Southampton’s season has seriously picked up since the thirteenth of January. Before that the Saints season was in danger of becoming mediocre and slightly meaningless as they looked increasingly like mid-table side.

But then goalkeeper Fraser Forster returned from his long-term knee injury after spending the previous nine months on the sidelines.

Having the giant goalie back between the sticks has obviously has the desired affect that boss Ronald Koeman would’ve wanted.

The England international kept a cleansheet in his first senior appearance of the season against Watford in the Saints 2-0 win.

He then repeated the cleansheet trick in the next four Premier League games and that run included a win over Man United and a draw with Arsenal away at the Emirates.

In fact in Forster’s five appearances Southampton have picked up four wins and a draw. That has seen Koeman’s men jump up to seventh in the league and they are just three points off fifth spot!

To give you an idea of how impressive Forster’s record has been, in Southampton’s other twenty league games this term they managed six cleansheets.

I often think Forster’s talents have been under appreciated. Maybe it’s because Southampton aren’t in the top four or maybe it’s because he’s not a shampoo ambassador but whatever the reason he should be given the credit he deserves.

Since Forster arrived at St Mary’s in 2014, only four keepers have kept more than his eighteen cleansheets in the Barclays Premier League. Not bad considering he missed the last nine months!

In Southampton’s recent goalless draw with title challengers Arsenal, Forster made ten saves. No keeper has made more saves in a Premier League game during this campaign.

To think that he was out for so long and game back and performed so well is quite outstanding.

Now I am not entirely surprised, having witnessed Fraser first hand in Scotland before his £10m move to England’s south coast.

At Celtic Forster went more than 1155 minutes without conceding a goal, which broke the long lasting record. His performances against Barcelona in the Champions League will always go down in Celtic folklore. The Spanish media labelled him ‘La Gran Muralla‘ (the Great Wall) after those clashes.

His exploits in Scotland didn’t go unnoticed with legendary goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon:

“You can talk about him not being in a top league but the amount of clean sheets he has kept has been incredible.

“And he has proved over the past two seasons in Europe he can perform at the highest level.”

That’s a huge endorsement for any number one.

Many questioned if he could do it against the top strikers in England, yet Fraser stepped up and has never looked out of place in the Premier League.

After his knee injury and long rehab, many again questioned his ability to comeback and show the same consistency. Yet he has comeback with five straight cleansheets.

As ever Fraser Forster has shown that with strong dedication and natural ability he can continue to keep cleansheets and prove he really is the big man for the occasion.

 

Posted on February 7th, 2016 by scott
Filed under: Article