- 7 months ago
Wolves report card: Grading the Goalkeepers
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I am here with Mr. Liam Keene. Liam, it's been a while. We are
00:15back in video form. I'm going to be doing something we've done for the last six or seven
00:19years. We're going to be doing positional reviews from the season gone by. But, my friend, with
00:26a twist, because we're going to be grading each said player, almost like a full-term
00:33report grade card. Now, yours weren't great back in the day, hence why you've ended up
00:37an Express and Star. So, hopefully, they're going to be slightly better than your average
00:42C-D+. But we shall see. Some could be below that. I was an A-. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:52I was up there, top tier, but maybe not quite the best, you know what I mean?
00:56You were definitely the minus. I'm not sure about the A situation. Let's go. Let's go.
01:00I'll take it. Are you ready? I'm ready. Let's do it.
01:03Okay, let's go. Let's go straight in with the goalkeepers. It's Monday, it's the goalkeepers.
01:07Tuesday will be the defenders. Wednesday will be the midfielders. Thursday will be the...
01:12Allwoods. Allwoods. And Friday will be the management. So, without further ado, let's go
01:19with one of the most important pieces to the jigsaw this season. And let's start with
01:24Tom King.
01:25Yes, Kingy.
01:27Kingy, Premier League goalkeeper, Kingy.
01:28No, no, goalkeeper.
01:30Put some respect on the name.
01:31It's interesting that we're starting with the goalkeepers as well, because, as you say,
01:34these videos will be Monday through Friday. Let's hope that by the time each one comes out,
01:39there's not a player, another player having left the club.
01:41Well, no, no, because we're going to talk about the players who have left the club as
01:45well, because we still give them a grain, because it's the season gone by. So, we're
01:48okay. It's fine.
01:49And, I mean, goalkeeper is one that we might see a little bit of moving on, but maybe that's
01:53for a podcast in the very near future. But, yeah, Tom King, you know, you need, and there'll
02:00be a few players that fall into this category, you need players that are going to offer something,
02:05whether that's on the pitch or off it or both. And on this occasion, Tom King, and,
02:08you know, every occasion in a Wolveshire bar, that debut, he's been off the pitch. He's
02:14a really good professional, good character, the kind of person that every club needs.
02:19Wolves have fortunately got a few of them, and King falls into that category. Fortunately,
02:24his very short debut, and, you know, we were pleased for him, and it was a nice moment,
02:28fortunately didn't end in any disaster either. He got through it, bar one or two little rolls
02:34out to, that roll out to Semana didn't quite come off. But I think one of the biggest
02:38cheers of that final day was when he came out and collected a corner as well. So, yeah,
02:43all went relatively well, and it's difficult to give a ground on Saul. He hasn't played a
02:47lot of football, but I'm going to give him, considering what he offers off the pitch,
02:52let's go for a C+.
02:54Oh, that's very nice. It's very considerate. I'll go a C. I'll go a C. It's like, you know,
02:58hasn't really done anything. But, I mean, like I said, he did the team tour, pretty much
03:01team tour for VTour in one of the big games as well.
03:03He did on a few occasions as well, actually.
03:06Homegrown quota, et cetera, et cetera. To be honest, ironically, he could probably be the
03:09most nailed on keeper at the start of next season, because all three of the others might
03:13have some interest in him, bizarrely enough, as that seems. But, yeah, C, C+, and, of course,
03:18you know, a little bit of fun with Tom King, but I'm sure we'll see him next year. And I'm
03:21sure he'll be that important part around the club. That's what VTour wants. He wants these
03:24kind of characters in and around it. We know that all goalkeepers are not going to play,
03:27and very few of them are going to play regularly. Tom King is one of those players I think
03:31is very happy to be where he is, and he's reciprocating that, I think, in more ways
03:36than once. So, well done, Tom King.
03:38Right. Someone did get a bit of Premier League action, a bit more Premier League action, and
03:41that's Dan Bentley. Of course, I think with the move to Arsenal, wasn't he, last pre-season,
03:44didn't materialise. I'm sure he was delighted about that. And, look, he was number three
03:49behind Sam Johnson, Jose Sarr, arguably number two by the end of the season. But we'll come
03:53on to Sam Johnson in a little bit. But, yeah, your thoughts on Dan Bentley?
03:58Yes, similar with King. I interviewed King after that game as well, and a really good guy.
04:01And I've interviewed Dan Bentley a few times, and I can say the exact same thing. Really
04:05good individual, good person, and again, good around the dressing room, good around the
04:10squad, someone who is ambitious and wants to play, but we know isn't going to get those
04:16opportunities unless injury or illness or rotation allows it. And on a few occasions, it
04:22did for Wolves this season. I don't think he had any major disasters on the pitch. He had
04:28a couple of decent games, in fact. I mean, coming in late at Old Trafford, almost two years
04:33to the day of getting his Wolves debut with Sarr getting injured in the warm-up and putting
04:38in a pretty decent performance there as well. So, with all that, it's, again, pretty easy
04:43to grade him because he hasn't played a lot of football, but he does bring positives.
04:47And I think a C is probably about right.
04:50Yeah, I'm going to say he was probably on for a B- after that first Premier League game,
04:54but the second one, not as good as the first one at Old Trafford. So, you know, I would
04:58say B in the first, D in the second, C overall. I think that's fair to income. That's Dan Bentley.
05:03Right. Okay. I feel like this could be one of the lower grades of the week. Sam Johnston,
05:09ÂŁ10 million move from Crystal Palace. And let's be honest, it's been an absolute disaster,
05:12not only for Sam Johnston, but for Wolves itself in terms of the cost, in terms of what they got
05:17back in terms of his injury or not available and sulking and then playing and not particularly
05:24covering himself in any great way, really. I mean, even from that very first game,
05:29I believe it was Nottingham Forest, was it, Liam, where, you know, you look at that first goal and
05:33you think he could have probably done better and he didn't really recover from that. Someone who has
05:38been told he can look for a move away from the football club, whether that materialises, whether
05:42a club pay anything like that ÂŁ10 million remains to be seen. I don't think they will.
05:47But Sam Johnston, in a nutshell, what would you make of it?
05:51Yeah. And there are lots of things that go into the grade I'm going to give here. Let's talk about
05:56what Sam Johnston could have controlled and that is his performances. And I think it was about 10
06:01appearances. I think he got total, obviously under Gary O'Neill, very much in and out. Occasionally,
06:07it was Johnson. Occasionally, it was Saar. Didn't work for either of them. Didn't work for Gary O'Neill,
06:11of course, as well. And once Vito Pereira came in, he was very firm, very solid on Josie Saar's
06:16number one. And Sam Johnston came in and did okay in a couple of cup games, but nothing particularly
06:23special. So based on what he was able to control, what he could do with his performances, I don't
06:28think he did particularly well. I don't think he's by any means a disruptive person or a bad person
06:34around the dressing room, but it doesn't help when you've got a goalkeeper that clearly wants to play
06:38and a move hasn't worked out. That's what he can control. What he can't control is that Wolves
06:43spent 10 million pounds on him and it was a pretty disastrous use of that money, unfortunately.
06:49But even though he can't control it, both of those things have to come into his grade. I think you have
06:55to look at what he did on the pitch and off it, and also the signing itself and what Wolves invested in.
07:02And for that reason, I don't think it's anything more than an F. I really don't.
07:09I'm sorry to say.
07:10I mean, no, fair play. I like it. I was going to go E, because our grade card back in the
07:16private school that was Hymer's College didn't go down to an F. Maybe in your dodgy little school
07:21around the corner, they went to Fs. But fair enough. I'm going to go E, you're going to go F,
07:27and we'll be delighted to see Sam Johnson in preseason. He's not had any issues with him as
07:35a person. He seems like a decent enough guy.
07:39You've got to put it all together.
07:41It just hasn't worked. And part of that isn't his fault. It's not his fault that Wolves spent
07:46ÂŁ10 million on him. It's not his fault that Gary Neal brought him in and out of the team,
07:50and Jose Sarr was there and all of these different things going on. But I don't think there was
07:56anything particularly disastrous, but it certainly wasn't convincing with his performance. And there
08:00was a couple of really bad ones as well. So yeah, I could agree on E as well, but I think I'll stick
08:06in my gut. You can't go any higher than that because, let's be honest, the Wolves fans don't
08:12really want Sam Johnson here next year. Vito Pereira doesn't really want Sam Johnson here next year. And
08:16Sam Johnson doesn't really want to be at Wolves next year. So all in all, you can understand that.
08:20Let's be honest. Let's not be about the bush. Right. Okay. Next one. And that is Mr. Jose Sarr.
08:25Interesting season for Sarr. Up and down, in and out. The good, the bad, and the ugly, really,
08:33we had of all of Jose Sarr. And look, I think in terms of him, in terms of a goalkeeper,
08:37I think he is a good goalkeeper, but he's never going to change. He's never going to give you
08:42an incredible performance. There's always going to be a heart in the mouth moment. And there's
08:46probably more than that that we've seen, I think, this season. I would say overall, you look back and
08:50say maybe it was his poorest season in terms of his performance on the pitch. However, he was very
08:56important when he got back to, I think, eventually from Vito Pereira. And I think the Gary O'Neal
09:01situation hurt him a little bit. The fact that they brought someone in and he took a bit of time
09:05to recover from that. He did make some big, big saves for Wolves in some important moments,
09:10like I say, especially under Vito. But yeah, I think his future is in doubt going into the summer.
09:16I don't think it's a priority for Wolves, but at the same time, if something comes about,
09:19whether there is a deal to be done, I wouldn't put it past Wolves with them moving on from Jose
09:25Sarr and bringing someone else into the club. But all in all, Liam, what would you give him?
09:29Yeah, I don't think he is going to change. He is what he is at times.
09:36You've got a great voice. At times, that is a really good shot stopper. Someone who's up there
09:43in the Premier League, I think, for shot stopping ability. I think reflexes are fantastic. And those
09:48kind of moments that you get out of him has actually got points in games for Wolves this season and has
09:55been worthwhile for this football club. So those are the positives. The negatives are, at times,
10:01he's cost Wolves points. With the ball at his feet, he struggled on several occasions,
10:08giving away penalties and just kicking the ball straight into an opposition's feet and just really
10:14erratic stuff. I don't think he was as bad from set pieces and sort of commanding his area this season.
10:20I thought he was OK overall in that. There was obviously some bad moments as well, but certainly
10:25not as bad as it has been in the past. But he is erratic and that's the biggest problem. Now,
10:31you hit the nail on the head there and you said he was better once he was backed. That's one of the
10:35big mistakes Gary and Neil made was flip-flopping between the two goalkeepers. Vito Pereira came in,
10:40stood by one goalkeeper and you got better performances out of Jose Sarr because of that. But overall,
10:46when you put some really bad ones, I mean, look, he went into the crowd at half-time against Bournemouth.
10:50So, yeah. Conceited three penalties in that 4-2 loss and Wolves were all over the place. And he's
10:56played a big part in Wolves being all over the place as well. So you take those kind of moments
11:01alongside a bit more consistency in the second half of the season. And I'm going C, but I think
11:07I might go C-minus. It's between C or C-minus. It's again in that sort of area where I can't ignore
11:16some of the real bad moments and the real negatives, but he also has some really good
11:20games in his locker as well. It's just a shame you can't get them consistently.
11:24Yeah, I think you're in the right ballpark. I'm going to give him a C, even C, I think. But C,
11:27C-minus, and that's where we are with Jose Sarr. Let's see what happens in the next few weeks and
11:31months ahead. Yes, there's everything, really, when Tom King's the highest grade
11:37before, really. But, yeah, it wasn't a great season for any goalkeeper, I wouldn't have thought,
11:42at Wolves, and that needs to improve starting for the 2025-2026 season. That ends your goalkeeper's
11:50grades for the season. Next up, tomorrow, Tuesday, shall be the...
11:55Defenders. We shall see you then, baby.
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