Blues boss Kieran McKenna has confirmed that Christian Walton will start in goal at Fulham on Sunday but says Aro Muric has been an important part of the team over the campaign so far.
Walton, 29, made his second Premier League start in Monday’s 2-0 victory over Chelsea, replacing Muric, who dropped to the bench for the first time this season having missed the opening match against Liverpool due to injury.
McKenna explained the switch afterwards by telling reporters that Walton had deserved his chance while Muric had a minor thigh problem for a few weeks which had been hampering him and that "that and a few other factors” were behind the decision.
Asked whether Walton, one of Town’s top performers in the League One promotion season before missing all but the final couple of minutes of the Championship campaign after suffering an injury late in pre-season and then being kept out of the side by Vaclav Hladky, would be in the team at Craven Cottage, McKenna confirmed that the former Brighton glovesman would keep his place.
"I think Christian will play the next game,” he said. "Deservedly so off of how he did in the last game.
"And we've got two outstanding senior goalkeepers at the club now and one very, very good young one in Cieran Slicker.
"Christian and Aro are both, in our opinion, excellent goalkeepers. Both have got a lot of the qualities that we need in the squad this year in terms of the shot-stopping and the cross-taking.
"Both have different attributes and different experiences alongside that. But two very good goalkeepers, and that puts us in a good position.”
McKenna says Muric, who joined the Blues from Burnley for an initial fee of £8 million in the summer, has taken the decision well.
"He's been very good,” he said. "He was very good in the build-up to the Chelsea game. He's been very good in training this week. He's working hard on himself and supporting the group as well. So, he's in a good place.”
McKenna was asked whether Muric’s kicking being impacted by the thigh injury invited opposition sides to press his team more.
"When you don't win in the Premier League, if you don't win a football match, there's always going to be a reason why,” McKenna reflected.
"We played really well at Arsenal in Aro's last game, conceded one goal, but could have got something from the game.
"Two games ago, we beat Wolves away from home with Aro plus six of our team that had played with us in League One.
"We've been competitive in almost every game this season and Aro's played in the large majority of them.
"I think of our last 17 games, 14 or 15 of them have been decided by one-goal margins, so that means that the team's doing some good things and Aro's been an important part of the team.
"And by that reckoning, he's also done some really, really good things. Of course, every player in the squad, every staff member and myself have things that they want to work on and improve.
"But he's been a good part of the group, an important part of the group. We got another excellent goalkeeper in Christian Walton, who deserved his opportunity based on how he's trained, and came into the team and did a good job the other day.
"So, as I said, it's a really good position for us to have two senior goalkeepers, both in a good place and both ready to play.”
Walton was one of six players from the League One team to start against Chelsea, along with Leif Davis, Luke Woolfenden, Wes Burns, Nathan Broadhead and skipper Sam Morsy.
McKenna says it's vital that players such as Walton, Woolfenden and Broadhead have been ready to come straight back into the team recently after long spells out of the XI.
"Extremely important,” he said. ”We don't see anyone as on the periphery of the squad. I know at some clubs there are people at that instance. I don't think there's anybody here.
"We were really clear from the start of the season with the boys that anyone who's stayed in the 25-man squad is going to be needed and is going to have a big part to play.
"We're only halfway through the season, but that's pretty much borne out true already. And I think it'll be the same in the second half of the season.
"Everyone's important, not just to what goes on on the pitch, but everyone's contribution day to day here is reflected in what goes on on the pitch.
"And then, over the course of the of the season with the challenge of the games, opportunities are going to become available for people to play.
"So, when people come into the team and do well, it's always one of our proudest moments and something that reflects best on the group.
"So, the likes of Christian Walton, Luke Woolfenden, and Nathan Broadhead, who came in for his first start in the last game, showing the fitness levels, endeavour and quality that he did as well, they are massive ticks for the group.
"The game before against Arsenal, Kalvin Phillips, Jacob Greaves and Ben Johnson, who hadn't started much lately, came back into the team doing good jobs. I think that's a really good sign of a healthy group, and we're going to need that in the second half of the year.”
McKenna says those qualities and that attitude are things he instils in new signings when they come in.
"I think for anyone who has joined in my time here, it's always a conversation about the goals and needs of the team coming first,” he continued.
"Anyone who comes in needs to fit into that. We've got a pretty well-established culture here of how we work day-to-day and how we operate day to day.
"I'll always try to make that clear to players as they come in. It's a group that players are willing to put the team first and to know that if everyone pulls towards the team goals and works for the team, first and foremost, then individuals will stand out within that.
"That's certainly been the case over the last couple of years and even this season, where we haven't won as many games, but people who work for the team and do the right thing for the group will get opportunities to stand out and show their individual quality.
"So that's always a conversation that I'll have with new players before they come in, and in general, that's worked well for us, and most players who we speak to are very, very happy to come in and fit into a culture like that.”