Sideways Sammy

Arriving at the club over the summer with the unnecessary pressure of being the one addition to a defence short of nous and presence, Oliver Dovin has done just about as well as a 22-year-old goalkeeper with no experience of English football could be expected to under those circumstances. While the Swede has yet to put in a performance to fill both the fans and the defence in front of him with great confidence in his abilities, he hasn’t made that many, if any, notable mistake. Dovin is in a position currently where he’s neither done much wrong nor much right, making it hard to have too strong an opinion on the player he is right now, as well as the one he might develop into.

The biggest positive that Oliver Dovin has added to the team since arriving in the summer is the level of comfort he has with the ball at his feet. Aside from one or two loose passes, Dovin hasn’t been enough credit for how comfortably he is able to receive the ball under pressure for a goalkeeper and then pick out a team-mate to keep play building from the back. If Dovin was also capable of playing accurate longer passes, that would make his contributions more notable. Otherwise, as a pure goalkeeper, Dovin is someone who has made few big saves of note and has really struggled to command his area from crosses. It is in making those key saves and developing some authority in the six yard box that is where Dovin needs to improve to assert his place as the team’s number one goalkeeper.

In what has been a slow start to campaign, the best that can be said about Oliver Dovin thus far is that his performances haven’t really been a contributory factor. As nice as it would be for Dovin to have had a game or two already under his belt where he could have been pointed to as a key reason behind winning points, he is incredibly young for a goalkeeper and has arrived in a difficult, competitive and physical league. After getting dropped fairly harshly, Oliver Dovin is back in the side and starting to make small, valuable contributions. He is nowhere near the finished product, the hope is that a somewhat tough start might aid his development over the long run.