Tony Gale questions Lukasz Fabianski for what he did in first half of West Ham United v Fulham
BeIN Sports commentators Tony Gale and Tony Jones blasted West Ham for their defending for Fulham’s opening goal on Sunday, with Lukasz Fabianski questioned too.
The Hammers fell behind inside the opening ten minutes when Andreas Pereira smashed a strike past the Poland international from a tight angle, with David Moyes’ side starting slowly once again.
But while speaking on CNBC Sports [9 October, 14:06], both Gale and Jones questioned whether the veteran goalkeeper should’ve saved the strike, while criticising the defence for being opened up “so easily”.
“He gets in behind there and stays onside. You think he’s got a lot to do from here, but look at that. Whack,” Gale said.
“Maybe Fabianski should have done a little bit better and tipped it over, but it had so much power on it. He failed to get his arm or hand up there in time. Fulham go one up.
“Fresh air Fabianski.”
“Maybe the element of surprise caught out Fabianski, Fulham delighted,” Jones continued.
“West Ham have been so resolute defensively this season despite their problems in the Premier League in front of goal. Opened up by Fulham, and opened up so easily.”
Poor
It was a poor start to the game for West Ham and they probably deserved to be behind at that point in all honesty.
But when a strike from such a tight angle basically goes through the goalkeeper, question marks have to be raised because it shouldn’t be so easy to score from there.
Fabianski seemed to dive instead of just standing firm to get a hand on the ball and tip it over the bar, but instead it flew past him and gave West Ham a mountain to climb.
They managed to fight back with an excellent reaction in the first half and were level after a “foolish” decision allowed them to get a penalty, and that good performance continued into the second half.
Gianluca Scamacca made it three goals in three consecutive games with a fine second half strike, before Michail Antonio added another in stoppage time to help the Hammers make it three wins in a row for the first time this season.