Gavin Bazunu Needs Backing Not Sacking

This won’t be a popular viewpoint, but I believe that now is the time to keep faith with Gavin Bazunu and back him to make the number 1 jersey at Southampton undisputed come the end of the season.

Whatever position he plays, a young player must have quality and experience around him to help him develop if you want to get him into the

Premier League; this is arguably even more important for a goalie.

Gavin Bazunu, though, has faced a car crash of a defense from the very beginning of his Southampton career, and more importantly, it has never

been one that was settled or consistent in terms of those who were in it week to week.

Given these circumstances, it should not be surprising that Bazunu has had some difficulty showcasing his talent.

He is not the first Saints goalkeeper to meet this fate; when Peter Shilton arrived at Southampton in 1982, he was widely regarded as the best

goalkeeper in the world, not just in England. Despite this, Shilton struggled mightily in his first few months with the team, losing 4-1 to newly

promoted Watford at home, then 6-0 to Spurs, and then another humiliating 5-0 loss at Liverpool.

In his first 7 League games Shilton conceded 18 goals, yet things were turned around and in the remaining 35 games of the season we would

concede just 40.

Perhaps a more direct comparison though would be Tim Flowers, he was 20 when he arrived at the Dell, he too had played in the lower leagues in

this case for Wolves, his debut would see him concede 5 goals at Old Trafford, his second game in for the injured Shilton saw Saints beaten 4-0,

although he did not concede any of them having fractured in cheekbone on the hour mark conceding a penalty for the opener.

At the end of that season he got into the side and although his progress was slow and he shared duties with John Burridge at one point, he

eventually became the undisputed number one and became a veteran of over 200 games for the club and an England goalkeeper.

Goalkeepers, more than any other position on the team, can be devastated by the crowd riding on their back. They are all about confidence and self-belief.

Gavin Bazunu’s critics will point to the shots on target to goals against ratio, but that is a simplistic view. If you read my reviews from last season,

they show that goals were frequently given up by unmarked players in dead ball situations. Many of these goals could not be attributed to Bazunu’s

inability to stop a free header from six yards out.

When he was dropped, the situation remained the same, in total Saints conceded 73 goals a ratio of 1.92 a game, Bazunu played in 32 of those

games and conceded 56 goals at a ratio of 1.75 per game , whilst Alex McCarthy played in 6 games, conceding 17 goals a ratio of 2.83 per game,

things did not get better when Bazunu was replaced, in fact they got worse.