Ali al-Habsi

Right- I'm going to put the cat amongst the pigeons and take my life in my hands. I expect a real wave of abuse about what I'm going to say -but I think Coyle was right to sell al-Habsi. This is NOT an attempt to rehabilitate Coyle- he's just a good memory (as a player) that went sour (as a manager).

I've watched al-Habsi a lot since he went to Wigan both on MOTD and in the odd home game I've been to at the JB- and he's nowhere near as good as he's cracked up to be.

He's certainly very mobile and athletic- throws himself all over the place- but he lets in lots of soft goals. He's got a lousy defence in front of him which doesn't help- but he's still a poor quality keeper.

At set pieces he's all over the place, when some body's bearing down on him in a counterattack he doesn't have a clue where to position himself. He leaps about all over the place - but usually too late. His extension (stretching to save) is poor.

He lets in soft goals at the near post. We often see the odd spectacular save from him- keeps the goals against tally lower thn it should be, but overall its high

Yesterday, for example, Suarez nutmegged him- and you could have got a bus between his legs.I know I'm going against conventional BWFC wisdom here- but I don't care.

If you had asked me at the beginning of the season who I would have preferred in goal for us- al-Habsi or Bogdan, I would have said ,without a doubt, al-Habsi. Not now- I would prefer Bogdan,even though he doesn't fill me with much confidence.

So- rant over. I now expect a barrage of abuse telling me what sort of idiot I am.

Is this rant before or after you've seen Barnsley's second goal yesterday, Rammy?

How many people actually watch Wigan every week? I would say probably none, people just see him making a few saves on MOTD and say "shd nvejh have sld al absi."

Sluffy wrote:Is this rant before or after you've seen Barnsley's second goal yesterday, Rammy?

After. Its also after al-Habsi's display against Liverpool

Hipster_Nebula wrote:How many people actually watch Wigan every week? I would say probably none, people just see him making a few saves on MOTD and say "shd nvejh have sld al absi."

None? Don't follow this. I go to watch Wigan as well a few times each season -so it's not just the few minutes on MOTD. It's watching him live too

Yes you go to watch Wigan a "few times" fair enough you see him more than most.

but you still don't see him every week, which is the point i was making.

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Yes you go to watch Wigan a "few times" fair enough you see him more than most.

but you still don't see him every week, which is the point i was making.

You come across as being really stuck up, do you know that?

Boggersbelief wrote:

Hipster_Nebula wrote:Yes you go to watch Wigan a "few times" fair enough you see him more than most.

but you still don't see him every week, which is the point i was making.

You come across as being really stuck up, do you know that?

Yeah, i do my best too.

Bogdan or Ali Al? easy Ali Al every time. Bogdan or Jussi? easy Bogdan every time. Bogdan or Lonergan? lets see.

Jussi dropped some real howlers early on in his Bolton career, but the club stuck with him and were rewarded for having faith in his ability. Dougie rates Bogdan, he's young and has not been helped by playing behind a leaky defence, it may be fortuitous if an injury keeps him out for a week or two but my opinion is we should stick with him.

If we were to drop players as quickly as some would like, we'd have no bugger left to play ! Everybody has a rough day at work, and though some errors are real howlers, I think we should be a little more patient with our younger players. (Having said that, I think Bogdan might benefit with a game or two's rest, and will give Lonergan a big confidence boost).

Al Habsi is a good keeper whose confidence is low at the minute, Bogdan is an average keeper.

Yes goalkeepers make mistakes amd can look uncertain behind poor defending. They are easy targets to blame usually in my experience by fans who have never played in goal themselves

Im in total agreement with you.

Ive said on here before that £4 million is a VERY reasonable price for a keeper of Al Habsis quality. He makes tons of mistakes.

Hes only slightly better than Bogdan - Bodgan will be better in time.



The debate as to if the money was reinvested wisely is a totally different one.

£4m for Al Habsi was good business, he makes as many bloody awful howlers as he does great saves. Bogdan will eventually turn out to be a good keeper.

Still a good keeper but the Wigan defence is woeful. They have conceded 55 goals so far this season. The biggest goals against tally in the whole of the Premiership. Just imagine how many goals they would have conceded had they still had Kirkland between the sticks. Even Petr Cech would look a right cnut if he played for Wigan.