Phil Smith assesses Anthony Patterson's performance against Cardiff City in his regular #onthewhistle Q&A
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00:00Next question, just because so many people are asking about it, which obviously I can understand a lot of you asking around Anthony Patterson.
00:06So Hannah says, what has happened to Pato? Too many basic mistakes creeping in again.
00:10Regardless of what league we are in next season, is it time to look for a new number one?
00:14And a lot of you on YouTube asking about Patterson and whether it's time to give him a break from the team and bring in Simon Moore.
00:20I have a couple of views on this. The one is that I've obviously had the chance to watch it back a few times.
00:25For me, it's a foul. Should we expect Anthony Patterson to deal with that cross, whether it be through still being able to catch it, punch it away, whatever it may be?
00:33Yes, I think that's fair. I think it is an error. But I think it's a foul. I think that the striker knows what he's doing.
00:40I think he knows that he's not going to be able to challenge for the ball. I don't think he is challenging for the ball.
00:44I think he's just, which he's been clever, which is what we would all do in that situation.
00:49I think he's just disrupted the goalkeeper. He's moved his arm across and it's worked for him.
00:54But for me, I think it's a foul. I think if that's in the Premier League with AIR, I think that foul gets given every single time.
00:59For sure, I think Patterson will be frustrated. It was interesting, I asked Lebris about this afterwards, what his view on it was.
01:06And he said that certainly in France, where he's kind of used to his coaching career, it gets given as a foul.
01:11But also that he wasn't necessarily expecting it to be given as a foul because obviously it's a bit different, especially in England,
01:17but especially in the Championship and the lower leagues, that obviously a lot more contact is sort of allowed.
01:21And so he was pretty clear that it was something that Patterson would have to learn from and it was something they would have to review.
01:26But at the same time, so I think there is definitely sort of an improvement there to be made from Patterson, but I do think it was a foul.
01:33And so I'm willing to cut him a little bit of a slack in a way that I probably wasn't after the whole game for that one, because I do think it was a foul.
01:40For me, my opinion on Patterson, and I know some people disagree, which I completely respect.
01:46For me, my view hasn't really changed from a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it's the time yet to drop Patterson.
01:52I think that he made an outstanding save from Salah when the scores were 1-1. That was really, really important.
01:58I thought he had a good game with Sheffield Wednesday last week and made one really, really important save again from Inglesund when it was 1-1.
02:03I think they were two really important moments.
02:05I do think, although it's happened in the last two home games, I still think broadly over a long period of time that errors are quite rare.
02:12Now, obviously, if this keeps happening, where Patterson keeps making errors that lead to goals, it's going to be an unsustainable situation.
02:17I think that's fairly obvious. But I think, again, looking at his stats over the course of the season, it suggests it's quite rare.
02:23It suggests that he's a good shot stopper. He might not be right, right at the top this season for sort of claiming crosses and being really aggressive with that.
02:30And maybe that does speak to a little bit of a lack of confidence from where he was a couple of years ago.
02:35But for me, I think you've got to, at the moment, try and give him a chance to play through it.
02:39I think he deserves that. And as I say, I think he was a little bit unlucky yesterday, even if, yeah, fair enough.
02:43We can all see he does have to do better. So I know it's not an opinion that everyone will agree with.
02:47But for me, I don't think we're at that point yet.
02:50I think clearly if it keeps happening where errors lead to goals, then that is going to become an unsustainable situation.
02:55But I think that it's really important for someone heading into a potential playoff campaign to just try and let them rebuild that confidence in the team.
03:02And I think, you know, the saves that he's making at the moment are still very, very good.
03:06And I think that should, in my opinion, sort of give him some credit.
03:10So for me, it's not time yet to look at Paterson, even though I agree with viewers who are saying that, you know,
03:16Simon Moore was solid when he was in the team earlier this season and deserves a chance.
03:19I can see that logic. But at this stage, I'm sticking with Paterson.