Sheffield United made a decision to bring in a new number one in the winter transfer window, but the performances of Ivo Grbic have been less than convincing.
The Blades paid approximately £2 million for the former Atletico Madrid back-up and he is yet to justify that moderate price-tag. In nine matches for Chris Wilder’s side the 28-year-old has conceded 25 goals.
By the current numbers, if the Croatian international was to play an entire Premier League campaign he’d be looking at conceded a whopping 106 goals.
While he has not been helped out by a leaky defence, his goals prevented numbers are quite alarming. According to SofaScore Grbic has let in ten more goals than he should have. For context, Wes Foderingham played 25 games and had a goals prevented number of just -3.6.
As a result of his subpar displays between the sticks, a large section of the fanbase want to see Foderingham reinstated as the Sheffield United number one for the remainder of the season.
Chris Wilder to make a big decision on current Sheffield United number one Ivo Grbic
Meanwhile, Wilder has admitted that he will make a ruthless decision regarding Grbic if he feels he has to. He explained in his pre-match press conference for the Manchester United clash.
“I haven’t spoken to [Grbic]. They’ve done a recovery day away from here so myself and the coaches have had our heads down today in terms of a game plan and selection [for the Manchester United game]. As you can imagine there’s going to be some big decisions on a lot of key positions.
“Regarding Ivo, there was talk of making a substitution at half time by certain sections of the support. I could’ve substituted more players but thought I’ll give them the opportunity of putting it right.
“I don’t like making those sort of decisions. I will, and I have done before, but give the players an opportunity to get back in to the game. Overall, we have to look at the set up of the team and analyse everything.”
What the future holds for the Blades in the goalkeeper position
The reason why Grbic was brought into the club back in January was because Wes Foderingham has been reluctant to sign a new contract, and as a result he lost his place in the side.
However, given the way Grbic has performed in his nine games, Foderingham could find himself as the main goalkeeper until the end of the campaign. Perhaps Adam Davies, who is also out of contract in the summer, will fill in for the time being. The Welshman has been between the sticks for the development team recently.
This whole saga has led to uncertainty over the goalkeeping position for the future. Sheffield United will bring in at least one new shot-stopper in the summer to replace Foderingham, and perhaps they’ll even line up a replacement for the former Atletico Madrid man as well.
The last thing the Blades want to do is head into a Championship season with a keeper that nobody has confidence in – remember Robin Olsen?
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