Garth Crooks put Joel Matip in his BBC Team of the Week based on his performance v Crystal Palace, but claimed the Cameroonian struggled a little against Spurs midweek against Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son.
The thing is, Matip didn’t play v Tottenham – Rhys Williams did – as the senior centre-back was out with a back injury.
Ste Hoare on Twitter pointed this fact out!
I can only presume that the scary moments Matip survived in the Spurs game were to do with his Amazon Prime connection dropping out since he didn’t actually play in that match. Garth Crooks strikes again. https://t.co/6jYe6LuYBv pic.twitter.com/JwpVVqQYwz
— Ste Hoare (@stehoare) December 22, 2020
Usually, Crooks puts a player in his XI if they’ve scored – or made a good challenge or block on Match of the Day – but this is the first time we’ve seen him criticise someone for a performance that never happened!
Crooks also picked Mo Salah and Jordan Henderson, but not Roberto Firmino or Andy Robertson – two other players who put in extraordinary performances.