Garth Crooks has named his Team of the Week for BBC Sport, and he made the really strange decision to omit one of West Ham United’s best performers on Saturday.
West Ham had arguably the best performer of the weekend in the Premier League during our win over Everton, but Garth Crooks still refused to name him in his Team of the Week.
Hammers goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was quite simply incredible against the Toffees, and he was the main reason why we won the game in the end.
The 31-year-old showed exactly why he’s established himself as West Ham’s number one Premier League ‘keeper now, and if truth be known, he should have been long before this season.
Areola is one of the very best shot-stoppers around in world football, and his cat like reflexes were on full display at Goodison Park three days ago.
However, the former PSG man’s display clearly wasn’t good enough for Crooks…
Garth Crooks makes bizarre Team of the Week decision
This has to go down as one of the craziest decisions of the season so far by the so-called ‘football pundit’.
When naming his Team of the Week for BBC Sport, Crooks bizarrely omitted Areola, despite the fact that the Frenchman’s 9.74 rating was the highest out of any goalkeeper in the Premier League this season (Who Scored).
That’s actually laughable from the BBC pundit. Caoimhín Kelleher performed admirably for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest, but his performance wasn’t even on the same level as Areola’s.
The 31-year-old made eight saves from nine shots on target AND he saved a penalty. He recorded a 40% long pass completion rate, with eight of 20 finding their target (FBREF). Now compare those numbers to Kelleher’s – the Irishman made only two saves and recorded a long pass completion rate of just 14.3% one from seven attempted (FBREF).
The Team of the Week selected by Garth Crooks proves just how clueless he is as a pundit now. If I am being picky, I would argue that Edson Alvarez should have been included in Crooks’ team of the week as well.
It was an utterly bizarre selection from Crook, there are no two ways about it.
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