1 Dec 2014

Lawro blasts: Snubbed star 'not good enough' for LFC. 100% wrong & here's the proof

Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet continues to polarise fans and pundits alike, but one thing that most seem to agree on this: the Belgian has zero credible competition for his place in the team, and Brad Jones is not good enough to be LFC's first-choice goalkeeper. Is this really true, though?

In his weekend column for the Liverpool Echo, Reds legend Mark Lawrenson reiterated a view that most Reds fans seem to hold:

"If you walk into a Premier League dressing room, there will be somebody sat there ready to take your place.

"Mignolet doesn’t have that as Brad Jones sadly isn’t good enough at this exalted level".


In my view, Brad Jones - recently praised by goalkeeping coach Jonas Achterberg for his 'impressive' attitude' - gets a bum-rap most of the time. Some fans make it sound like he's a calamity keeper who constantly makes mistakes, but that just isn't accurate. In most cases, when he's called into action, Jones does a creditable job, which is impressive considering the fact he often faces long spells on the sidelines between his rare starts for LFC.

If it was down to me, I'd dump Mignolet right now and give Jones a run of ten straight games in the team. The Belgian is leaking 1.5 goals per game, which is worse than last season, when he conceded 53 goals in all competitions (!)

I genuinely believe that if Rodgers made Jones his number-one goalkeeper, he's outperform Mignolet, and Jones' stats clearly back this up:

* 29 goals conceded in 23 games (1.2 per game)
* 7 clean sheets (30% of games - 1 every 3.2 games)

In comparison to Mignolet:

* 81 goals conceded in 59 games (1.4 per games)
* 13 clean sheets (22% of games - 1 every 4.5 games)

As you can see, as a matter of irrefutable fact, Jones is more effective than Mignolet when it comes to performing a goalkeeper's primary role, which is stopping goals from being scored, and keeping clean sheets.

Jones concedes less, and keeps more clean sheets. End of story.

All of which begs the question: why does Rodgers refuse to give Jones a run in the team? The manager's job is to utilise the players available in a way that benefits the team in the best way possible, but when it comes to the goalkeeper situation, Rodgers has singularly failed to do that.

Some fans will refuse to accept the stats, and make lame excuses about X, Y and Z, but the plain fact is that Jones is a more effective goalkeeper than Mignolet, and even though Liverpool are in the midst of an atrocious run of form, Rodgers still won't give him a chance to stake his claim.

For me, this is mismanagement of the playing resources. I'd understand if Jones had horrific stats, but that's not the case. As such, he arguably deserves a chance to oust Mignolet, and if he isn't given that chance, then what is the point of having a back-up goalkeeper.

Ultimately, the fact that Liverpool have no credible competition for Mignolet is not down to Jones, it's down to Rodgers failing to utilise the club's back-up goalkeeper.

I'm not suggesting that Jones is the long-term solution, but after the Reds' shambolic defensive performance over the last year, he's surely a viable short-term alternative to Mignolet...?

Author:


32 comments:

  1. Jones' stats are skewed because of the opposition he's faced in most of the games he's been starting in over the past few years.

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  2. Jones has played against lower league teams in early cup comps.. The stats are as is usual with these comparisons, irrelevant and meaningless...

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  3. Simon Mignolet certainly has not performed to the standard he showed when Liverpool bought him but I feel those who complain about him have generally failed to give him the credit he deserves for some of the saves he has made to keep out the opposition. If we criticise I feel we should be balanced and give credit where it is due - like his save in the dying minutes of the game against Stoke on Saturday. I agree that he needs competition from someone like Begovic (but not a Spanish keeper at the end of his career). It also seems Brad Jones is never going to get an opportunity as it is deemed by many that Mignolet is a liability. Let's be fair to them both.

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  4. Jones will have played more cup games against lower league teams. To ignore the opposition is silly.

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  5. I should have read other posts as my post has been said by more than me.

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  6. When has Brad Jones let us down ? it is disgraceful he gets more stick for making no mistakes - Carragher should be ashamed of himself for saying Brad is not good enough.

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  7. Mingolet makes mistakes whoever we play - a teams standing mean nothing. he is the weak spot every team exploit.

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  8. Yes, but you forgot to add that Jones' stats are not to be taken too seriously as he has played primarily against lower league opposition. I believe I am the first one to make this point. All hail the mighty Bob.

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  9. A king among men.

    But he has played against lower quality opposition too though so put that in your pipe and smoke it.

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  10. Give Brad a run - he can't be any worse than Migno at the moment and you never know he might just be glad of the chance to prove himself ...
    It will show Mignolet that he can't take his place for granted and will give Jones some much needed game time to keep him up to speed .....
    He is , after all , the only replacement GK we have and you never know when through unforseen circumstances we will need his services at a later date.

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  11. Any keeper in the world would have dived on the ball for Real Madrids 2nd goal he went in with his feet - an invitation to score. We were still in that game at that point.

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  12. Yes the guy should be ashamed for giving his opinion on someone he worked with for years and played behind him many times. As his opinion is less valuable than ours.Sorry who was it who should be ashamed?

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  13. I think you're both missing the key point here; the majority of Jones appearances have come in cup games against teams playing in lower divisions. His stats need to be viewed in context.

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  14. For a man with a chainsaw for a hand you are very wise. Groovy.

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  15. Not a prem lg standard keeper at the moment and totally out of his depth in CL

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  16. No, we're all just primitive screwheads.

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  17. That's right. Shop smart, shop s-Mart.

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  18. Please read the other comments before posting, You are all making exactly the same point and it's really quite annoying

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  19. I heard on Talk Sport earlier that statistically speaking this season, Lee Cattermole is better than Sergio Busquets. Make of that what you will.
    I seriously doubt our defensive record would be any better this season if we'd had Brad Jones in goal although it could be argued that it couldn't be much worse

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  20. Sorry, but it's not easy to perform when the people you rely on the most as a keeper, the central defenders, are on their worst. It's hard to swallow, but it's true, can't really expect much more from him

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  21. Sarcasm is wonderous ;)

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  22. Roy Hodgson bought players and staff who were no where near good enough to play for us and I include Meireles in that. I was informed by Logan that Alan Harper was brought in by Hodgson and has only just been released. This is an incredible eyebrow raising tub of incompetence. Brad Jones is the last man standing from a period in our history I would much rather forget.... a born number 2 or 3.

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  23. Did we win something? Must have missed it.

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  24. Far out Pete, why so serious!!??

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  25. FFS since when does cherry-picked mean rejected?

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  26. I was watching a regional sport show last night and their guest was Erik Meijer. He said Mignolet should come off his line now and again but that he believes he is a very good keeper and he should be given more time. Not saying I agree but it was refreshing to see a former player come out in support of Mignolet.

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  27. I was going to mention how brad has mainly played against lower league teams, but to be honest, looking at the posts, i'm not sure that many people would agree so this would only antagonise the situation, so i'll raise another point which I feel is important...
    something I have felt for a while is that this is simply a case of the teams style not helping. last season, we played a style that allowed for other teams to attack us, usually right before we attacked. never the less it allows for pressure on our defence and keeper. this season, I think it is fair to say we have played a pretty disjointed style, which again allows for teams to take advantage and attack us. I'm not saying we should keep the ball for the full 90 minutes and then migs would look good, but considering our standing, I feel it is fair to say that we need to control the game for longer periods, kind of like BR's first season, though that resulted in next to no intensity. On sat, from the moment we scored til the game finished (12-ish minutes, 5 in the 90 plus 7 stoppage time), stoke had the ball and attacked. I genuinely felt like throwing up watching it. We were at home, against a team who would see it as an achievement to finish top 10, and couldn't control the game for 10 minutes, despite having a manager that likes "possession" football. Stoke must have had 3 chances to equalise, where as normally in that sort of situation (big v small team, late goal etc) its a case of "well there's normally one chance isn't there?", and ironically if it wasn't for mignolet's save from bojan at the end, we would have dropped points AGAIN.
    Bottom line- we need to start controlling games. I genuinely have faith that BR will learn this though. He always does. Changed styles after the first season to increase intensity. Wanted to play two strikers after the international break (but balo is still out), and now, most impressively, has moved gerrard further forward. Mark my words, this will be like a god send if he does it permanently (keeping gerrard forward, ideally on the right). Final thing he needs to also learn, PLAY SAKHO.

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  28. My little boy has never scored against me, statistically that's 0.0 goals conceded per game.
    Guess I'm irrefutably better and more effective than Mignolet, where do I sign?

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  29. Jones has historically played against less talented or weakened opponents because he's usually playing mid-week in cup ties.


    To say that his stats are comparable when he's playing Middlesbrough and Mignolet is playing Man City is simply incorrect.

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  30. The answers to some of your questions are so obvious one wonders what's the use of this forum, or the intelligence behind some of your questions, JK.

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