Has anyone blamed his errors on the changes in defence yet? He’s had to deal with a lot. Or that Davies isn’t pushing him hard enough in training? Where’s the consistency in the arguments? Unfortunately we’re in a position where we have 2 keepers who aren’t up for a relegation scrap. Over a 10 game period in this position there’s going to be games where you need your keeper to put in performances that earns points you don’t really deserve. We saw it from Luke Steele under Flicker. Cardiff away where Fosters goal helped nick us the point, Forest away and Palace away. I honestly don’t know who I’d go with for the remainder. The last time I remember Davies winning us a point we didn’t deserve was Burton away back in November 2016. With how bad he’s been over the last year it’s clutching at straws to draw on previous heroics. I see the same negatives in both but find it hard to pull out positives. Davies is a better shot stopper. On current form though he’s average/poor. Townsend is average/poor, he hasn’t helped solve the long range goal crisis. He also seems to parry long range shots out to the side but they still remain around the 6 yard box. In contrast though he hasn’t let any go straight through him yet like we’ve seen with Davies. On distribution, Davies can’t kick or throw it properly. Townsend can until he loses his head, and one error seems to trigger a 5 minute spell where he is then unable to do anything correctly. That has happened twice now and I remember it happenening when he played in League One, possibly away at Scunthorpe and maybe in other games. In regards to command of box, making errors ect they are both just as bad. If the error at Birmingham had cost us we’d be talking about a **** up as momumental as the Davies/Winnall fiasco. I’ve got to say Townsend isn’t as glued as Davies though, he does make some attempt. Unfortunately yesterday’s were bad ones. There’s an argument on here that keepers should be judged by clean sheets. Obviously if they don’t concede it’s job done but it is not an indicator of good performance. A lot of the times this season our clean sheets have come when the keeper has had nothing to do. I genuinely can’t recall a recent clean sheet where our keeper has helped earn it with a string of top draw saves. I think for now Townend deserves another game. Particularly after the sequence of away games we’ve had. He finished on a high yesterday with a great one on one save, if Moore’s header would have gone in that save could have been of big significance. It will be a big test to see how he performs after a bad day at the office. We’ve seen Davies finds in hard to shake off errors and play his way back into form. Let’s see if Townsend can put Boro behind him and help earn us 3 points on Tuesday night.
Opposition keepers always look more commanding and seem to have better distribution. Only my opinion, but I reckon we have the worst two keepers in the Championship.
It’s time for Davies to come back in for me. I know his form wasn’t great prior to being dropped and his distribution can be frustrating but he’s a better keeper in my opinion and should be in the team.
Take a look at the performance of the Middlesbrough keeper yesterday on the highlights. http://www.skysports.com/football/mboro-vs-barnsley/report/375056 Our goal came from a shot that went straight down his throat but simply bounced off his chest into the path of Moore. Townsend completely misjudged the flight of a corner and their lad slotted home. The Middlesbrough keeper did exactly the same but Moore hit the post. Mallan had a shot from distance that was a routine save, but their keeper didn't get a hand to it, again it hit him on the chest. I'm not trying to argue that Townsend is a great keeper because I don't think he is. But before yesterday, the worst mistake you could level at him in regard to costing us goals was that he didn't position himself very well for the free kick that resulted in Burton's second. Even if he had, he probably wouldn't have got it. The idea that he's cost us loads of goals simply isn't true. Yesterday he looked gash, but from the highlights the guy at the other end looks even worse, we just didn't test him enough.
Leeds are in a very similar position to us in regards keepers. Fortunately for them they’re in a position to risk a young kid in goal.
You have put forward a fair assessment of the situation, if a team wants to do well or have a good run they must have a stable goalkeeper. this has been a major problem for the team this year. On another point If a goalkeeper does not have height he must be very special to play at a high level
I saw enough of Townsend against Burton to tell me he isn’t good enough at this level. Davies is by far the better keeper. He did need dropping, unfortunately Townsend was our only option. But now it’s time to give the gloves back to Davies.
