Robinson

[OllieD]

Looking for constructive discussion here.

Can anyone remember if commanding the box has always been a problem of his? Or whether it has come about as a result of his lack of confidence?

I remember Shilton saying Robinson suffers from the same old technical issues that he always has. Can anyone shed light on this?

 

[Evolution]

For me he has always looked a little tentative on crosses and also coming out to close down angles etc. It's certainly nothing new. He has always stood there screaming "AWAY, AWAY" when the play is right on top of him. I think his recent lack of confidence has just highlighted the above problems. They have always been there.

He's shot stopping is top class though and up there with David James so it's certainly not all negative about Robbo.

 

[SpurSince57]

I think it always has, but that it's become more marked over the past season-and-a-half (or two-thirds, to be precise). I can't remember its being commented on so much in his first two seasons, anyway, but then our defence was so much more solid as a whole. You would really have to get hold of the season review DVDs to get some sort of idea, as this is definitely the kind of area where your memory plays you tricks.

I'd say his inclination has always been to punch rather than catch, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as long as you do punch, and punch hard, rather than flap open-handed. Even if you miss, there's a chance you may chin the opposing CF and claim it was an accident. (I did that once, a long time ago, and very satisfying it was too. :grin

 

[Legend10]

For me Robinson was a top class keeper who went to the 2006 world cup with a great reputation and was clearly Englnd's best.

Somewhere along the build up to that competition Robinson lost all of his confidence, had a pretty poor tournament and has looked out of sorts ever since.

He was a much better keeper than he is now, for keepers apart from the obvious, decision making is everything. When to come, when to stay, catch or punch etc etc and to me his lack of confidence affects his decision making and the fact that he doesn't trust his decisions means what he does, he does tentatively.

I find it interesting listening to him when he talks, he always says about how he is now playing well etc when in reality he knows he isn't and it's almost like he is trying to talk his confidence back. But he just can't seem to do it.

 

[Phantom]

From what I remember when he joined he was fairly commanding coming for crosses etc.

 

[NickHSpurs]

I think we should be looking at the positives rather than the negatives.

He is a world class shot stopper and his distribution is the best in the Prem.

Yes, there are areas of his game that can be improved, but surely he is capable of learning. I think he just needs a good coach. If he can improve on claiming crosses to the level he is for shot stopping then we have a world class keeper!

 

[Evolution]

I think he just needs a good coach. If he can improve on claiming crosses to the level he is for shot stopping then we have a world class keeper!

Do you really believe he can adapt and change ?

Be great if he can but I have my doubts. Would like nothing more then for Robo to make me eat my words though :razz:

 

[Chaplain]

Interesting you'd say so, Legend, but I've always considered Robbo to be an average/overrated keeper, and that his inclusion in the England national team came from a lack of good English keepers (James was going through a particularly long bad patch at the time) and not any special abilities that he had in particular. To be fair, his poor form after WC06 came as a real surprise, as while I always thought he was average, I never thought he was down-right poor...which, apart from his shot stopping and distribution, he is.

 

[sloth]

I think our defence and overall team mentality has brought Robbo down. There's of course a chicken and the egg argument, but in truth it's one of those snake eating it's own tail situations, where all parties are responsible for the general malaise pre-Ramos.

Robbo remains shorn of confidence imo, his hesitancy in coming for the ball in nip-and-tuck back-pass circumstances, along with his failure to claim all but the most obvious crosses and the way in which he tries to pre-empt free-kicks when he has too long to think about them are not outweighed by the natural instincts of an, at core, very good keeper.

Robinson will be replaced in the summer. It's too late for him now. I hope for the sake of a genuinely nice bloke he reinvents himself at another, smaller club. I for one certainly won't be surprised to see him back playing for England at some point in his career, but for the here and now, he's gone.

 

[johnmc]

Legend I fully agree after the 2006 W.C. Robbo was never the same keeper.
I am not sure he ever will become the keeper we all hoped he would develop into. Alas I fear Sloth is also spot on with his assessments of the situation. A new keeper it seems will almost certainly arrive in the summer. Shame really because I thought Robbo was going to be with us for the rest of his career.

 

[SpurSince57]

I think that at the root of the problem is the fact that understanding and trust between keeper and defence evaporated last season and got worse this. No-one has really seemed sure of what his team-mates are going to do, and several players have developed a distressing tendency to lose concentration or simply go AWOL. For me the classic example was Touré's goal at the Lane last season. Robbo started to come out for the cross, decided—correctly, in my view—that charging into a close-packed huddle of players was far too risky a proposition, retreated to his line and left his defenders to deal with it. Which would have been fine had Chimbonda not taken it into his head to bugger off at the crucial moment and leave a gap for Touré to nip into.

Now, some people were suggesting that Robbo should have gone for that cross James-style, but what if he'd failed to collect it or punch it well clear and been stranded 8-10 yards out? That, presumably, would have been a blunder too.

What we'd got into was a vicious circle in which the keeper couldn't fully trust his defenders to deal with a cross (or even be where they were supposed to be in order to deal with it) and the defenders didn't know whether it was the keeper's ball or not. A snake eating its own tail, as Sloth says. Things have improved since Ramos arrived, but it's taken a huge amount of hard work on the training field.

Actually, although my memory's hazy at this distance, Robbo reminds me of Bill Brown in certain ways. Brown was less than convincing when dealing with aerial balls and very reliant on Maurice Norman to help out. We started letting in a ridiculous number of goals (80+ in one season) until Bill Nicholson decided enough was enough and promoted Pat Jennings.

 

[StockSpur]

i think as part of a defensive unit that has leaked goals until late has done nothing but expose robbo,

good shot stopper? that means basically blocking the ball when its no more than 1/2 a metre either side of a goalkeeper or usually heading for his face and he puts his hands in front to stop himself getting hurt.

he is pretty flat footed and really slow between the posts, he made a mistake on Sunday and chelsea scored from it, but goals usually come from someone making a mistake so thats ok.

coming out to the ball he has the worst command of an area ive ever seen and i think we all expect the oppostion to score from a corner or long kick into the box, although thats also down to the defence to sort out to.

 

[phil]

I don't think that Robbo ever came for crosses but this weakness in his game has been highlighted by the absence of Ledley. I believe that his weakness on crosses and susceptibility to long shots is due to poor footwork. Perhaps, he needs dancing lessons (seriously).

He is an excellent shot-stopper, makes tremendous reaction saves and has great ball distribution but IMO he is not a good keeper.

With regards to SS57s comparison to Bill Brown, my memory is somewhat different. I think that Brown was one of the best keepers I've seen. Don't recall Jennings ever being an understudy to Brown. I think that Jennings came straight into the team after signing from Watford. Can still remember his debut at the Lane (against Sheffield United, I think). He came out to the penalty spot to collect a cross one-handed. Brilliant keeper - doubt if we'll ever see his like again.

 

[Mr-T]

If only big pat could sit inside the goal and poke one of his massive fingers up robbos mangina every time he needed to command his area.

 

[SpurSince57]

No, we signed Pat at the end of the 63-64 season and he replaced Bill in '66. I remember when Bill first arrived he was a quantum improvement on Johnny Hollowbread and extremely agile, pulling off some brilliant saves, but he wasn't particularly tall even by the standards of the time and I do remember him looking vulnerable to aerial balls. Over his last couple of seasons we really started shipping goals by the bucketload and there was a big difference after Pat took over.

I don't recall that particular save, but there were plenty of other like it.

My grandfather reckoned Ted Ditchburn was the best Spurs keeper he'd ever seen, but died just after Pat took over.

 

[Peters]

I think that the start of Robbos malaise was at the World Cup, where new lighter weight footballs were introduced. The less predictable flight characteristics seemed to unnerve Robbo, so much so that he seems to try to catch far fewer crosses, even now.
Ever changing defensive team selections have made matters even worse.
I hope he stays and overcomes his lack of confidence, but either way, I think it is likely that a top quality keeper will be signed in the summer to improve the team.

 

[johnmc]

On the Brown, Jennings debate I seem to recall Bill Brown being weak on crosses, he was slightly built for a keeper. I also seem to recall a stage when it seemed Brown and Jennings seemed to swap places every other game or so, or is it just my old memory fading, along with all my other faculties.

 

[Johnspur]

Legend10 I agree that he has gone downhill after the World Cup. I remember the first game of the 06/07 season away to Bolton where he let a 35 yard long shot by Campo and that was the first time I really thought Robbo really could have done better, he has struggled since then.

We signed him in summer 2004 and after the 04/05 and 05/06 season I thought we had a steal at 1.5m and he was undisputedly Englands number 1. Watch the 05/06 season review he is one of the main reasons we finished 5th, we have so many victories by a 1 goal margin where he made some cracking saves to earn us points. As for the World Cup he kept 4 clean sheets in 5 games...was he bad?

I like Robbo and he is quality with the fans, so his bizarre drop in form is hard to watch for me. I wonder if players read fan forums? If so this can't help his confidence!

 

[robin09]

I dont think anyones mentioned it yet, but I remember the xact moment his flapping at crosses started.

It was Spurs-Arsenal White Hart Lane, 2 years ago I think. We were 1-0 up, Arsenal have a free kick (I think) the ball comes in, Robbo comes out to punch and almost misses it, it drops to Pires who slaps it in. 1-1.

His confidence got lower and lower after that, and his ability to deal with crosses almost evaporated.

Fucking Pires.

 

[Johnspur]

I dont think anyones mentioned it yet, but I remember the xact moment his flapping at crosses started.

It was Spurs-Arsenal White Hart Lane, 2 years ago I think. We were 1-0 up, Arsenal have a free kick (I think) the ball comes in, Robbo comes out to punch and almost misses it, it drops to Pires who slaps it in. 1-1.

His confidence got lower and lower after that, and his ability to deal with crosses almost evaporated.

Fucking Pires.

Yea I remember that game, we shoulda beat em about 3-1 easily. To be fair to Robbo that day he made some great saves plus that was early on in the season, around october I think and he still went on to have a great season.