Graeme Souness slams Lukasz Fabianski error in West Ham v Newcastle United
Graeme Souness was left bewildered by West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski after his first-half error against Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.
Fabianski was involved in the first goal of the day as his save cannoned off Issa Diop back into his net and he was heavily involved just five minutes later as Joelinton doubled Newcastle’s lead at St. James Park.
An innocuous-looking ball was floated into the Irons penalty area from a corner and it looked like an easy claim for the Polish international.
But he made a hash of his attempted catch and dropped the ball for Joelinton to tap the ball into an unguarded net.
Speaking on Sky Sports [13:30, 17/04/21] at half-time, Souness laid into Fabianski for his error
“It’s Keystone Cops stuff, both goals, it’s a calamity,” he said.
“He’s got it and it’s not a difficult catch, he sees the ball coming all the way, there’s not too much bodies in the way, it’s just poor goalkeeping.”
‘Flappy’anksi returns
It was a really poor error by the usually so reliable Fabianski, though we have seen shades of a slight decline in recent weeks and months.
The Irons stopper has been one of the top performers at the club since his 2018 arrival but this will go down as one of his biggest mistakes.
It was a simple catch to make, especially for an international goalkeeper, but he made an absolute mess of the situation to allow the homes side to double their lead.
Maybe he was unsettled by the nature of the first goal and Craig Dawson’s subsequent red card but there’s no defending him for what happened at the corner.
It wasn’t even as if there was much pressure on him, Joelinton was stood behind him without making much of an effort for the ball.
It was just a moment of madness for a player who used to be called “Flappy”anski due to his poor handling skills in his Arsenal days.
He’s restored his reputation with previous club Swansea City and now at West Ham, but he reverted to old for a brief second that was punished.
He was a relieved man when Jesse Lingard equalised from the penalty spot but he could do nothing to stop Newcastle’s winner, a powerful header from Joe Willock.
The 3-2 defeat is a big blow to our Champions League aspirations.
In other West Ham news, talkSPORT pundit urges West Ham to make £30m move for ‘Phenomenal’ 28y/o.