Matt Law’s appearance on the London Is Blue podcast today was full of interesting chatter as always, with the future of our goalkeeper Robert Sanchez a particularly interesting topic:
“It’s a big preseason for Robert Sánchez. I have spoken here about the fact that they [Chelsea] don’t want to sign a new goalkeeper, they think Robert Sánchez is Maresca’s prototype goalkeeper,” Law explained.
“He has to show that because if he has a bad preseason and the distribution doesn’t go well, they might have to rethink.”
That would leave us just days before the start of the season deciding we need a new goalkeeper, then desperately trying to sign them with the whole footballing world knowing we’re in a tricky situation. It’s also understandably hard to get any club to part with their keeper when they don’t have long to replace them.
Sanchez, along with Djordje Petrovic, was only signed last summer, but it didn’t take long for major doubts to appear about his ability.
A very risky strategy
We’re not sure we like this plan at all. We saw Sanchez at Brighton – he wasn’t good enough with his feet and got dropped. Then we saw him at Chelsea last season – he wasn’t good enough with his feet and was (effectively) dropped.
What makes us think that another preseason is suddenly going to change that? Why would we put ourselves in a position where we’ve reached the season proper and then have to scramble to find a new stopper? We remember what happened the last time we were in that situation – Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Buying Sanchez in the first place was a mistake – we’re now just compounding that mistake.
We would love the Spaniard to look masterful in preseason and to establish himself as the true top keeper we’ve wanted for a long time – but it just doesn’t feel likely.
Maresca should do the needful, Sanchez isn’t a top keeper, you don’t need a soothsayer to know that. Petrovic is better.
Please, Maresca should go for another quality goal keeper, knowingfully well that sanchez is poor option even compared to petrovic.
Remember if you want a good result, then you have to work with a good tool.
Thanks and Regards!
Ollamie@NGR.