Matt Turner’s long hiatus from the Nottingham Forest starting lineup finally came to an end on Saturday.
Turner made his first English Premier League start since October 29, logging three saves in a 1-1 road draw with Wolves. The U.S. men’s national team had watched from the sidelines in November as Greek international Odisseas Vlachodimos started for Steve Cooper’s squad over the past month.
However, Cooper decided to return to Turner on Saturday at Molineux.
Harry Toffolo propelled visiting Forest in front after 14 minutes but Matheus Cuhna’s equalizer 18 minutes later helped Wolves earn a share of the points. Turner was the busier of the two goalkeepers, registering three saves compared to Jose Sa’s one.
The result helped Nottingham Forest snap a four-match losing streak in league action. Forest now sits in 16th place, five points clear of the relegation zone.
Turner has now made 11 league appearances for Forest this season, registering two clean sheets.
The 29-year-old will hope to retain his starting spot as Forest hosts Tottenham on Dec. 15 before also playing Bournemouth, Newcastle United, and Manchester United to close out a busy schedule this month.
Huh, and I was told it wouldn’t happen.
Nah, you were told it wasn’t likely to happen.
Always happy to be wrong though.
V: just having a little fun. I just happened to get one thing right, mostly because I’m a big enough degenerate to be following Vlachodimo’s GA vs xGot to notice he’d been very very bad.
JR
The takeaway here is that, while the USMNT goalkeeper room is comparatively thin these days, Matt is #1 because he has the mental makeup, the big balls, of a #1.
And with keepers that is such a huge part of their game.
Johnny,
If I’m wrong, I”ll cop to it, but I didn’t say it wouldn’t happen…I said, “it was very unlikely that a change back to Turner would happen anytime soon.” That said, unlikely became reality. 🙂
This has me thinking that it’s not a “win” for Turner, but more so Cooper choosing the lesser of two evils.
Also, put me down as being concerned that Turner will continue to be exposed.
Johnny, did you watch any Vlachodimos play for Nottingham?…or are you going strictly off the stats?
Gosh no just stats, I’m not so sick that I’m taking the time to watch teammates of USMNT members to monitor their competition. His PSxG-GA is in the 1% of top league goal keepers (as in one of the worst), now 5 matches is probably not the best sample size but his last 4 were getting worse by the week. FBRef uses the last 365 days so that might be including Benfica matches in European competitions from last year. Matt Turner is in the 30%. Forest can’t afford to keep playing Vlachodimos if he’s giving up an extra half goal more than he should compared to Turner. I’m sure they wish they had Keylor Navas back.
Papi Grande
“This has me thinking that it’s not a “win” for Turner, but more so Cooper choosing the lesser of two evils.”
It’s a win for Turner. Ethan Horvath would kill for such a “win” as you put it. A pro at his level knows that someone is always watching you. It gives Matt another chance to, on the playing field, show Cooper or anyone else who’s watching that he deserves a job. Or maybe he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, as a USMNT fan I’d be interested in knowing that.
“Also, put me down as being concerned that Turner will continue to be exposed.”
Again, ask Horvath if he would mind the chance to be “exposed”?
It beats rotting on a bench and Ethan would probably grab it with both hands in a heartbeat.
Matt is a good keeper but he’s not Navas who was able to galvanize a not so great team. Or maybe I’m wrong and he can be as good as Navas?
If you’re a real pro all you can ask for is a chance to show just how good you can be.
Navas has set the bar for Matt.
Let’s see how he does.
Pukisic with an assist today and Balogun with the two assists on Monacos two goals.
About time. That other GK has been pretty bad.
It’s hard to hold Turner down. Love the guy.