Former Premier League winner Martin Keown has heaped praise on West Ham United midfielder Robert Snodgrass after his performance against Sheffield United on Saturday.
The recently-retired Scotland international came into the starting line up against the Blades, and went on to score the Hammers’ goal in the 1-1 draw at the London Stadium. Keown was very impressed by him.
“The West Ham faithful are not an easy group to play in front of,” he said on Match of the Day [26/10; 70:00]. “And this fella – they really love him, because he’s dogged, he’s got really good ability.
“They were jumping out of their seats every time he got the ball today. He’s a big game player. He can put the ball in the back of the net and he does so. I thought he was the outstanding player today for West Ham.”
OPINION
There’s no doubt that Snodgrass was absolutely terrific on Saturday. His selection was a bit of a controversial one before the game, although perhaps justified by Manuel Lanzini’s struggles this season, but he made sure he grabbed his chance with both hands against Chris Wilder’s side. The statistics show that the 32-year-old was involved from start to finish on Saturday. As per WhoScored.com, the Scot scored and hit the post, while he produced two key passes, a successful dribble and drew two fouls from the opposition. He also completed 87.5% of his passes, producing 17 crosses on the day. His WhoScored rating of 7.55 tells you that he was superb against the Blades. However, Keown’s claim that Snodgrass is a ‘big game player’ seems a bit bizarre considering this was just a run-of-the-mill Premier League clash with newly-promoted Sheffield United. Still, he’s right that Snodgrass was outstanding on Saturday.
