Former Republic of Ireland international Tony Cascarino has slaughtered West Ham United goalkeeper Roberto for his performance against Burnley on Saturday.
The 33-year-old continued to stand in for the injured Lukasz Fabianski against the Clarets, but produced a woeful showing at Turf Moor, including scoring a dreadful own goal in the Hammers’ 3-0 defeat.
Cascarino isn’t a fan: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a worst goalkeeping display than Roberto yesterday,” he said on talkSPORT [10/11; 07:50]. “That’s as poor as I’ve seen any goalkeeper play.
“Generally they’re defending very poorly as a team. They were poor. I know your goalkeeper can’t play like he did yesterday. You’re never going to win a game if your goalkeeper has the biggest howler you’re going to see.”
OPINION
Cascarino is absolutely spot on, here. When first choice ‘keeper Fabianski went down injured against Bournemouth at the end of September it was considered a heavy blow to Manuel Pellegrini’s side. However, it seems that even that was underestimating the colossal loss the Poland international has been. As for this being the worst goalkeeping display Cascarino has ever seen, that’s perhaps overstating things a bit. Yes, the Spaniard was absolutely awful. He was horrendous, shocking, all the different words you want to use. However, there have been some awful goalkeeping performances over the years, and so Cascarino is likely suffering from a bit of recency bias here. As he said, though, you’re never going to win games when your goalie plays as badly as Roberto did on Saturday. You can perhaps get away with your winger or your left back having a bad day at the office, but you cannot have your shot-stopper do what Roberto did against Burnley.
