Liam Roberts - Good enough?

He was okay against Tranmere to be fair. Roberts needs a break, completely devoid of confidence and that’s the worst possible thing for a ‘keeper.

1 Like

I was thinking the other day …if there was one player we could borrow from our near promotion season of 15/16 , then I’d have gone for Etheridge.

Been a saddler nearly 44 years now and for me he was our best number one i’ve seen …Even though Walker will always be a legend and close second.

It’s all made worse by the simple fact that for many years we’ve had a strong keeper position and now, runiing alongside a crap defence, we are looking helpless in both departments

2 Likes

That’s a large part of the problem. Too many spineless ■■■■■ that take no responsibility because they’re too busy blaming everyone around them.

1 Like

Few years back but he did keep a clean sheet for Cambridge v Man. United so must’ve been capable back then.

Team will concede at least another two on Friday if Roberts remains in so I think it’s worth a gamble given the dire situation.

I would put kasper in from the film kes and still feel more confident :rofl:

2 Likes

Billy Casper’s shorts would do a better job than Roberts at the moment!

1 Like

Like I said on this board back in December - he needs to be taken out the firing line, eventually may make a decent keeper but we need a solid, well experienced goalie, his mistakes are killing us, and 8 blame the coaches and management for it, not Liam, who is probably trying to hard

1 Like

For a team with so many coaches to be so completely inept on the field of play is a sad reflection but a practical realisation of the chaos that rules at WFC at present

In any other walk of life, they’d all be to on their arses looking for new jobs

If Jeff has anything about him then he should sack the lot of them and start again

We are a joke of a club at present

2 Likes

You say “eventually” like he’s a youngster but I think he’s 24 or 25 now isn’t he? Of course keepers play on longer, but he’s no young lad just breaking into football

1 Like

He’s 24, but that’s not his biggest problem. I would say, at this age some level of consistency should be expected and it doesn’t matter where do you play. Of course you can be consistent bad, but that’s not good.

He plays like a non league keeper in the first round of the FA Cup. Pulls of the odd spectacular save but is generally nervy, has poor distribution and is prone to a clanger or two. If the luck is with you then you get your ten minutes if fame in MOTD however if you play like that over the course of a season you get found out.

1 Like

I still think he is relatively young and in experienced as a keeper, they don’t come good until late 20s and maybe early 30s in my opinion

Craig MacGillivray was allowed to leave the club at the same time as Neil Etheridge, because we couldn’t offer him the regular Number One spot.

That worked out well, didn’t it?

5 Likes

It is one of the many manifestations of two disastrous managerial appointments. Whitney not selling Etheridge when Cardiff came in for him in the January (possibly cost us millions in “extras”) so that he could have a good look at Mcgilvray. Then telling Mcgilvray he wouldn’t be number one and signing Gillespie.

Then Keates, ultimately a worse manager than Whitney didn’t react in January because he wanted a slightly worse version of what we currently had in all of the outfield positions.

Roberts might turn out to be good enough but it was bleeding obvious in December (that Luton equaliser - blimey!) that he was having a torrid time and needed taking out of the firing line.

5 Likes

I usually agree with you but can you imagine the comments on here had Etheridge been sold in January .The club gets criticised whatever it does. As for Mcgillivray he looked poor for Portsmouth when they came here a few weeks ago. If he had been in goal we might well have gone down last year!

1 Like

A fair assessment PT but I would add that, in terms of macgillivray and Gillespie, I understand those decisions were made by cutler and, indeed, it was cutler who wanted to persevere with Gillespie and who didn’t rate Roberts.

1 Like

Why is it we can’t just accept he isn’t very good? Take him out of the firing line bring in a new coach it won’t make an ounce of difference!

He moves like the tin man , can’t control the ball , can’t kick and can’t catch.

Can we not just face facts that he is one of the main reasons we are heading into league 2!

2 Likes

I am afraid to say that many of us knew what the key problems were by the end of the last year. Needed desperately an experienced solid keeper and that was the number one requirement. Needed good solid centre back and two full backs.
We didn’t bring in a keeper and from what I have seen that has probably cost us a minimum of 10 to 15 points easily. We would be safe. So that was the worst decision taken by Keates and has probably cost us our League 1 status.
The centre back and full backs brought in were a waste of time and money as we have now seen.
We could have managed probably with what we had already plus Fitzwater.
The gk coach looks and acts like someone’s dad that turns up on a Saturday morning with the kids school games. Presume was the cheap option as usual. How he can be “helping” MOC I don’t know.
As said in the thread it looks like it needs a complete clear out with the odd exceptions such as Dobson and Kinsella and probably Cook and Gordon who need some help and quality service to support them.
The rest can just GO.
THANKS JEFF FOR YOUR FANTASTIC SUPPORT OF THE FOOTBALL CLUB SIDE OF THE BUSINESS. A LEAGUE 2 BUDGET AT BEST GETS YOU…A LEAGUE 2 CLUB.
THE FANS OF THIS CLUB DESERVE BETTER.
SO JEFF YOU GO AS WELL FOR THE GOOD OF THE CLUB.

2 Likes

Liam Roberts had promise but has now proven to be a non league goalkeeper. The occasional worldie means ■■■■ all. I’ve pulled out the occasional worldie playing six a side you don’t see me claiming to be a professional footballer.

I do think the loss of Cutler has made an impact but for now he is not good enough to be anywhere near a league 1 side.

Crap, like 80% of our squad.

5 Likes