“Has to look at himself” – BBC pundit slams divisive Chelsea player who cost his team again | OneFootball

Chelsea were 1-0 up against Fulham at the 80 minute mark today, and ended up losing 2-1. That’s the kind of thing which annoys fans, and gets them looking for things which went wrong.

Blame isn’t always easy to apportion, but in this case Robert Sanchez has come in for some flak today after hoofing the late clearance which Fulham ultimately scored from right down the middle of the pitch.

We never like to criticise goalkeepers too much for technical things – we don’t understand some of the finer points. But this looked pretty obvious, and in former Chelsea goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who was watching the game for the BBC, we have someone who was very qualified to be critical:

“Robert Sanchez looked to hit a massive diagonal and he doesn’t hit it properly. That enabled Fulham to hit them on the counter & players were caught out of position,” the former Fulham and Blues stopper said.

“The goalkeeper has to look at himself, it was a poor clearance.”

Tosin was then so slow getting forward from the deep position he had taken up alongside Sanchez – probably because he didn’t expect it to be possible that the ball came back so fast. Probably he was expecting the ball from the keeper short, which is why he had dropped there. Still, that’s slack from the defender who could have sprinted forward.

You can see the goal in the clips embedded here:

[Footage from Canal Plus]

Sanchez takes one step back after two steps forward

Fulham attack an empty Chelsea box.

Sanchez has been a scapegoat plenty of times this season, sometimes deservedly and sometimes unfairly. He’s made some brilliant stops in the last few games, and even in this game he made crucial saves.

But if you’re a goalkeeper, you’re only as good as your worst mistake, and this was without doubt one that cost us.