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Chelsea legend John Obi Mikel has raised concerns over Robert Sánchez, insisting that the Blues “can’t win the league” with the Spanish goalkeeper in the team.
Speaking on The Obi One Podcast, Mikel criticised Sánchez’s decision-making after a nervy moment in Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Leicester City, where he misjudged a cross, nearly leading to an own goal from Tosin Adarabioyo.
“There was a mistake from Sánchez again, which luckily didn’t end up in [a] goal, but what was he doing? I don’t get it,” Mikel said.
“It was a cross that I think the central defenders can deal with and he’s come out again.”
“I don’t know where he was going, but again, you look at that and you say to yourself and you say to the fans, ‘We can’t win the league with this goalkeeper’.”
Sánchez was given the nod over Filip Jorgensen, despite Enzo Maresca declaring last month that the Danish shot-stopper was Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper. Mikel believes Maresca is simply rotating the options available to him.
“I think the manager tried to rotate them, both of them, and you can see the manager’s also trying, but he’s like, ‘Listen, this is what I have. I’ll have to make do with what I have right now. Come the end of the season, then I might get another goalkeeper, another top goalkeeper’. But right now, he has to make do with what he has.”
With the Champions League race tightening, Chelsea cannot afford costly mistakes from their goalkeepers. Meanwhile, Djordje Petrovic, who is on loan at Strasbourg, has been in superb form, leading some fans to wonder whether he could be the long-term solution for the Blues.
