OPINION
When Aston Villa fans saw that their club had signed Lovre Kalinic they must have been ecstatic. The Croatian was a World Cup runner-up with his country, and at 28, should have had the experience and level-headedness that Villa had been lacking between the sticks. Add to the poor start to the season Orjan Nyland had, and supporters must have believed that anybody had to be better than the temperamental Norwegian. The reality has been somewhat different. After some shaky displays, the keeper had another disappointing afternoon against Hull City, failing to cope with either of Hull’s two first half goals. At the moment, Villa are conceding too many goals to be seen as genuine promotion contenders, and a lot of that starts from some abysmal goalkeeping displays. A dodgy stopper is not their only issue, of course, but a dominant figure between the sticks can go a long way to calming a nervous defence, and Kalinic does not appear to be that settling influence. Much more is needed from the shot stopper if he is to live up to expectation.
This is Futbol have gathered some of the best tweets below:
Its an absolute horror show. I feel for Smith. No leaders in this team and players like Hourihane and BB going missing every game.A defence with Taylor, Elphick and Hutton is always a recipe for disaster. Kalinic looks worse by the game.
— Will Davies (@wilsterdavies1) January 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/ksiuol14/status/1086649049229467649
Dreadful defending kalinic absolute pathetic abysmal again
— davidsmith (@DavidsmithMrbre) January 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/realVillaTrump/status/1086648150201372674
Hope we kept the receipt…#Kalinic
— ??? (@adamAVFC) January 19, 2019
Kalinic has been awful every game thus far?
— Ben Franklin. (@benavfcfranklin) January 19, 2019
Kalinic is shocking #avfc
— Gareth (@Bandit72) January 19, 2019