Roberto’s regression at West Ham means it’s now time for David Martin

No one ever expected Roberto to come in and fill in perfectly for the injured Fabianski, but instead getting better and more confident each week, he has only regressed. Is it time for West Ham to try David Martin out?

When West Ham signed Roberto in the summer replacing veteran backup _Adrian_, nobody assumed the Hammers would need him as they had the Hammer of the Year, Lukasz Fabianski, net. However, 6 matches in and Roberto was needed more than ever.

In total Roberto has played 8 matches for West Ham with 6 of them being in the EPL. From his first match against Bournemouth to his most recent against Burnley, his stats look like this. 2 draws, 4 losses, 12 goals conceded, 2 errors led to a goal, and 1 own goal (if you don’t call that a miss). Not exactly world-beater type number.

Going back to the Bournemouth match, he didn’t have a terrible match. Yes, his distribution was terrible but he made 3 key saves which surely helped the Hammers get a point. That match against the Cherries was deemed his starting point but realistically was probably his best match all season.

Against Palace, he didn’t get much better. That was followed by another 2 goal giveaway loss to Everton, followed by a boring Sheffield match that saw him give up a bounce shot that with no disrespect, an 80-year-old would’ve stopped. If that wasn’t rough enough, his last 2 weeks against Newcastle and Burnley he gave up 6 combined goals that looked worse than they sound.

Taking all of that into perspective, Roberto has gotten way worse and has regressed instead of letting the match time make him better. So what is Pellegrini to do? He clearly cannot start him again, right? Or should he start the third-string keeper who just happens to be club royalty? Can West Ham’s David Martin show up and make a difference?

Martin, like Roberto, transferred to West Ham on a free transfer this offseason to fulfill that backup keeper role. Martin has never played in the EPL but has a long history in the other English lower-tiered leagues. In 398 career matches in the net, he’s picked up 133 clean sheets and conceded 473 goals.

If my math is correct that means he has given up an average of around 1.7 goals a match. Not great but its a better ratio of what Roberto is currently showing. The last time Martin made a professional start was last season at Millwall. There he playing in 11 matches and with 4 clean sheets. In his 7 matches where he didn’t record a clean sheet, he gave up 11 goals.

The best description of David Martin’s play is simply feast or famine. He either has a really good match and records a clean sheet or gives up buckets of goals, however, that can be chalked up to him playing for sub-par squads that tend to have lower than average defenses. For example, 12 of his 25 Championship saves last season were from within the penalty area.

Once again, high risk equals high reward but it might be the only type of risk that the Hammers can take. Especially after the past 7 weeks of, let’s be honest, lackluster football. If anything, Martin possesses a leadership trait that Roberto has either lost or never had. The current lack of a commanding presence in between the posts isn’t there and is needed.

This probably isn’t the end-all to fix-all when it comes to the keeper position but literally anything is better than what the Hammers current have. This “Roberto experiment” needs to stop and West Ham needs to give Martin a shot to stop the bleeding.