Monday Night Football has proven a tough environment for Premier League goalkeepers.
Claudio Bravo has come under scrutiny this season and a few years ago, Simon Mignolet was criticised by Gary Neville for his positioning when Everton’s Phil Jagielka scored from 30-yards out against Liverpool.
Back in January 2013, David de Gea gifted Spurs a late equaliser against Manchester United, and Neville meticulously dissected the mistake frame-by-frame.
“The idea that they’re saying ‘unlucky mate, let’s go and have a drink,’ well, that is not that place,” Neville said about how De Gea’s teammates would judge the error.
“Anybody is misguided if they believe that is what happens. There is an incredible amount of accountability in that dressing room. It is not a place that is forgiving, it is not a place where you won’t get people who will confront each other when mistakes are made.”
It appears Neville, and his Sky colleague Jamie Carragher, have carried that outlook into the punditry studio.
Loris Karius is the latest to get the Monday Night Football treatment, after Carragher expanded on his criticism of the Liverpool ‘keeper on tonight’s edition of the show.
The Liverpool goalkeeper put in a suspect performance against Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon, and was at fault for the home side’s winner in the dramatic 4-3 game.
“In eight starts for Liverpool he has not shown me one thing to suggest he’s good enough at this level,” Carragher said following the match on Sunday.
“He’s yet to convince me in any game. It’s still early days but he would need a massive improvement. When your defence is under pressure, sometimes you need your goalkeeper to save it, and he’s miles away.”
Carragher backed up his views on Karius ahead of the Premier League game between Middlesbrough and Hull City.
He dismissed suggestions that his former team have a poor defence, and said their soft centre arguably lies with their ‘keeper.
“I don’t think Liverpool have a poor defence, or are poor defensively,” Carragher said.
He then looked at Karius’ save-to-shot ratio statistics for this season, and concluded that Jurgen Klopp’s side don’t have a poor defence because: “the goalkeeper isn’t having face (many shots) or do anything.”
“If you’ve got a poor defence, your keeper is getting worked,” Carragher said.
Sky Sports Statto“The reason why I was critical of him yesterday was because you can’t expect your team to press for 90-minutes,” the former Liverpool defender continued.
“There’ll be games where people make mistakes, as we’ve just highlighted, and there were two games where he was asked questions, one was Swansea, the other was Bournemouth.
“He got asked questions and he never answered them.”
Carragher wasn’t prepared to write-off the German goalkeeper completely, but stressed he’ll need to improve.
"For the next 12-18 months that has got to improve."#MNF analysis & build up on Sky Sports 1 now https://t.co/crcROSLEyx
— Sky Sports Retro (@SkySportsRetro) December 5, 2016
