Steffen for their goal.

At the time, I thought Giles made the wrong decision to come away from the far post, if he’d stayed he could’ve cleared it.

 

[Andy_W]

Have to disagree. The least I expect from a keeper at a corner is to concentrate and be ready to make a save. Whether he would have made the save is a different issue.

People aren’t criticising him because it was an excellent header into the far corner and the defending was shocking. Both good points. If it had been a soft header straight at him and it had gone in, people would be saying it was a mistake. My point is that I’m not sure he’d have saved a soft header because he was concentrating too much on the man next to him.

This is just after the header (from 8 yards). He’s still pushing the man and is in no position to make a save. Poor concentration for me, whether he’d have saved the header or not.

Actually where he’s standing, the header wouldn’t have been far away from him. He just wasn’t ready.
View attachment 56468

He had to deal with the post guy though, he can't just stand there and let him do what he wants. So anything else is hypothetical. Had the guy not been there he would have saved it, but he was there.

Post man Giles could have stopped it too, never mind the two free defenders McNair and Akpom who didn't put enough pressure on. It's hard to do that mind, as you can either pick to follow the man or attack the space/ ball as defender, but neither of them really did anything.

Look how free the man is though, there's literally nobody within 5 yards.


Not saying Steffen doesn't have any blame, but it's 60% well played by them (combo of the ball in, the run, the header and the guy bothering Steffen), 30% defence and 10% Steffen, thus attributing least blame to Steffen.

 

[sherlock]

Strange that people don't dissect the performances of every other player in the same way.

Steffen can be brilliant for 99.9% of a game yet some on here will still say 'yeah but did you see when he didn't quite dive in action movie style to that shot he was never going to save'.

 

[Andy_W]

There are 2/3 players who are more to blame than Steffen for their goal.

At the time, I thought Giles made the wrong decision to come away from the far post, if he’d stayed he could’ve cleared it.

Yeah, Giles could have maybe got it, as I thought he was a postman, but actually looking back he was marking, but just lost his marker (the one who went after Steffen), and probably didn't have picking up the post in his mind, as we don't play for postmen, or didn't there.

When he lost his man he's probably come out to try and play the offside, but didn't do that either, not that it would have mattered.

There was a free man back post too.

Just all round not great defending, but exceptionally well worked from them, just one of those things, sometimes teams just nail it, and you have to take it.

 

[MidlandsBoroFan]

Is that not offside? That player with Stefan is surely interfering with play?

Hadn’t actually noticed that, good point

 

[Andy_W]

Strange that people don't dissect the performances of every other player in the same way.

Steffen can be brilliant for 99.9% of a game yet some on here will still say 'yeah but did you see when he didn't quite dive in action movie style to that shot he was never going to save'.

Yeah exactly and not long before that made an unreal save low to his right, which nobody would have complained if they scored.

 

[Andy_W]

Is that not offside? That player with Stefan is surely interfering with play?

Yeah good point, the player might claim he was running away, but he wasn't. His entire aim was to lose Giles and infringe Steffen, and he was offside when he did that.

 

[18MFC76]

Steffen can be brilliant for 99.9% of a game yet some on here will still say 'yeah but did you see when he didn't quite dive in action movie style to that shot he was never going to save'.

That's not what people are saying though. The marking was poor and that was the main reason the goal went in. It was also a terrific header. However he doesn't need to shove the Hull player especially at the same time as the ball is coming into the box.

 

[18MFC76]

Yeah exactly and not long before that made an unreal save low to his right, which nobody would have complained if they scored.

Good save. Unreal is a bit over the top.

 

[MidlandsBoroFan]

Strange that people don't dissect the performances of every other player in the same way.

Steffen can be brilliant for 99.9% of a game yet some on here will still say 'yeah but did you see when he didn't quite dive in action movie style to that shot he was never going to save'.

That’s the nature of the goalkeeping position.

I haven’t seen anyone on here giving him stick, myself included. He’s been excellent for us for most of the season.

I still think if he looks back on that himself he would think he should have been concentrating more, even if others were more to blame.

 

[Andy_W]

That's not what people are saying though. The marking was poor and that was the main reason the goal went in. It was also a terrific header. However he doesn't need to shove the Hull player especially at the same time as the ball is coming into the box.

If he doesn't he can't save a ball at the near post or directly at him, as he likely won't even be able to see it or move.

He can't be everywhere all at once, it's priorities and you have to prioritise the largest threat which was near post and being infringed. Like you say it was a terrific and free header, he can't plan for that, it shouldn't happen 95% of the time.

 

[sherlock]

That’s the nature of the goalkeeping position.

I haven’t seen anyone on here giving him stick, myself included. He’s been excellent for us for most of the season.

I still think if he looks back on that himself he would think he should have been concentrating more, even if others were more to blame.

Every player makes a mistake in a match, yet we don't see threads started about a misplaced pass from an outfield player. I get that it's more noticeable for a goalie, but that doesn't make it any less unfair.

Steffen has been a solid 8/10 for me this season, 9/10 in last half a dozen games.

Outstanding keeper.

 

[Andy_W]

Good save. Unreal is a bit over the top.

Debatable, but good and unreal are closer than partial blame, to most of the blame though.

I wasn't the one who brought up the blame, which was a lesser point.

 

[Andy_W]

Every player makes a mistake in a match, yet we don't see threads started about a misplaced pass from an outfield player. I get that it's more noticeable for a goalie, but that doesn't make it any less unfair.

Steffen has been a solid 8/10 for me this season, 9/10 in last half a dozen games.

utstanding keeper.

Yup, and it's funny with Steffen as he gets criticised for one of the things he's best at, holding onto the ball, drawing in strikers/ a press and then playing a pass which starts 90% of our moves, with the oppo having a worse structure. Hear it all the time in the crowd, over and over again.

The criticism of Steffen doing that is a lack of understanding of the bigger picture I think.

Some fans just don't get it, they would rather see Steffen just lump the ball early with zero press on him, which compacts the space for us, and doesn't give our players any time to get into position. It's rare that a long ball is the right option, but when it's on, he finds it with a much higher probability than most keepers.

 

[Mendieta14]

top goalie and vital to us
it's a shame we wont be able to keep him without promotion

 

[18MFC76]

If he doesn't he can't save a ball at the near post or directly at him, as he likely won't even be able to see it or move.

He can't be everywhere all at once, it's priorities and you have to prioritise the largest threat which was near post and being infringed. Like you say it was a terrific and free header, he can't plan for that, it shouldn't happen 95% of the time.

Teams sticking a man on the keeper is something you see all the time at all levels of football. This isn't something out of the ordinary. He's not exactly dragging Steffen to the ground. Prioritising the largest threat is looking at where the ball is and trying to be on his toes to at least try and prevent it from going in the goal. You can't do that when you are focusing on shoving the Hull player at the same time as the ball is coming into the box. If he doesn't push the Hull player and he gets impeded then you hope that the ref/linesman will see that and blow for a free kick. Although with the refs in the Championship I suppose there's a good chance that may not happen .

 

[Malaguena]

Teams sticking a man on the keeper is something you see all the time at all levels of football

They do indeed - and defending teams always have another man blocking that attacker - that's where the fault lies, because we didn't

 

[MidlandsBoroFan]

Every player makes a mistake in a match, yet we don't see threads started about a misplaced pass from an outfield player. I get that it's more noticeable for a goalie, but that doesn't make it any less unfair.

Steffen has been a solid 8/10 for me this season, 9/10 in last half a dozen games.

Outstanding keeper.

Agree. Keepers always get their mistakes highlighted because they often lead to goals. Not exactly fair, but it’s the way things are.

 

[Bruce]

He had to deal with the post guy though, he can't just stand there and let him do what he wants. So anything else is hypothetical. Had the guy not been there he would have saved it, but he was there.

Post man Giles could have stopped it too, never mind the two free defenders McNair and Akpom who didn't put enough pressure on. It's hard to do that mind, as you can either pick to follow the man or attack the space/ ball as defender, but neither of them really did anything.

Look how free the man is though, there's literally nobody within 5 yards.
View attachment 56469

Not saying Steffen doesn't have any blame, but it's 60% well played by them (combo of the ball in, the run, the header and the guy bothering Steffen), 30% defence and 10% Steffen, thus attributing least blame to Steffen.

That's about right, I think. It has taken Steffen longer to adapt to the Championship than I expected but he has, by and large, got there over the last month. He's still capable of getting mugged though. Opposition players seem to have noted that he can be hassled. It's pretty basic stuff; stick someone on the keeper and try to hassle them as much as you can get away with. We need to either task someone to defend Steffen or Steffen has to get much smarter at dealing with this.

Giles is also at fault for wandering off the back post and Akpom has let the scorer go. Akpom's probably zonally defending that area rather than going with the man. I suspect that Hull's coaches have seen him do that in the past and played for it. Our best header of the ball, Lenihan, is left marking no one. Again, I think Hull have looked at previous matches and tried to stay away from Lenihan.

So mostly this is Hull spotting our weaknesses and exploiting them really well. We, of course, are going to have to stop Luton doing this to us because that really is their strength.