George Long

[Dnblade]

The save that he made in the second half from a very well struck volley that he pushed over the crossbar hasn't been mentioned yet. I thought that it was the best save of the match.

When was the last time that any of our players have hit a volley like that from outside the oppositions box?

Yeah,great save...think it was from Lameiras who they picked up from Spurs academy..looked impressive despite JMac kicking him up in the air...good pass into Armstrong first half aswell along with another good save from George..Every team seems to bring in these good young quick mobile players from Prem academies while we look to our own academy who for the most part aren't ready..I think we are missing out,I would have preferred one or two of these type signings than the likes of Woolford for instance.

 

[FTPE]

He's not commanding and never will be, he doesn't catch the ball cleanly and he's neither vocal or much of a presence.
That said, he's the best we've got, a great shot stopper, one of our own and in fairness he does seem to be getting better game by game.
Just my take.

 

[Slim Man]

Long dropped the ball over the line in the first place. Not having a go or anything but he did drop it. Great job to claw it back out of the first row of the kop though.

Do you really think so?
I think he did well to react to Collins inexplicably sticking his arm on it and diverting it the other direction, about 5 inches away from Long. He did well to adjust his feet and I don't think he could have done much else, he didn't 'drop it' because he never had hold of it.

 

[grafikhaus]

Shot stopper par excellence, box commander, remonstrator with refs, pin-point distributor...

I exaggerate (slightly), but George has come through the storm, learned lessons & visibly developed.
He's one of our own - superb to see him putting in consistently good (& brave) performances.

Jeez. Not another player on the piss!

 

[Jehovah]

Certainly his best game for us in which he still nearly cost us everything by dropping the ball over the line. I would have been very disappointed if he had not made those two saves. 6/10.

 

[Slim Man]

Certainly his best game for us in which he still nearly cost us everything by dropping the ball over the line. I would have been very disappointed if he had not made those two saves. 6/10.

Extremely unfair, watch it back. Collins tried his best to steer it the opposite direction from point blank range.
Long never had hold of the ball so he couldn't 'drop' it - physics.

 

[mosbolad]

Extremely unfair, watch it back. Collins tried his best to steer it the opposite direction from point blank range.
Long never had hold of the ball so he couldn't 'drop' it - physics.

Don't rise to the bait Danny. Jehovah is not a Long fan far from it. He has previously said 'I would not have him in a Sunday League team'.
So for Jehovah a 6/10 is praise indeed!........

 

[Smirth]

George Long is only recently turned 22 and already has 118 senior career appearances to his name. I can't think of many keepers off the top of my head with that much exposure to first team football at such a young age.

He's developing just fine IMO and if handled rightly and continues to develop as he does could go on to be a very good keeper at higher levels.

 

[Slim Man]

Don't rise to the bait Danny. Jehovah is not a Long fan far from it. He has previously said 'I would not have him in a Sunday League team'.
So for Jehovah a 6/10 is praise indeed!........

My bad!

 

[Slim Man]

George Long is only recently turned 22 and already has 118 senior career appearances to his name. I can't think of many keepers off the top of my head with that much exposure to first team football at such a young age.

He's developing just fine IMO and if handled rightly and continues to develop as he does could go on to be a very good keeper at higher levels.

Agree with you there, Butland has just started taking the Premier league by storm now at 22. It's a make or break age for keepers I think...

 

[Darthblade]

I'm another one who thought he had a superb game. When we finally get a decent back four in front of him, who will give him confidence I think he will really shine. Can't be easy for him at the minute as he is a massive Blade and that really shines through but playing in a side that is amongst the worst in our history and with the atmosphere that be a difficult environment, as well as the added pressure of having to play behind an arsehole like Neill Collins who will be quick to blame him for his own failings.

Agreed ...... he's always been a great shot-stopper but he needs to improve on his communication with the shit defence in front of him and to dominate his area better.

UTB & FTP

 

[sheffielder]

Agreed ...... he's always been a great shot-stopper but he needs to improve on his communication with the shit defence in front of him and to dominate his area better.

UTB & FTP

GIven he needs to improve, and that will with games. I do have issue that you believe he should compensate for the shift defence infront of him. If he had Morgan infront of him he would know when to come and stay.

 

[BerksBlade]

I think we should stick with George for now, although we do need to make sure the defence help him out on set-pieces. Howard is better in this respect, but it's worrying that he keeps getting beaten with long-range shots. We need to be harder to score against.

 

[Darthblade]

GIven he needs to improve, and that will with games. I do have issue that you believe he should compensate for the shift defence infront of him. If he had Morgan infront of him he would know when to come and stay.

True ..... but with Morgs you never had any doubt what he wanted done ...... row Z could hear him shout at the others.

Communication is a two-way thing and George needs to learn to tell his defence what he wants and vice versa ....... so they all know what the fucking hell to do.

However, with the car-crash of a defence that we have at the moment that's just not happening !! Problems right down the spine of the team which is really serious and needs MAJOR surgery quickly .....

UTB & FTP

 

[Slim Man]

Another class showing from Georgey and 3 clean sheets on the bounce. Is he trying to break his clean sheet record from before?

Coming of age now.

 

[Ricky]

Areas Long needs to improve:

Aggression - this goes hand in hand with communication and both vocal and physical presence.

Handling - not only holding onto the ball but also pushing it into safer areas.

Decision making - mainly when to come out for crosses.


It's all about his mentality now. He's older and he should be strong enough to deal with it all. He has the attributes to get to a good level as long as he improves in the areas highlighted.

I'd like to work with him if I was a goalkeeping coach because I think it should be very possible to turn him into a good goalkeeper.

 

[coaxingstar71]

Very pleased that George is having a good run. Let's see if this support continues if he makes a mistake that costs us a game! Not that it really makes any difference but George is a top lad from a nice family and a Sheffield lad.

 

[UnitedBlade]

Another class showing from Georgey and 3 clean sheets on the bounce. Is he trying to break his clean sheet record from before?

Coming of age now.

Agree.

People forget in 2012/13 our goalkeepers set a league clean sheet record for a season ie the best performance in our entire league history.

George kept 18 clean sheets out of 34 games (Mark Howard 3, I'll give George the clean sheet for Orient away seeing as he played 80 minutes).

All this as a teenager.

He still has potential to develop into a very good keeper, he has all the attributes.

 

[Slim Man]

Agree.

People forget in 2012/13 our goalkeepers set a league clean sheet record for a season ie the best performance in our entire league history.

George kept 18 clean sheets out of 34 games (Mark Howard 3, I'll give George the clean sheet for Orient away seeing as he played 80 minutes).

All this as a teenager.

He still has potential to develop into a very good keeper, he has all the attributes.

Precisely, great young keeper and only going to get better.

 

[Alfreton14Blade]

Just nipped over to have a gander at the ratings.

George on course to pick up his latest MOM on there. If so, that'd be 5 MOMs in the last 9 games for him.

 

[mosbolad]

Sky Football League Team of the Week. Well done George Long, second time in 3 weeks.
http://www.football-league.co.uk/ne...football-league-team-of-the-week-2862966.aspx

 

[Cyprus Blade]

George hasn't magically transformed in my opinion - its clear there is some progress and work is being done on his areas of weakness. There is still a lot to be done before we get carried away with calls for him to play for England in the Euro's. I think there has been an element of luck (always handy) and poor finishing by the opposition which has contributed to the clean sheets, but his confidence is growing ( which is good but I do think having a confidence player in goal is always riskier than with the outfield players) and he does have to contend with a poor defence (again the problem has been diminished by Adkins' new approach to midfield which emphasises defence). I still think he is capable of flapping at crosses, poor positional play, judgement errors, getting caught in no man's land, poor communication and not dominating the 6 yard box. An improvement on what he was at Gillingham most certainly but let's face it that isn't hard and we shouldn't get carried away. Hodgkinson he isn't.

 

[jt64]

I think it's just a confidence thing. He's having a run of games and playing well, which can only feedback positively.