Gary Lineker blasts ‘amateur’ West Ham United as footage emerges on Match of the Day v Brighton
Gary Lineker and Danny Murphy were less than impressed by West Ham United’s defending as they lost 4-0 to Brighton at the AMEX Stadium on Saturday.
It was a dismal performance by the Irons, who surrendered four easy goals to the Seagulls on the south coast but none were worse than Joel Veltman’s.
At a corner kick, Veltman was completely unmarked and just allowed to stand by goalkeeper Alphonse Areola.
Ben Johnson wasn’t marking anyone about four or five yards away from Veltman, who peeled off Areola once the corner came in and prodded the ball into the net as easily as you like.
Murphy and Lineker couldn’t believe how bad the standard of defending was.
Speaking on Match of the Day on Saturday night (4 March, 42m03s), Murphy said: “This is the worst thing. Look at Veltman on the goalkeeper. He’s on his own. Why isn’t the keeper telling someone? Why’s nobody noticed he’s free?
“He’s still free, he’s on his own, he’s still free. It’s just ridiculous. I mean, that is basic.”
Lineker butted in to say: “It’s amateur hour.”
Shocking
What on earth was Johnson doing?
Areola should know better for a goalkeeper of his experience because he saw Veltman had no one on him other than himself.
If he wants to be West Ham’s starting goalkeeper in the Premier League, he has to command his box and communicate a lot better because based on that, it’s easy to see why Lukasz Fabianski is still number one.
And then there’s Johnson.
We’re not going to make excuses for the 23-year-old because we know some fans love to stick up for the academy lads and act as though their age is a reason for not playing well.
But whether Johnson is 23, 33 or is playing for his primary school team, he should know that Veltman had to be marked there.
It’s inexcusable for a professional footballer at any level to mark absolutely nobody at a corner kick, especially when a few yards away there’s a centre-back who needs watching.
Johnson shouldn’t have been marking Veltman, it should’ve been someone who’s more capable of matching him in the air but that’s beside the point. Someone is better than no one.
Johnson was also culpable for the penalty we conceded as well as Brighton’s third goal through Kaoru Mitoma.
He needs to be offloaded in the summer to a League Two club if he’s going to play like that again.