Alex Paulsen (AFC Bournemouth | England) [Loan: Lechia Gdańsk | Poland]

Wow thats some win

Clean sheet at last for AP. Gdansk the big upset 3-0 win over top of the table 

Gdansk (14th) host Pogon Szczecin (10th)
https://us.soccerway.com/game/lechia-gdansk-GGLmkiK8/pogon-szczecin-Um9YwPQ0/?mid=xtQd25Op

AP in goal for a 2-1 win.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIbO3gNMhIE

He makes two huge saves in the 2nd half. Classic leaping Paulsen. In both moments team mates rush to congratulate.
In the first half a team mate misdirects his header past AP for an oggie.

Big win for Gdansk who are now 5 pts clear of the drop zone.

Him and Cros to share a game each in Auckland?  Though Paulsen is playing & Crocs not??

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cvglvnvgg22o

Interesting article on the Polish league.

Gdansk (12th) host Themi's old Polish club Korona Kielce (8th).

Paulsen in goal for a 4-2 win.

Gdansk move further away from the drop zone. Now 7 pts clear, with 7 games left.

7 games for Paulsen to keep his match sharpness, whilst Crocs rides the pine at Millwall.

Highlights

Without that points deduction they would be tied for 3rd

Actually they would be tied for 2nd and only 3 pts off top of the table  Lech Poznan.
Yes a costly 5 point deduction, otherwise likely it would be European football as a minimum.

https://us.soccerway.com/poland/ekstraklasa/

Gdansk (9th) travel to Wisla Plock (5th)

https://us.soccerway.com/game/lechia-gdansk-GGLmkiK8/wisla-plock-QoZYVU3E/?mid=0CMqkGkK

Gdansk lose 1-0. Paulsen in goal.

Niche Cache

John Carver, Lechia coach: “We still have six games to play and I think there are some big decisions to be made. But obviously the two players [Alex Paulsen and Aleksandar Ćirković] are on loan and we have to speak to the respective clubs. If you’re asking me: would I want them to come back with us for next season? For sure. But that’s not my decision.”

Whether that’s realistic is another matter. Bournemouth are covering his entire salary this season which is a very sweet deal and the kind of thing that suggests they’re pretty invested in his development. In other words: He’s Not For Sale. Another loan deal could be possible, however they might want to get him going in the English environment instead. Bournemouth have announced that head coach Andoni Iraola is leaving after this season and that could have all sorts of ramifications.

When Paulsen first joined Bournemouth almost two years ago, the goalkeeping stocks were completely different. Raul Neto has been released to return to Brazil. Mark Travers was sold to Everton. They’ve got Fraser Forster in until the end of the season while Christos Mandas is only there on loan. Will Dennis, who began the season as the number two until suffering an ankle injury, was loaned out to League One’s Leyton Orient for game time in January. Djordje Petrovic has played every minute of the Cherries’ Premier League calendar and he’s been awesome but it’s all up for grabs behind him. Not impossible that AP might get a crack at that GK2 position next season, you never know.

Back in Feb, the Cherries loaned Wil Dennis to Leyton Orient. Josh Oluwayemi's brother also joined joined Orient.

Dennis possibly competing with Paulsen for the no 2 spot at Bournemouth next season.

https://www.leytonorient.com/news/2026/february/02/orient-sign-goalkeepers-from-afc-bournemouth-and-celtic/

 Lechia Gdansk (9th, 37 pts) host Piast Gliwice (15th, 35 pts).
Gdansk are still only 3 pts above the relegation spots.

https://us.soccerway.com/game/lechia-gdansk-GGLmkiK8/piast-gliwice-ve2oT9ck/?mid=nRJm5SuI 

Paulsen in goal for a 1-1 draw

Highlights
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UZxdoaKlOms

Gdansk should have won this game dominating the chances from early on when Piast Gliwice went down to 10 men. A Gdansk defender giving away an unneccesary penalty with a flailing arm, gave Piast their opportunity to equalise late on.

AP guessed the right way for the pen, but it's blasted past him.

Gdansk (9th) host Rakow (6th)

AP in goal for a 1-2 loss. 

Highlights

Gdansk (11th) travel to Radomiak Radom (8th)

Paulsen in goal for a 3-1 loss. Gdansk (11th) travel to Radomiak down to 10 men at 36 mins when 1-0 up.

Gdansk (drop to 15th) and are only 2 pts above the drop zone with 3 games left.

Huge game away at Widzew Lodz (16th) this weekend. Relegation 6 pointer.

Highlights

AP with a low 5.2 Soccerway rating, and viewing the Highlights not his best game. Should have kept out the 2nd goal, but his palm weak to the shot.

No visible saves in the Highlights when in contrast the Radomiak keeper made a string of quality stops.

Poland has certainly been a step from the ALM for Paulsen, and he's been mixed. Only 2 clean sheets in 22 league games.

Big learning curve. Still the English coach at Gdansk likes him, and it's rare a young A League keeper goes to Europe and kills it. Joe Gauci was Waine's team mate at relegated Port Vale, and has now fallen out of Socceroos squads.

Results would suggest he's struggled with the "step up", maybe its an age thing maybe an experience thing. As long as Bournemouth stick with him he'll be better for this experience. Fingers crossed he learns and improves.

A keeper is one player, results are not down to just him. 

By all accounts he had a great start and their form certainly improved when he arrived. One or two bad games doesn't mean a bad season.

Yipe lots of factors at play, as to why Gdansk haven't had many clean sheets.

Some 2025-26 season to date GK Ekstraklasa stats here. Paulsen (66.7%) is stitting 18th of 22 Ekstraklasa GKs for Save % (saves made v shots on target).
https://fbref.com/en/comps/36/keepers/Ekstraklasa-Stats

Again it's been a learning curve season, in a league a step up from the ALM. His club coach likes him, and he was a big part of the AWs looking much better against Chile, than Finland.

We wait to see who Baze favours to start in goal at the WC.

Be really interesting to see what happens next year.

 Bournemouth are riding high and if they make Europe you would expect that they would bolster their squad further with possibly another top keeper to challenge their number one, who is the one player in that team who appears to feel the fans wath.

You would think the best case scenario for Alex is a loan move to a lower/mid table championship team who want a keeper who will help the team to play out from the back.

Hopefully however, he is the kiwi number one in the World Cup, tears it up with a couple of clean sheets and cracks on next year.

Just popping in to say arbitrary ratings on sites like Soccerway, Sofascore, Fotmob etc. are often a load of shite. Gyokeres was given a 5.7 on Soccerway this morning despite leading the line well and bullying the Atleti centre halves all game.

If Paulsen had a bad game then fair enough, just can't stand those ratings at all.

Niche Cache. I'd still pick him in goal at the WC, but we wait to see what happens.

This latest defeat was a 3-1 scoreline away against Radomiak Radom despite their opponents getting a red card after only 36 minutes while it was only 1-0. Paulsen was not without blame either, being slow to react to all three goals with the second one being the most save-able.

Relegation 6 pointer. Gdansk (15th, 38 pts) travel to Widzew Lodz (16th, 36 pts). Lodz in the drop zone. 3 matches left.

Aside from scores assigned other stats don't paint a great picture for the season - goals prevented he's 17th (conceding more goals than expected ), save % 15th, saves per 90 10th, goals conceded 3rd, clean sheets 21st. Prevented goals and save % are poor, compare with his last season at the Nix where his save % was 18 percentage points higher and goals prevented about 18 goals better (-5.5 this season compared with 12.9 with the Nix in 23/24). 

It's very early days in his career, but yipe the stats all say he's had a mixed season in Poland. Nowhere near ready yet (if ever to be fair) for the EPL.

I'd still prefer he was picked in goal at the WC. The AWs looked so much better with him between the sticks for the Chile match.

But goal keeping perhaps not the good area of strength we hoped it would be by WC 2026. Still who saw Paston having the blinder of a tourney he had in 2010.

Gdansk lose 3-1 and slip into the drop zone, with 2 matches left.
AP in goal.

It's tight. There are 7 teams above them within 3 points! Though some of those have a game in hand.

Highlights. Polish crowds bring the atmosphere.

Niche Cache

Another defeat conceding multiple goals and Lechia Gdańsk have now tumbled down into the relegation zone. There are five teams above them within three points but they only have two matches to go to save things. At least this week there were no goals allowed where Paulsen was overtly at fault – could have done better with his angles for the second one but it was still a very sharp finish.

Problem is, he’s not saving much either. His team are on a five-game winless streak during which he’s made 9 saves and conceded 10 goals. A season save percentage of 61.4%, with 39 goals allowed from 31.52 xGOT, is hard to comprehend after what we saw in the previous two A-League seasons (80.9% SP & 12.94 Goals Prevented (!) with Wellington; then 73.0% SP & 2.07 GP with Auckland). Darren Bazeley’s World Cup number one decision will take into account far more than just immediate club form but it’s a choice between a keeper in great form who isn’t playing (Crocombe) and a keeper in average form who is playing (Paulsen). Luckily, they’re both class so there’s no wrong answer.

Gdansk (16th) host Legia (9th)

Almost must win for Gdansk with 2 games left to avoid the drop

Gdansk lose 1-2. Crucial moment was having a player sent off at 87 mins (1-1), then conceding in 93rd min. A potentially big moment in their season, as a draw would have them equal 15th (identical GD & pts)

Their form is bad, 5L & a draw in their last 6 games.

Gdansk do remain 16th and in the drop zone with only 1 match left.

They travel to last placed and already relegated Termalica B-B in the final round. There are still 3 teams above them within 3 points, all with similar GD.

So a win on the final day could be enough to stay up.

Match highlights. Not great from AP with the late 2nd goal conceded. Flaps at a long throw into a very crowded box, remonstrates with the ref as he misses the ball completely and Gdansk concede.

Goal keeper height gets talked about in Poland as well.

Niche Cache.

It’s not getting better over here. Lechia hosted Legia Warszawa needing points to haul themselves out of the relegation zone and they didn’t get any. The problems began when they fell behind after ten minutes to a guided header that evaded a stretched out Alex Paulsen. The thing that he’s been criticised for in Poland is his height, something he spoke about in an interview not that long ago, yet his aerial stats are actually really good. However it’s probably moments like that goal where his 6’0 frame might have prevented him from reaching a shot that a taller keeper may have gotten fingertips on. Or, you know, his defenders could just win a bloody header.

He was lucky not to ship another one when another Legia header thumped off the post... but Lechia improved from there and got level with a header of their own after an hour. A point would have lifted them up to 15th, keeping their fate mostly within their own control. Buuuut then a dodgy red card for Ivan Zhelizko with five minutes left was chased by a 90+3rd minute concession where Paulsen was adamant that he’d been fouled on the end of a long throw that bobbled around before being flicked in at close range. Unfortunately there have been a lot of those ones lately where Paulsen isn’t entirely to blame for a goal that he’s conceded but he also clearly could have done a little better than he did. Those ones add up.

Gdansk 16th and in the drop zone going into the final round.

They travel to last placed and already relegated Termalica B-B (18th/last). There are still 3 teams above them within 3 points of Gdansk, all with similar GD.

So a win on the final day could yet be enough for Paulsen's team to stay up.