It was about four months ago now that the calls for Darren Randolph to replace fan favourite Adrián first began to fall upon the London Stadium. Originally, these calls fell on deaf ears with Bilic sticking with his established number one goalkeeper, presumably due to his superior performances in the 2015/16 season. A few games down the line saw Slaven begin to tinker with his side from front to back and eventually that tinkering reached our Spanish shot-stopper. After a string of high-profile errors which may have led to goals, the manager decided it was time to hand Republic of Ireland hero Darren Randolph the reigns.
Being a few months down the line, Randolph has himself seen some rocky games with errors leading to goals which have once again sparked concern with the West Ham faithful as to who can be trusted with the mantle. The obvious thought is that a new goalkeeper is required in the summer to help sure up a so far leaky defence – to say the least, but what I now want to know is; who would you choose to close out the season in the West Ham net?
Now for some Stats:
(*) Indicates the better score.
Games Played
Randolph – 18*
Adrián – 11
Goals Conceded
Randolph – 32
Adrián – 20*
Saves Per Goal Conceded
Randolph – 1.47
Adrián – 1.75*
Errors Leading to Goals
Randolph – 2
Adrián – 1*
Distribution Accuracy
Randolph – 56%
Adrián – 60%*
These statistics suggest that you may feel that Adrián may be a surer option for the rest of the season. With Randolph also not pulling out the saves with the same calibre as Adrián, I am beginning to lean in the direction of Adrian as well. To begin with, I was a firm believer that Randolph needed to replace the Spaniard in order to refrain him from getting complacent with the number one shirt – but now this has begun to shift.
For unknown reasons, I feel as though there isn’t as much of an uproar when Randolph concedes compared to his counterpart Adrián. I recall the last game that the unorthodox Adrián took the jersey in the Premier League, it led to immense Twitter abuse towards him which must have heaped pressure on the manager to alter his team. With Randolph, now surpassing the number of games his competition has played this season, I feel as though he hasn’t done enough to warrant a place in the side on a permanent basis. I would like to see if we can once again find faith on last season’s brick wall and find if he can repeat some of those performances.
So I pose you this question; Randolph or Adrián?