Tim Howard=Crap?

[18yardboxterror2540]

Don't flame me just yet. Now it's natural for me to defend Tim Howard because i'm from the New York/New Jersey area and i'm all for Americans going abroad to ply their trade because someday when my game is good enough, I want to.

I've been speaking to a friend of mines that lives in Manchester........Old Trafford to be exact. She was born a United supporter and often mingles with the players behind the scenes (her parents have a cushy job with The FA.) She's been telling me that everyone that dons the United colors have been calling for Howard's head for weeks now. I've continuously tried to argue the fact that our defense is quite poor right now without Rio Ferdinand. Wes Brown is on Third Division form right now (i'm usually the one to defend him as well) and Mikael Silvestre has just come back from injury but even healthy, he isn't as effective as he is with Rio in the lineup. She isn't having any of that argument and neither are the other home based supporters. She argued that Howard has costed United when they needed him the most these past few weeks. When she said that, there was nothing I could say because she was right. The defense is woeful indeed but....what's the purpose of a Goalkeeper? He's supposed to be the last line of defense. He's not playing great right now and if he doesn't produce the spectacular form that everyone here knows he's capable of, Home based United fans will soon turn against him (if they already haven't). I'm not sure if he can redeem himself at this point, it may be that it has already been determined that he has costed them the season and is now considered crap for that. What do you guys think?

[Motterman]

Originally posted by 18yardboxterror2540
Don't flame me just yet. Now it's natural for me to defend Tim Howard because i'm from the New York/New Jersey area and i'm all for Americans going abroad to ply their trade because someday when my game is good enough, I want to.

I've been speaking to a friend of mines that lives in Manchester........Old Trafford to be exact. She was born a United supporter and often mingles with the players behind the scenes (her parents have a cushy job with The FA.) She's been telling me that everyone that dons the United colors have been calling for Howard's head for weeks now. I've continuously tried to argue the fact that our defense is quite poor right now without Rio Ferdinand. Wes Brown is on Third Division form right now (i'm usually the one to defend him as well) and Mikael Silvestre has just come back from injury but even healthy, he isn't as effective as he is with Rio in the lineup. She isn't having any of that argument and neither are the other home based supporters. She argued that Howard has costed United when they needed him the most these past few weeks. When she said that, there was nothing I could say because she was right. The defense is woeful indeed but....what's the purpose of a Goalkeeper? He's supposed to be the last line of defense. He's not playing great right now and if he doesn't produce the spectacular form that everyone here knows he's capable of, Home based United fans will soon turn against him (if they already haven't). I'm not sure if he can redeem himself at this point, it may be that it has already been determined that he has costed them the season and is now considered crap for that. What do you guys think?

I don't see it, and that's not the impression I have been getting with my friends in Manchester either. Most realize he's still young, and without Rio in there and with Wes Brown not playing well at all, and O'Shea having a disappointing 2nd year in the team, there's just too many variables to say "Tim Howard is crap."

Our man marking has been a shambles, and our set pieces.... I don't think we could even say our man marking is bad there as well; it's non-existent really.

Yeah, Timmy may have made a couple of saves here or there.... but it's not his drop of form that's let in 20 goals in the last 10 matches. There's plenty of blame to go around the whole club for that.....

[MightyMouse]

United supporters are obviously upset that they are not the cream of the crop in the Premiership anymore. You win everything under the sun for so long and you get used to feeling invinsible but that is the worst feeling to get in a title run for any team because you get comfortable. I think United has a string of bad luck followed by the fact some of them are not giving their all because they have been doing it for so long.

Is Howard crap? My friend, Howard is far from crap and has been as unlucky as the defenders that are in front of him the past few weeks. Howard is still relatively young enough to be the best keeper in the Premiership down the road and he did extremely well when the defense was organized. Take out Rio Ferdinand and an injury to a few others United has become mortal. Take into account United is not scoring like they used to either and you have a team with no confidence.

Howard is not the reason United are falling from grace. He still has skills most other keepers in the EPL do not. What United needs is a better orginized defense and some better attacking to keep teams from going foward with confidence. I honestly think that Howard has not been at fault for almost 85% of the shots he has seen these past few weeks. Some of them were near impossible to stop for any keeper. This team needs to get back to the basics and play attacking football so that their defense gets a rest.

Funny how the first half of the season Howard was the second coming of Jesus and now that he doesn't have a defense worth a crap he is the problem for United. I hope he is strong enough to realise he needs to stay focused and work with what he has.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by 18yardboxterror2540
What do you guys think?

1) that "costed" isn't a word.
2) that Howard will start more games in goal for United next season than anyone else on the planet.

[billyho96]

Perhaps they need to role that footage of the friendly against Stoke in pre-season when Barthez let one in that bounced off his head to see how much better off you are this year than last.

[bennyf118]

I think that Howard has had some bad games recently, and some Manchester fans (who expect the best all the time) are starting to get ticked off. And yes, they were bad games, even if most goals weren't his fault. However, I don't think that he will take so much of the blame that he will be benched next season.

I'm certainly hoping that Howard returns to his old form, and I'm sure that form can be among the best in the league. However, I wonder how much Howard can be faulted for the defense being in shambles? Isn't one of the responsibilities of the goalie to organize the defense? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like that could contribute to the problem if he is not a good leader for whatever reason.

[Fat Dutchman]

Originally posted by Mike Segroves
Your right.

Twitch Howard should have made sure that Rio showed up to take his piss test.


:D

[cwhein]

From what I saw of their Champions League ouster it's the defense and not Tim Howard.

But, I'll tell you what - if you really, truly think Tim Howard is crap why don't you send him over to Highbury and let him play for Arsenal the next 10 years.

Ah, that's right, didn't think you would.

Stop complaining. Can't win everything every year...

[prk166]

Timmy!!!

:)

[haven]

Americans are funny about American players overseas. Well, by funny, I mean "irrational."

I think that Tim Howard is an excellent goalkeeper who should start for Man Utd for the next 7-8 years.

That said, he's been atrocious the last few weeks. His mistake against Porto was bad and cost the club several million pounds.

It isn't that he's committing terrible mistakes off of easy plays. It's that he's barely saving any of the shots that are saveable but are awfully difficult. You never blame a GK for not saving any individual one of them. But when he's consistently failing to get to any of them... well... he's crap.

I think Howard's problem is that he's committing too early. He's angry with himself, so he's trying to make sure he does the sensational... and he's guessing the angle. But he's been wrong - a lot. And he ends up nowhere near where he should be.

And incidentally, the Barthez bashing needs to stop. United had the best defense in the prem last year. That right there pretty much says Barthez wasn't "terrible" as some here like to call him. And anybody who thinks he wasn't good needs to watch a tape of United's last game against Villa last season. That was sen-********ing-sational. He made too many mistakes, but he was still excellent in many respects. Howard needs to be excellent, but not make the mistakes. He has the tools to succeed - but he has to get out of this fun.

[Sofabloke]

Tim has been great. In the context of our shakey defense and an expected dip on form he has been no worse than average over the last few weeks. Just look how poor Carroll looked when he came back for a game.

[Freddy Garcia Lives]

In all fairness to Carroll, 1st game back isn't going to be his best usually. I think Timmy has all the talent, attitude, and sense to stay the #1 spot for the team, but he has to improve. He is still a little weak on the cross and on freeballs. Gotta improve there.

This is a learning experiance for him, and now is his chance to step up, grow from this, and prove to everyone that there is no doubt who should be their #1.

[musicl]

Howard rules.

[Potomac Red Devil]

Howard has certainly been off-form, but then again, who hasn't?

Ruud is just as much to blame for our losses, because he's been missing sitters.

[zcgf02]

I haven't read any interviews with Howard lately, but I imagine he's not very happy with his current form either.

I think the one thing that will eventually make Howard one of the best keepers in the world, besides his incredible athletic ability, is his humility. Every interview I've read with him leads me to believe that he is never satisfied, wants to prove he belongs with Man U, and will do everything he can to become the best.

So, yes, Tim may be going through a rough patch along with most of the rest of Man U. But bet against Tim at your peril.

[gosya]

I think most people will agree that Howard has been off-form lately. A lot of his mistakes are still due to lack of experience, as the Porto goal would show.

However, I think that the most important thing to keep in mind is that Howard probably just ran out of gas, both mentally and physically. As good as goalkeepers are in MLS, they don't have to play 60 games at the highest level every year.

Add to the fact that Timmy didn't really have an offseason (me left for ManU midway through MLS season), and he's now been playing non-stop for about 12 months now. He's played almost every game that ManU and Metrostars have participated in that span. That's probably ~70 games in 12 months.

Wait for Timmy to get his rest, add a year of experience in the EPL, and Timmy will come back in full form next season. As far as raw talent - he's the best keeper in EPL, in my opinion. Add rest and experience, and he's definitely the guy you want between the pipes at Old Trafford.

[DasGooner]

I'm not sure how one can say that the Porto goal was Tim's fault. That ball was going in the upper corner where not many keepers would even have a chance. By the time Howard got to it it was bascially in the goal. He did all he could to claw it out. Had he parried it wide he ran the risk of just pushing it against the bar and in the goal and he didn't have much chance to catch the ball, so he could just make the save and push it out. Unfortunately for him a Porto player was standing right there and was the only one to react. That goes right back to the poor defenders not reacting. Tim Howard is the least of United's worries right now.

[Potomac Red Devil]

Originally posted by DasGooner
I'm not sure how one can say that the Porto goal was Tim's fault. That ball was going in the upper corner where not many keepers would even have a chance. By the time Howard got to it it was bascially in the goal. He did all he could to claw it out. Had he parried it wide he ran the risk of just pushing it against the bar and in the goal and he didn't have much chance to catch the ball, so he could just make the save and push it out. Unfortunately for him a Porto player was standing right there and was the only one to react. That goes right back to the poor defenders not reacting. Tim Howard is the least of United's worries right now.

Well said.

It's also hard to fault Howard for any of the goals against Citeh. They were all predicated on defensive breakdowns.

[Motterman]

Originally posted by Potomac Red Devil
Well said.

It's also hard to fault Howard for any of the goals against Citeh. They were all predicated on defensive breakdowns. Yeah, but the truly GREAT keepers seem to stop some of those as well. I'm not saying Howard should have stopped any of them, but it would be nice if he could pull off the improbable saves too more often.

It'll come with experience though, and he'll be just fine....

[MightyMouse]

Originally posted by haven


That said, the defense's mistake of allowing a freekick just outside the box in the last minute of the game was bad a cost the club several million pounds.



Fixed your post.






United had the game in hand, a Porto player fouled in a terrible area just a couple of feet from the box. Howard had a wall in front of him, he reacts and gets to a sure goal ball and stops it right at the line (which in itself is not easy) and it produces a rebound. Howard crashes into the post from moving so quickly to his left and sees a Porto player pouncing on the ball but had no time to get into position. Meanwhile United defenders were giving eachother handjobs watching the goal go in when they should have been defending.



The following game more bad luck for Howard, a defensive give away, a screened shot, a lazer sonic boom of a shot that I don't even think a brick wall would have stopped. Yes Howard needs to step up his game but some things are honestly out of his hands. I don't want to call him a victim because he does have fault for everything that goes into his net as, in theory, a goalie should get to every ball. I think that the 70 some games he has played over the course of the year with no real break is playing a part. I still don't think Howard is the reason why Man U. is crashing, a tale of two teams, one good defense, one bad.