The Oman international has been criticised for recent performances just weeks after being heavily linked with a move to either Arsenal or Liverpool. Could the speculation be playing a role in his dipped form?
On the 17th November the talk was all about who would get Ali Al-Habsi. The headline ‘Glove and war’ adorned the Mirror’s coverage of the Al Habsi pursuit. They stated that Arsenal and Liverpool were in fierce competition for the Oman international at a price of £7million. He was ‘the perfect man’ who had caught the eye with a ‘string of impressive performances’ since he arrived at the DW in 2011 and forced Chris Kirkland out of the first team.
Fast forward a fortnight and the Mirror now lead with the line containing ‘Calamity keeper Al-Habsi’. A lot can change in football and no area is more fickle then that of the press and their opinion on footballing talents.
So what has happened?
Since being linked with big moves the once under-rated stopper has made two high profile mistakes in a row. Firstly he misjudged the ball on a slippery day against Reading at the DW allowing the ball to filter through his porous hands and gift Reading an early Christmas present. Luckily on that occasion Jordi Gomez came to his rescue.
Against Manchester City he again struggled to keep hold of a driven Gareth Barry shot which spilled out to Mario Balotelli. Despite originally making up for his error with a quick reaction stop the rebound kindly fell at volley-height for the Italian who dispatched it with venom to give City the lead in a game where Wigan had a foothold.
It has been a remarkable turnaround in form which has even forced Roberto Martinez into confirming his belief in his stopper ahead of the tricky tie with Newcastle on Monday:
“I don’t think it was an error against Manchester City. Ali in my eyes is one of the best in this league. Sometimes you expect Ali to save the unstoppable and that’s very unfair. The shot from Gareth Barry was moving away a little bit and he came up with a world class save in the rebound but the unfortunate point is that the ball bounced straight into the striker’s path and not the defender’s path. I don’t think that’s a mistake at all. That’s a little bit of misfortune. This new ball is quite tough for goalkeepers. His reaction for the first save was outstanding.”
He then went to speak about Al-Habsi’s mental strength being his biggest quality which would render my next argument redundant; but has the transfer speculation turned Al-Habsi’s head.
It would not be unusual for him to have thoughts of playing at Anfield or Champions League football with Arsenal on his mind. Whatever the case it may be that any chance of a move is now over after his errors would have left both clubs with serious doubts over the 30-year-old’s ability to play at the highest level…
… but what do you think? Could the transfer speculation have distracted Al-Habsi? Is there now no chance of him going to a bigger club?
image: © wonker
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