Nick Pope and the competition – What’s for the best? | OneFootball

After that Nick Pope howler on Saturday at Craven Cottage, there have been calls for him to be dropped by some Newcastle United fans.

If I’m being honest, it was a bad mistake, but no more than the one from Bruno Guimaraes in injury time when in theory, a draw was still a possibility, albeit the chances of it happening were slender to say the least.

My own observation is that Nick Pope was twice beaten at Fulham with goals that went to his left-hand side, so is this a new weakness, given it was Pope’s left shoulder that was dislocated in that quite splendid victory against Man United last December.

I don’t think any player is above being dropped but I’m not clamouring for our number one to be left on the bench when we host Man City next Saturday.

The question is, if Eddie Howe was to leave him out, who would replace Nick Pope?

The shoulder injury that forced Pope to sit out the back end of last season gave Martin Dubravka the chance to shine. Up until his departure, Pope had conceded 14 goals in 14 matches. Across our next 23 matches, before Nick Pope was restored for the final-day win at Brentford, Dubravka conceded 42 goals in 22 PL matches he started, Loris Karius conceding four in the Arsenal away match on his sole PL start last season. Whilst it’s true that our defence during Dubravka’s time between the sticks was hugely disrupted because of other injuries, the Slovakian demonstrated time and again that he is not in the same class as Pope and put simply, he isn’t the answer.

During the close season, in what was a somewhat disappointing transfer window for Newcastle United, we were variously linked with Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsdale (now at Southampton) and Valencia’s Giorgi Marmadashvili (now at Liverpool), as well as James Trafford, Burnley’s England Under 21 international.

The PSR fallout at the end of June meant that none of these potential acquisitions progressed. However, as part of the deal that saw Elliot Anderson leave for the City Ground, Odysseas Vlachodimos travelled in the opposite direction to become the fifth keeper on our books (John Ruddy and Mark Gillespie being the others, in addition to Pope and Dubravka). No Premier League team has more keepers than Newcastle United.

Is Vlachodimos a possible replacement for Nick Pope? Whilst not publicly acknowledged, it is reported that as part of the Anderson double deal, Vlachodimos cost Newcastle United £20m (Anderson £35m the other way), which if true, makes him our most expensive goalkeeper and 14th in the list of our record signings.

During the international break he kept clean sheets for Greece in their Nations League encounters with Finland and the Republic of Ireland, now with a CV that boasts 44 caps, two Portuguese league titles and 32 Champions League appearances, why not?

At first glance, the big Greek’s impressive credentials would suggest he should be a contender for our number one spot. However, Vlachodimos struggled at Nottingham Forest, conceding twelve goals in his first five games and was kept out of the side by a combination of Matt Turner and Matz Sels, the latter name being familiar to Newcastle United fans from the time he spent on our books in the Championship under Rafa Benitez. Given Sels clearly struggled during his time at St James’ Park, it will hardly fill anyone with confidence about Vlachodimos though.

And it seems, Vlachodimos’ pre-season in which he played four times, did nothing to convince Eddie Howe, who it would seem has no intention of playing the Greek international, a signing that was made out of a desperate need to avoid the pitfalls of the flawed PSR regime. What a monumental mess up, as at £20m the Greek has reportedly cost more than it did for Southampton to acquire the services of Aaron Ramsdale, with reports saying he has cost the Saints £18m plus £7m more in potential future add-ons.

I suspect Ruddy won’t start any time soon and Mark Gillespie has said he actually enjoys not being the regular choice in nets.

You have to conclude that Nick Pope, whether he has frailties or otherwise, is here to stay and I don’t consider that a bad thing.

Nick was fantastic in the season we qualified for the Champions League and despite his error on Saturday, he made a tremendous point blank save in the second half that kept us in the game and it was only last Sunday at Molineux where thanks to his world class injury time saving from Matheus Cuhna, Newcastle United emerged victorious.