Player Profile - Keiren Westwood (1 Viewer)

skyblues4ever

New Member
As its getting near to the end of the season we'll be getting to that twiddling thumbs part of the year soon - thank God for the World Cup - that'll bridge a bit of the gap and make the second week of August not seem so far away.
I thought a good string of articles (especially without WUM intervention) could be run on individual players. I have seen a lot written about the squad in general however none that really spotlights each player. What I am suggesting is a string of articles on each player in the squad where we can debate the goods, bads and indifferents.
Being No. 1 and probably the most significant player in the squad it would therefore seem appropriate to start off with Keiren Westwood.
25 years old - 2 years into a 3 year contract.
93 appearance for the Sky Blues so far.
Media quotes him as being "The best goalkeeper outside the Premiership"
Claims that he is being courted by the likes of Spurs, Everton and Villa.
Recent reports have suggested he is in discussions with the club about extending his contract. No doubt this will be for a better deal than he came with from Carlisle.
So, is he the best keeper outside the Premiership?
What are his strengths and weaknesses?
What is his market value if he were to be sold at the end of the season?
Do we think he will be in the squad come August 7th?
My views are as follows:
Why argue with the media - if they say he's the best, I'll go along with that! My only concern with this expression it attracts attention and increases his perceived value. I am sure these are things that are being "put on the table" by his agent at the moment.
I think his main strengths are that he reads the game extremely well and has lightening reflexes. His ability to read penalties is exceptional. His ability to read the game could make him a good captain but I'm never in favour of a keeper having the armband.
I think his weakness is ball distribution, a lot of wayward kicks that give possession straight back to the opposition. One thing I do notice is that he gets frustrated by the lack of movement from his full backs when looking to throw out following a corner kick or set piece. These are classic attacking tactics, which we seem to lack -gain possession - head for goal.
Market value at this moment in time must be in the region of £5m - at Christmas it'll be £2/£3m depending on how we are doing. My guess is that he'll cost the club a lot more for the next three years but what price can the club place on a player that is one of the fans favourites. Personally I can't see him going under the circumstances (fingers crossed!)
Lets hear what you have to say on Keiren - we'll milk it for a while and then we can do a similar thing soon with our No. 2 dear old Steven Wright.......
 

Good idea, we can gauge what the fans think of the team until August.
My thoughts?
Westwood may be the best GK outside the premiership. As you say, he has fast relexes and is a great shot stopper. The distribution problem may be down to tactics - City launch it long too often for my liking. When attacks break down and he has the ball, the outfield saunter to their usual positions waiting for the long kick - that frustrates him.
Westwood's downside (and I have said this before) is his indecision on crosses and lack of communication with his defence. Many times I have seen the ball cleared by defenders when the ball should have been his.
If he could improve this part of his game, we would lose him very quickly (although at his age, this is unlikely to happen)
 

IrishSkyBlue

Facebook User
This a good idea help us know more about our players, as i can see watch them play really its kinda hard for me to judge them so i have to go by what ye the fans see of them week in and out.Westwood for me is a great keeper but watching him when i can on live games he anticipation of crosses is weak indeed.
 
yeah definatly hit the nail on the head, his communication with his defence is lacking at times, other than that, reflexes like a cat, and just has a talent of knowing where people are putting penalties.
Value?, id say at the moment 3 or 4 million, i know im gonna get it thrown back at me, but hes never played higher than the championship and i dont think anybody with so little experience should be worth more than 4 million, especially when hes mid twenties, if low twenties id say yeah almost certainly.. i hope im wrong if we do sell him because its more money for the club to use.. but in an ideal world, id like to see him tell RR he either chokes up the cash to improve the squad and he'll sign a deal for an extra two/three years.
 

SkyBluesAndy

Facebook User
Good article...

I can't think of a better keeper outside the prem and I think a lot of people would be challenged to think of anyone better as well. We always get praise from opposition fans for how good Westwood is - they are mostly annoyed because they claim they only lost / drew / should have won by more thanks to Westwood. His shot-stopping is certainly up there with the best and when I look at a team like Arsenal who could use a decent keeper I am baffled as to why they don't go for him simply because he is from the championship. Man City went for Adam Johnson and were well rewarded in my opinion and now he's being tipped for England.

Not sure I agree 100% with him having poor distribution, I can think of a couple of goals at least where we have scored directly from a Westwood goal kick - Bests goal v Pompey and Deegans v QPR. I think the problem is as you say, no pace or movement from the full backs so he can't give it to them so the other option is to kick it up for someone to win a header or flick and no-one in our team is capable of winning a header - Bell and McIndoe are both poor in the air, Clingan likes the ball to feet, Gunnarsson goes in for headers but he is quite small, same for Morrison and Eastwood.
 

skyblues4ever

New Member
I don't know if any of your still use BBC 606 but some twat has copied the article I have posted on here and put it on there under their own name -a NEO derivative no doubt. Its not me - I guess its the person on here calling himself "skybluesy" - he's a WUM on here.
 

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