Swansea City v Hull City: How Ivor Pandur has gone from 'average' to 'magical'

Although the 25-year-old Croatian goalkeeper joined the Tigers in January 2024, he did not make his first competitive appearance until the opening game of this season, having been installed as No 1.

Many foreign goalkeepers take time to adjust to their first season of English football, and Pandur was no exception. Given little protection by a naive brand of football under then-coach Tim Walter, he looked anything but the first-choice goalkeeper owner Acun Ilicali had argued with Walter's predecessor Liam Rosenior that he ought to have been in the second half of last season.

Selles, already Pandur's third head coach at the club, put it politely, describing him as "average".

But as team-mate Abu Kamara put it, Pandur "made some magical saves which kept us in the game" during Monday's 1-1 draw with Coventry City, and they were typical of his recent form.

"It's been a massive evolution from him," said Selles. "The data says he was an average goalkeeper (when Selles arrived in December) but he's started to improve his communication, his ability to defend set pieces, his reactions.

"He's kept the ball out of the net in a lot of situations and I think his challenge for the next four games is just to be consistent in his performance and we will have a really good goalkeeper."

The communication skills of a player who speaks very good English are not just useful themselves, but a sign of his confidence.

"I think that goes hand in hand – it's the save, then the reaction, and you just feel a bit more like he can talk, he can organise the players in front of him and then It's like a connection that is building in himself," said Selles.

"We need him to be consistent if we want to stay in the league."