John Moncur blasted the decision to let goalkeeper Adrian depart West Ham in the summer as it has led to the demise in results.
The former Hammers midfielder suggested that when you look at Roberto’s performances in recent weeks, then the decision to let Adrian leave, to eventually end up joining Liverpool, had proven to be key.
Moncur then implied that manager Manuel Pellegrini should take the blame for key decisions costing the Hammers before suggesting the experienced boss had run out of ideas.
“I just think major decisions like Adrian, him not being there, it’s such a pivotal position and it has led to the demise in results as you look at the goalkeeper at the moment, he’s a fine shot-stopper but he seems to be, after he has thrown the game away,” said Moncur on Love Sport Radio, as heard in a clip on their Twitter account.
“That’s the frustrating part of it, so there’s a thing with key decisions all coming back to Pellegrini and I just think at the moment he has run out of ideas a bit.”
OPINION
Moncur is right to be frustrated with Roberto but is letting Adrian go really a decision that Pellegrini should be blamed for? The current Liverpool shot-stopper left the London Stadium when his Hammers contract expired in the summer and it’s not like Pellegrini didn’t try to keep him. Football. London previously reported that Adrian rejected a new contract in order to become a free agent in order to go and find a club where he could get first-team football, so what could Pellegrini do? After all the Hammers boss wasn’t going to rank the Reds keeper above Hammers’ first-choice Lukasz Fabianski based on his recent form for the club. Adrian only managed to keep two clean sheets in his eight appearances for West Ham last season, conceding five goals in the process. While that doesn’t sound too shabby, it’s worth noting four of those goals were against League One outfit AFC Wimbledon, and none of his eight appearances came in the Premier League so he wasn’t exactly facing the toughest opponents.
