Lukasz Fabianski was born on 18th April, 1985 and began his professional career at Legia Warsaw before transferring to Arsenal in 2007, then joining Swansea in 2014, playing 150 matches before moving to West Ham United for £7m.
Fabianski has made 16 appearances in the Premier League this season, keeping 5 clean sheets, conceding 22 goals, being on the winning side 5 times and on the losing side 7 times. This season Fabianski has been hindered by injury after an excellent season before and he started strongly with the Hammers 5th in the league, keeping 2 consecutive clean sheets by the end of September 2019.
Replaced by Roberto after going down injured with a torn hip muscle at Bournemouth, Hammers form dipped immediately. Can we place our poor season form down to this injury? Remember Fab was voted player of the season at Swansea then the following season Hammer of the Year in 2019.
Returning to the squad on 28th December against Leicester Fab played the next two matches, going off after 15mins against Sheffield United in what looked like a repeat of the injury that sidelined him for months before. Would that be the end of the season for Fabianski? The season was going from bad to worse.
Returning on 29th January 2020 against Liverpool at the London Stadium, Fabianski has played in goal for the remainder of what is now an incomplete season. But, with the league position looking increasingly precarious for the Hammers, Fabianski has not been able to turn the tide in what was proving to be a miserable season for us.
With the loss of Fabianski in goal, the very poor form of Roberto and the drop in form of other players within the team, our season start imploding with the embarrassing defeat to Oxford United in the Carabao Cup at the end of September when our season was looking so good. Some would argue it was a false dawn and the eventual sacking of Pellegrini was inevitable given the criticism of the gaffer in terms of his team selections and tactics, in particular the choice of replacement goalkeeper and lack of ability to motivate the team out of the ongoing slump.
When in form, Fabianski is an excellent shot stopper, commands his area and is a great distributor of the ball, all of which builds confidence in the team from the defence to attack. Goalkeeping is one of many areas we need to have quality and Fabianski offers us that. The issue that has been especially highlighted for us this season is whether we have a good enough stand by to replace him if he suffers another major injury?
