Jermaine Jenas has singled out Newcastle United keeper Martin Dubravka for criticism after his performance against Liverpool on Saturday afternoon.
The former Magpies’ midfielder slammed the Slovakian international for not being more decisive in his decision making for Liverpool’s second goal.
Speaking on BT Sport during the game at Anfield, Jenas insisted the experienced stopper must do better than that, and labelled him as weak.
“The keeper needs to sort himself out,” he said.
“He’ll be absolutely red in his face at half time.”
“He was just weak. He needs to be stronger than that. He almost looked at it and thought ‘ooh, he’s going to hurt me’.”
Despite taking the lead through Jetro Willems, Newcastle eventually fell to their third defeat of the season, losing 3-1 to the Premier League table-toppers.
OPINION
Being a goalkeeper is one of the hardest jobs in football, and you will be punished for one lapse of concentration s Dubravka found out at Anfield. There is a time and place for your decision making to be lacking, and coming up against Liverpool isn’t the time to allow that to happen. The 30-year-old needed to be strong to give his defence a sense of security, and at times he lacked his usual solidarity inbetween the sticks, and Jenas was right, he needed to be stronger. Liverpool are a side who love to utilise the wings when in attack which means there will be a number of crosses being fired across the six-yard box, Dubravka would have known that. So for him to be indecisive for the second goal reflects badly on the Slovakian, who will need to move on and leave his poor performance behind him. Many Newcastle fans also slammed their keeper for his performance on Saturday, and he will recognise that he needs to respond with a better performance next time out.
