Darren Bent has suggested that West Ham United boss Manuel Pellegrini should utilise the never-before-seen goalkeeper David Martin.
The Sky Sports pundit admitted that after the 3-0 defeat to Burnley on Saturday, Roberto should be dropped for his countless number of errors in the past couple of months that have ultimately cost the Hammers much-needed points.
Bent initially claimed that West Ham may have to stick with the unreliable Spaniard because of the injury to Lukasz Fabianski, but then changed his mind to offer potential light to Martin.
“They’ve got to stick with him cause they’ve have no one else, actually, maybe they should utilise their third-choice keeper just to give him confidence as at the minute Roberto Jimenez is costing them games,” he told Football Insider.
Roberto has yet to keep a Premier League clean-sheet since cementing his spot in between the sticks in the past couple of months.
OPINION
It would be a big call for Pellegrini to make to bring in Martin for the next game which is against Tottenham at the London Stadium. The Chilean surely has nothing to lose though, with the Spaniard simply not good enough in nearly every single game he has played. Roberto may have enjoyed brief spells of success pulling off big saves, but those instantly go out of the window when you make silly errors that lead to goals and eventually your side picking up no points. The mistake against Burnley is the last straw for the experienced stopper, and Bent is right, you can’t afford to keep faith in a player that is costing you games, something which Roberto is doing far too often. It couldn’t get much worst for the Hammers, so Martin would come into the side with no real pressure on his shoulders, which is something that could definitely benefit him moving forward this season, or at least until Fabianski returns.
