Will injury to Jones force Southgate into signing a keeper?
By Shaun • Aug 25th, 2008 • Category: Boro NewsGareth Southgate had firmly nailed his colours to the mast of Brad Jones and Ross Turnbull, intent on giving the two the chance to show that they're Premier League goalkeepers. Jones started well with a good performance against Tottenham but in the build up to the Liverpool game at Anfield he dislocated his finger ruling him out of the game.
This presented Ross Turnbull with his chance and he grasped it with both hands with a fine display against Liverpool. The two goals conceded could not be levelled at the 'keeper. One a deflected strike that he otherwise had covered and the other a thunderbolt from Steven Gerrard.
On the face of it both keepers look to have stepped up to the challenge set by Southgate but the injury to Jones brings a problem to the fore. Middlesbrough now have only two fit goalkeepers in the squad and as inexperienced as Turnbull is at this level he is very much the senior goalkeeper when compared to young Jason Steele, a very highly rated England youth international.
Though Jones' injury isn't likely to see him sidelined for a lengthy period it may prompt Gareth Southgate to look for an experienced keeper he can bring in to backup Turnbull/Jones and provide cover for injuries.
What do you think, should Southgate be looking to bring a keeper in before deadline day?
Shaun is A Boro fan and owner of BoroMania.com. Born and brought up in the North East. Favourite players are Juninho, Slaven and David Wheater.
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I’m not sure he will but i think we could do with an experienced keeper in there. Who are you gonna get that is happy playing 3rd choice and covering injuries/form?
Turnbull must be our number one keeper now. Jones will be back in a couple of weeks to back him up. Not sure Southgate will bring anybody in
I’d like to say there’s no need, Jones should be back soon and I’ve been very impressed with both keepers.
But 1 thing that’s worrying me, I’ve probably got this wrong but weren’t both of them injured for part of pre-season too? I don’t think there were many games when both were available. Are they usually injury prone? (I’m an Arsenal fan who admires Southgate and Boro but I don’t know much about the keepers.) If they are injury-prone I think Southgate needs a 3rd keeper because I don’t think Steele’s ready to be thrown into a Premiership match. He is very promising but is he ready for the Premiership? If it all goes wrong it could be damaging for him as well as for Boro.
Why not have 3 keepers competing for the #1 shirt?
I’m not sure if Turnbull was injured pre-season, i think he missed a game(s) as his girlfriend was giving birth. I may be wrong though. I think the trouble is who is available Free or cheap who would improve the situation?
For me Turnbull is good enough and Jones was impressive against Spurs but if one or both are unavailable we have problems.
Hi Shaun, thanks for replying. You’re right of course about Turnbull missing the York friendly due to his girlfriend giving birth. But I thought Turnbull also missed the friendly against Carlisle, Jones played with Steele on the bench, Steele came on near the end. I assumed Turnbull was injured but maybe this happened because Turnbull played in both Algarve games (when Jones was injured) and Southgate wanted to give Jones & Steele a game?
I think Southgate will stick with Jones and Turnbull, he believes in them and they’re doing really well. But he does seem someone who’s very aware of what players are out there and who would suit Boro, he probably knows the keeper situation too. Maybe there’s a 2nd choice keeper somewhere who expected to be 1st choice and might think he has more of a chance at Boro when he’s up against 2 inexperienced keepers, including 1 injured one
It’ll be interesting to see what happens but i’m not sure we’ll see anyone come in before deadline day. Both have had their injury problems in the past so it’s a worry certainly, i’m really hoping Ross Turnbull stays fit as i think he has the potential to be a top class keeper.