Statto
Free Kick Specialist
This was a time period when (not immediately MW's fault, but he did have plenty of time to sort it) we were conceding goals left, right and centre.
I'm sure most people on here don't rate either Pantilimon, Kapino or Steele that much, yet Aitor Karanka seemed to think that all of them were ahead of Smith, and O'Neill played Steele when it wasn't Pants too.
We then signed Muric and Samba under Lamouchi.
So this is a string of managers who have seen him as not good enough for this level, the only appearances he has made are cup or when Samba's been injured.
Ignoring Smith's first game when he came on as sub for the cone (when we lost 5-1 to Norwich) he then conceded 19 goals (1.3 per game) and kept 3 clean sheets in 15 matches (20%).
The year after he played the first 29 and kept 6 clean sheets (20%) conceding 47 goals (1.6 per game).
So on average he concedes about 1.5 per game and keeps a clean sheet 1 in every 5 in his first spell.
But it's difficult to see how many of those goals conceded were his fault or not, even we can't agree sometimes whether a player is at fault for a goal.
It is apparent whenever he does play that we do look like conceding and most times do at least once though. Whether this is directly his fault or simply there is no mutual confidence between him and the defence is another matter.
He is potentially good enough to be a 2nd choice for us based on the fact that most seasons this has amounted to maybe 2-3 games where our first choice has been injured or suspended. I guess for those games he would do. But, as a regular starting keeper we do need and have better.
My main point is we know what Smith offers, even if we largely can't agree how useful it is. He's an above average shot stopper, who is below level at controlling his area and distribution as well as the confidence of the defence. If the international keeper we have in our squad is worse than he is, what was the point in bringing him in?
