Most liked posts in thread: Are we a better team with Walker in goals?

I feel sorry for him too. The reason being is he was a good bloke and bought into it with the fans.

While it turned a bit sour at the end, i don’t believe he forced a move and most fans accepted the move in the end, given his form had dropped off.

He did a video at one point and spoke about having trouble sleeping and suffering on the mental side last season. That must have carried into this year as someyhing is just not right. We know his true ability.

Maybe he needs a break and to sort out his demons - if they still exist - as I don’t wish ill health on anyone.

Carlisle are utter dogshit and were fortunate to go up. It was a poor choice of club, but maybe mentally he felt he just needed a clean slate and hoped with their January spend, they’d pick up. Hope he turns it around - ideally away from Carlisle, who I hope come straight back down.

 

Nah, the badge patting and “utfc” is a bit over simplistic. He was a genuinely good keeper, and a came across very well. Hopefully whatever it is that’s caused his form to drop off so much gets sorted out. Not convinced that the issue is simply Barnsley related. I hope I’m wrong.
Sam is definitely an upgrade on this season’s Harry though.

 

Walker has been pretty good so far. Has claimed more crosses than Lewis and added some calmness when the ball is inevitably chucked in the box. So far so good. He is an upgrade on this seasons Lewis.

Last seasons Lewis was outstanding, it’s sad to see his regression as he was such a positive last season.

Lewis is conceding some bizarre goals in Cumbria. He doesn’t look right, his body language isn’t good. I actually hope he is ok as he came across as a good lad here.

 

Let’s not get this wrong, Lewis was outstanding last season right up until the Carlisle PO game. He ran Cook close for POTY and we wouldn’t have got into the POs without him.

This year his form nosedived dramatically though and I don’t know if we’ll ever know why.
Looks like Carlisle have got this years version of Lewis rather than last years.

 

Wish well for Lewis, especially if he has any personal issues. Irrespective of his new employers, I am one whom doesn't wish I'll on anybody.

As for Walker, I was unsure and his initial time here at Valley Parade has started well. I'm also aware that it may not continue, see Lewis above.

Fickle, inpatient, turncoats, inconsiderate. A tale of some football supporters

 

A solid unspectacular keeper is what you need at this level and Walkers that man.

 

We are a better team playing a 3-4-3 instead of a 3-4-1-2, which was too narrow and predictable.
Having Walker in goal is having a definite calming effect on those in front of him and his ability to control his area is massive compared to Lewis who never came for the ball.
Seeing the Carlisle highlights from yesterday highlights those weaknesses.
There are other contributing factors to the upturn in form.
The addition of Kavanagh cannot be underestimated.
If you watch him sometimes he's not near the ball but he has very clever movement which opens gaps for others.
He drops in from out wide a lot.
Will be interesting when Jamie Walker is back what GA does.
Having the back 3 reinstalled that served us well before Christmas is helping.
Imo Kelly and Platt shouldn't have been dropped for Stubbs and Taylor after the Crawley defeat.
Cook is also fitter which is massive as he can last the full 90.
Trimming the squad down improves the quality of training, I go watch us train a lot as I live within walking distance of Rawdon Meadows and with the big squad before it was very segregated and time consuming for a league 2 management team. Plus it's better for team spirit to have a smaller squad.
So yes, as the OP says, having Walker in goal does make us better, but it's just a small part of what's happening ATM.
Had we not thrown away been 2-1 up against Crawley in January we would have been 7th now.
Such fine margins.

 

Ok folks I know you've all been waiting for my opinion.
Lewis, unfortunately so far is a very average replacement for the three previous keepers this season, however playing behind 'that' defence would give the best keeper in the land nightmares, as has been proved with the other three. After saying that he had his worst game (by far) on Saturday, 2nd goal was absolutely horrendous. But its like a plague isn't it? (as I'm sure Bradford fans are aware) once you get into that losing mentally, and unfortunately we are well and truly into that, so much so that scoring a 'goal' at the moment would be bloody excellent.
One thing I didn't realise (as with most Carlisle fans) is the 'step up' in quality, teams seem to be bigger stronger more physical and with much more composure than we were used to in Div 2.
Anyway providing Bradford don't make too much of an effort to get into the promotion picture over the coming weeks, we'll be meeting again next season, because as sure as night follows day we're back in the basement league again next season.
All the best

 

100%
We’d be in the top 7 right now if Walker had been the keeper from the start of season.
Lewis probably cost us about 7-9 points

and probably cost Hughes his job.

and furthermore he cost us the semi final at Carlisle

 

Why? He's nothing to do with us anymore.

 

Carlisle were a bang average league 2 side aided a playoff victory by Mark Hughes. The fact they are coming back down is of no surprise and shows the importance of building for the future and not just a one off promotion as Wrexham will find if they go up. They had one decent footballer in Moxon and he's gone to future probably now in the championship. I don't blame Lewis for leaving, he will have been well remunerated. But for his own future he should have looked at where they are heading, signing over priced league 2 standard players like Armstrong from Harrogate warranted a return to league 2.

 

Yes but the defending was bloody abysmal.

 

The answer is a big fat 'yes'.

Whilst I thought that Lewis got some unfair abuse this season - I did think people went OTT about him, you'd think he was the second coming or something. It was just a pleasant surprise to have a reliable keeper - which we hadn't had since Doyle was the regular.

But the cold facts are that he was 23rd out of 24th for % shots at goal saved this season, with only Sutton's keeper behind him (and we saw how porous their defence is).

The big problem with Lewis was his flamboyance. Last season he increasingly started mucking about with the ball, which, late in the season, resulted in some eye popping near misses and a badly conceded goal or two. That just decreases the confidence of the defenders and it was noticeable that this coincided with Platts worst spell for us.

League 2 defenders, need surety. Early season ours got neither. A confusing defensive set up. And a twitchy keeper behind them.

Walker is simply a good reliable pro. Nothing flash - just does his job as a keeper, as opposed to the current obsession with them needing footie skills. Yes. In the Premiership / International team competing for the big prizes, of course a keeper that is great at distribution is vital - but not in League 2.

 

He is a confidence player and right now that's through the floor. Haven't Carlisle lost every game since he started for them? But he gets a decent wage for it. For now.

 

Stevenage and Northampton seem to be coping fine enough. I think Carlisle are just rubbish and were lucky to play an equally rubbish City under Hughes and then fluked a penalty shoot out victory.

 

Yep, just seen the goals from yesterday. His positioning is actually amateurish. Their second goal was an easy catch for any keeper and he just flapped at it with nobody around him. And for the 4th, a high looping cross only needed him to come out and catch it but he just stood on his line leaving an open goal for the player to head in to. Extremely bizarre - for one reason or another his head isn't with it.

 

He gets the basics of the game right is what i am saying and thats what you need at this level a keeper that commans his box.

Btw simply cannot stand the hate towards Lewis ?????
He was brilliant last season we got a decent fee for him so whats the big deal ???

 

As much as I've been very down about us, especially during January when we were so poor, since GA took over we've averaged in the League nearly 1.7 points per game.
That's 74-75 points in a season.
Under Hughes early this season we were on 1.18 which was bottom 6 form.
Also getting us to the Semi finals of a cup we've never done well in.
I understand with the type of football GA chooses for us to play it's always going to be results based, as at points yesterday in both halves it was turgid, but we can't argue with stats like the ones presented.
Can we improve those stats to 2 points per game which would leave us on 72 points at the end of the season and imo with the tightness of the league, a play off spot??

 

I just think we have left ourselves with too much to do. I know we are only two points behind, but 6 teams in front of us with generally a game in hand. Certainly if we manage to keep this going then there is a small chance and we would be the form team running into the playoffs which is always a good thing. Fingers crossed.