by Mikhail Chigorin » Sun Sep 11, 2016 6:33 pm
With regard to the goal we conceded yesterday, Bravo came out to try to catch the ball and getting entangled with Stones didn't help him in his endeavours.
If Joe had been in goal, he might have elected to punch instead and, personally, I think he probably would have punched it if he had decided to come off his line.
In such circumstances, punching may, or may not, have relieved the pressure in this one instance but, for myself, although Bravo dropped a clanger, I feel more optimistic that he actually tried to catch it and a bit more work on the training pitch would, to some extent, eradicate potential collisions with his defenders in the future.
Bruce Grobbelaar, in his Liverpool heyday, used to consistently come quite a distance from his goal-line to catch crosses and, inevitably, he used to drop some of them from time to time.
I remember the great Brian Clough saying about him that, because he played in such a positive (and almost daredevil) fashion and, by doing this, snuffed out opposition aerial attacks, he was "allowed" to drop a clanger or two and the football club and fans should not criticise him unfairly over this.
If, in spite of his smaller stature, Bravo tries to dominate his goal area by catching, rather than punching, I think he should be applauded - always assuming that that his his preferred style .
However, it's very early days and only time will tell if he turns out to be a success or a failure with us.