A section of Everton fans have taken to Twitter to tear Maarten Stekelenburg to shreds for his performance in the penalty shoot-out defeat to Southampton at Goodison Park on Tuesday night.
The 36-year-old goalkeeper was handed his second start of the season in the Carabao Cup clash, but he failed to impress most of the home supporters, especially when he failed to keep out Danny Ings’ goal just before half-time.
Some Toffees fans were absolutely furious with the Dutch giant, with one saying that he is a “disgrace”.
This is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets below:
https://twitter.com/stebutlerefc/status/1047207834939793408
https://twitter.com/MikeHEFC/status/1047208140717088768
Remind me why Silva played Stekelenburg, again?
— Lotte (@kankurette) October 2, 2018
Also, what is stek doing there! Hes awful
— Shaun Davies (@ShaunChiefEFC) October 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/dave_seed/status/1047207939323383809
https://twitter.com/bluegirl1878/status/1047208478056611840
He’s match fixing like anichebe
— Matt (@portsmj) October 2, 2018
https://twitter.com/Ken_Kelley/status/1047208539234562048
He is gash, terrible back up keeper
— Paul Bruns (@BrunsypPB) October 2, 2018
That's a disgrace of an effort.
— Jay Jopson (@jayjoppo) October 2, 2018
OPINION
Goalkeepers always get more stick than they deserve, it’s a thankless position. Ings’ shot looked as though it may have taken a deflection off one of the Everton defenders and that wrong-footed Stekelenburg, who was rooted to the spot. Calling him lazy or pathetic is frankly ridiculous, especially when Jonjoe Kenny and Morgan Schneiderlin failed to do anywhere near enough to stop Southampton’s attack. It was way too easy for the away side to get into the Blues’ box and Ings’ shot probably should have been cleared away left to go straight into Stekelenburg’s clutches. Blaming him for that is short-sighted and just proves how hard it is for goalkeepers, especially second-choice goalkeepers because they have such little time to impress. Jordan Pickford will obviously be back into the team straight away but Marco Silva won’t give up on Stekelenburg over one goal.