Wycombe Wanderers goalkeeper, Shamal George, currently out on loan with Scottish Premiership side St Mirren, just won a trophy with the side in a 3-1 victory over Celtic in the Scottish League Cup Final this week, and it’s sparked conversations amongst the Wanderers fanbase, in the midst of a poor run of form, with the defence looking shaky, should George be recalled in January and be put into the starting XI as soon as possible?
His last match for the Chairboys was against Portsmouth in the Third Round of the FA Cup last term, but he was forced off with injury not even ten minutes into the match and wouldn’t feature again until he was on the bench against Charlton Athletic in the second leg of the play-off semi-final away to Charlton.
At the start of the season he was sent out on loan to St Mirren, his first match coming against Celtic in a 1-0 loss. Since then, he has played in a total of 15 matches and has conceded a total of 22 times, keeping three clean sheets.
George has a save percentage of 69.4%, and is very good at dealing with balls into the box, with 14 high claims to his name thus far. He has also picked up an assist for the Buddies, and has a long ball accuracy of 39.8%.
Currently at Wycombe, Will Norris exceeds George in save percentage with 72.0%, and has prevented 0.93 goals in comparison to the St Mirren man’s 0.16. However, George trumps Norris with his distribution stats, which we know is key in Michael Duff’s system, with the latter having just 30.9% of long balls find their targets.
Backup keeper Mikki Van Sas’ shot-stopping stats pale in comparison to both, with just a 65.9% save percentage, and -0.2 goal prevented. Despite this, his distribution is pretty much on a par with George at
39.7%
Both keepers have been looking shaky in their last games, especially Norris who had a poor performance against Plymouth Argyle, too slow to distribute the ball and making a mistake, not helped by the defence in front of him, which led to Plymouth’s first and only goal of the match, allowing them to leave Adams Park with three points.
Although if he was to return to Wycombe, who leaves? Norris or Van Sas?
Well, The Quartermen understands that Van Sas will not be leaving Adams Park in the winter, even temporarily, and it’s unlikely Norris would decide to leave if he still has that number one spot locked down come January.
It’s unlikely that George would come back if both goalkeepers remain, and there’s really no point wasting his time as a squad player whilst he’s thriving at the SMiSA Stadium, and clearly enjoying play football again, after what’s been an incredibly tough time for him.
So, to answer the question, based on our understanding it looks highly unlikely that Wanderers recall George in the upcoming January transfer window, given the current situation with goalkeepers at the club, though this could change should the Chairboys suffer any injuries in their goalkeeping department.
