It will be harsh to say that Angus Gunn cost Southampton a point against Tottenham on Saturday, yet it’s hard to look at it in any other way.
The English youth international was left completely blindsided for Spurs’ opening goal as Tanguy Ndombele’s deflected strike caught Gunn off-guard and gifted the hosts an easy goal.
Indeed, it was poor from Southampton’s young goalkeeper to hand Tottenham a simple method to take the lead, yet as some Saints fans know from social media, Gunn was the seemingly main scapegoat for supporters following the 2-1 loss as seen in some tweets below…
In my opinion, Alex McCarthy is better than Angus Gunn. #saintsfc
— Bjergy (@NI_Saints) September 29, 2019
Angus Gunn has conceded five goals and made just one save for the last six shots on goal he has faced. #saintsfc
— Ryan Rodwell (@ryan_rodwell) September 28, 2019
Someone care to explain how Angus Gunn keeps McCarthy off the teamsheet? Please?
— Joe (@Joeee_Smith) September 28, 2019
Blame can be pinned on Gunn for the first goal, yet to berate the former Manchester City man to the nth degree for this mistake, an error that was not even registered on the Premier League’s official stats page for errors leading to goals, is poor on behalf of the supporters, who no better not to discredit a goalkeeper that has helped them out of situations time and time again.
And it is easy to forget just how young Gunn is in comparison to the rest of the goalkeepers currently playing regularly in the Premier League.
As numbers from WhoScored show, Gunn, who is valued on Transfermarkt at £9m, is the third-youngest goalkeeper to feature in every game this season, and as numbers from SofaScore show, the Southampton man is impressing between the sticks, averaging a 66% save rate per game as well as conceding on average 1.6 goals per match.
With Southampton’s young stop-shopper impressing throughout the season, one poor performance shouldn’t tarnish the reputation that Gunn has done well to accumulate, and supporters should be standing by and supporting the 23-year-old rather than bringing him down for one mistake.
Southampton fans have stood by players after more calamitous performances than what Gunn endured on Saturday, and for that, they should remain by his side through thick and thin.
