Keeper controversy as West Ham visit Selhurst Park
By Adam Smith
West Ham have three keepers, one elite, one solid, and one horrific. Of course, recent news suggests the Hammers may have to rely on a combination of all three heading into Crystal Palace and beyond.
The weekly injury report from Manuel Pellegrini has shown that all is not well in the physio room regarding the West Ham keeper trio. Of course, the one keeper of the three who is issue free is Roberto, a man playing with such low confidence there is no belief that he could stop a pass back from his defenders.
That means that both Lukasz Fabianski and David Martin are injured as the Hammers prepare to travel across London to face Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. As confirmed this morning, both keepers have the same injury, a tear in the hip muscle, with Martin’s believed to be far less serious that the injury that kept Fabianski out for the last ten matches.
That being said, Pellegrini stated in his press conference that both keepers are training but neither can play both games coming up in the four-day span. This leaves a glimmer of hope that Fabianski and Martin will split these matches, but a little dread creeps into the situation with the unlikely possibly happening.
Yes, there could be a reunion with Roberto heading back in goal for the Hammers in a worst-case scenario for everyone involved. The errors leading to goals, awful distribution, and the fans’ reaction to his play makes this a no-go situation for the club if at all possible. Realistically, Pellegrini doesn’t have to make the decision to play Roberto at all, with Joseph Anang excelling with the U23s and did take first-team training ahead of the choice to start Martin.
The silver lining in all of this is that both Fabianski and Martin are training. We all saw exactly how devastating a sub-par keeper can be to this team’s ambitions and overall performance, so I do have faith that the use of Anang to rally the troops in front of him would be the decision made over Roberto ever starting again.
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Only time will tell but look for Fabianski to start against Crystal Palace, giving David Martin a few extra days to rest and rehab his hip issue before him taking up the start against Leicester City. If the silver lining was health, the golden lining is that Pellegrini cannot be crazy enough to start Roberto again… can he?