Town boss Mick McCarthy says Dean Gerken’s place in the side for today’s game with Reading was never in doubt, despite his error in last week’s 1-0 defeat at Millwall. The Town keeper misjudged Lions’ right-back Ryan Fredericks’s mis-hit cross five minutes before the break and the debutant claimed the game’s only goal.

“He’s playing,” McCarthy confirmed. “It was never in doubt at all. He’s been different class. He’s been outstanding.

“I have to say, when that cross came in I thought ‘Happy days, that’s going over the top, he’s made a mess of that’. Unfortunately for me, Gerks thought that as well and he’s the one that matters.

“But, you know what, it happens sometimes. It’s not that he’s playing badly, it’s not that he’s dropping crosses, he’s not missing shots, that’s just one of them, a misjudgement. And let me tell you, it’s happened to me.”

Speaking earlier this month, current second-choice keeper Scott Loach said he felt he was left out of the side having made only one mistake, how does McCarthy feel those situations differ?

"Because I want to play Dean Gerken. There are some times when one player will see what I say to another player or do with another player and if one of them’s in the team, it won’t matter, the one that’s out of the team will always see that it’s a little bit unjust, or not quite sure the manager got it right. Unlucky.

“There are other times when I just have to say ‘I’m picking you, not you’ because I fancy you playing in the team today’. Or ‘I’m hanging my hat on you, not you’ and they’re going to have to take it. And I tell them and that’s the way it is. If they disagree with me, unlucky.”

He says the type of error Gerken made last week isn’t something which can be worked on in training: “We can’t put crosses in from the right for Gerks to tip over when we know he does that on a regular basis and he’s been brilliant, he’s been absolutely outstanding.

“What you can’t do is replicate the mistakes to try and put them right but we show them. We get them in to have a look at it.

“The first QPR goal, we let them out of the corner, so we make sure everybody knows what their jobs are and that he shouldn’t have been able to do that - could we get out quicker to him?

“The other goals were mistakes. Look at Preston, they were soppy, soft goals that we gave away. Things that we don’t do on a normal day or on a regular basis.

“But you can’t replicate it, say ‘Head that this time rather than miss it’, they know that. But we show them, perhaps show the build-up to it and how we could have stopped it. We work on it, but not necessarily on the training ground.”

Looking back at the defeat at the Den, he says the goal was the game’s pivotal moment: "I thought up until the goal going in we were just as good as Millwall. I thought they started well, I changed it and went 4-3-3 and it just stifled the game.

“Their shape was causing us a few problems, when we went to 4-3-3 it stopped that. It was a flukey goal and it changed the whole complexion of the game, the crowd, the players, I think they then looked a bit more up for it.

“We’d had a disturbed week. We don’t make excuses, I know I’m as honest as anybody and say if we’ve played badly, but we had the Tuesday game. Not everyone made the trip but we travelled on the Monday, so the players who didn’t travel didn’t train with the first team on Tuesday or Wednesday.

“The lads who had played didn’t train on Thursday, so the first time we did anything was on the Friday, so we were a little bit disjointed and it didn’t help.

“But, as I said to the players, I’m not making that an excuse for it. However, I think when you go 1-0 down sometimes, and in the manner in which the goal went in, Millwall got a lift from it and I think it just knocked us and we never recovered. We didn’t play well after that.”

Photo: Action Images

itfcbam added 06:19 - Jan 25 Think it is now safe to say Loach has no future at the club. He gets dropped after 1 mistake against Leeds yet Gerkin despite several excellentggames has made 3 costly mistakes in recent weeks so seems undroppable. That said goalkeeping is a confidence position so its important they enter the field in that manner. Sad to feel that both are treated so differently. MM though generally is doing a great job given th constraints he is working under.

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Sindre94 added 06:47 - Jan 25 Scott Loach will never be out number one as long as Mick is at ITFC. Sad, as I dont view Gerken as a much better keeper
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Fat_Boy_Tim added 06:51 - Jan 25 I can't agree that they have been treated differently. Putting odd mistakes to one side (all players make those) I think Gerken's general keeping and shot stopping has been better than Loach's. I don't think Loach did anything wrong just he's been outplayed this season. MM has picked the keeper that he see's is playing the better football. I don't think it's about mistakes.

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Dozzells_Bobblehat added 07:31 - Jan 25 Gerken is the slightly better of the two but if we want to progress this is an area we need to improve. Both are excellent shot shoppers but neither are commanding enough and both make too many unforced errors.
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ArnieM added 07:58 - Jan 25 Loach knows for certain now that he will never be no one GK. He will be moving on at some point. For me, there's really not That much difference between either keeper and neither are IMO top notch or good enough gor a team looking for promotion.
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Fat_Boy_Tim added 08:17 - Jan 25 @ArnieM I think our problem is the exact opposite of that, they are both good enough to be first choice Championship keepers and there's only one spot available, so unless MM wants to constantly chop and change (Which I think would be disruptive), one of them will always be waiting for a place. It has to be said that Gerken made no noises about moving to another club when he was waiting for his chance in the first team. That's not me being anti Loach at all, it's a good thing that Gerken knows there is competition.

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muccletonjoe added 08:40 - Jan 25 Gerkin has cost us more points than Loach. Obviously mm has made his mind up and gone for gerkin and no matter what happens that's how it will stay.
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SouperJim added 08:52 - Jan 25 Gerks is the better keeper, yes poor old Scott Loach, but unless you have someone waiting in the wings who you are confident will do a better job, you're better off sticking with what you have. Mick obviously feels that Gerks is better. All keepers make errors, you can't account for that and shouldn't judge a keeper on 2 or 3 errors over 20+ games. What's more important is their overall form. ALB is proof for me that most fans have a limited understanding of the position. He was very very average and made errors practically every game (not all of them punished), yet a large section of fans still insisted he was our best keeper. Since leaving he has been 3rd/4th choice at Milwall and Bolton on short term contracts and hasn't played a game.

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Fat_Boy_Tim added 09:01 - Jan 25 @muccletonjoe, that's nonsense, people seem to think that MM, never makes changes and only selects squads on who he likes rather than who has the best chance of winning. It's tosh, he wouldn't have got us this far with that policy, Gerks and Berra (The other victim of people spouting that drivel) are in the squad on form.
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Jimmy86 added 09:03 - Jan 25 I think this is probably the first case of poor man management from mick, regarding the goalkeeping issue. Yes Gerken played well over the festive period but lets be honest Gerken has made more mistakes than loach has, but for some reason mick is more forgiving of those mistakes, but when loach makes a mistake he gets dropped. There's not much between the 2 of them and there isn't a stand out number 1. Was the same when henderson was here. He wasn't any better than loach either

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ntoms97 added 09:09 - Jan 25 "A Misjudgement. And let me tell you it's happened to me" Sorry Mick change your tense it's happening to me Gerken can't stop making mistakes Loach made one use your brain something is not right here
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Fixed_It added 09:34 - Jan 25 Just an observation. MM sees them day in day out in training. I am happy that he knows who is the better keeper on that basis.
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Jimmy86 added 09:35 - Jan 25 Why the minuses?? What ive said is true!!! Loach gets dropped for 1 mistake, yet gerken has made mistakes against wigan, blackburn, milwall and QPR, yet his place isn't in doubt. There is no consistancy with that policy whatsoever
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SheffieldBlue1 added 10:02 - Jan 25 Gerken is the much better option for me. Loach had his chance when he came in against Preston, and conceded 3. A big part of being a goalkeeper isn't just shot stopping and coming for crosses, but also communicating with your defence etc, and I think Gerken does that much better than Loach. I can remember seeing Chambers giving Loach an earful at the start of the season sue to a lack of communication between the goalkeeper and the defence leading to an error, and Gerken espouses a confidence in himself Loach never did. Also, that beard is mighty impressive.

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Davesullivan65 added 10:03 - Jan 25 Both keepers are awful,I really don't know what, the goal keeping coach works on during the week,time for him to go,I think,the warm up kick about, with the keepers same thing, every week, sorry but new blood in that department .
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TimmyH added 10:03 - Jan 25 Henderson eventually had a good understanding of the back 4 and they all worked well together both tactically and verbally but there was a dodgy first spell for him. Gerken marginally the better of the two keepers at present but neither world beaters.
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Michael11 added 11:03 - Jan 25 Gerken has made as many mistakes as Loach, if not more. Neither of them are good enough for this league. It isn't just 'one of them things' because its about the 6th or 7th goal he's let in that's his fault!! We're going no where until we finally get a permanent, good number one.
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bringonthetractor added 11:23 - Jan 25 @Fat_Boy_Tim Erm Gerken only missed 4 games at the start of the season, and one of those he was injured so he hasn't really had a chance to talk about moving to another club, what with him having just signed for us and all..
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Guthrum added 11:56 - Jan 25 Some stats to refute the nonsense (all competitions): Loach: 6.5 games (inc. 1 sub), 10 goals conceded (1.53 goals per game), 1 clean sheet (15.4%) Gerken: 22.5 games, 27 goals conceded (1.20 goals per game), 5 clean sheets (22.2%) If Gerken has made "more mistakes", it's probably because he's played more than three times as many games this season as Loach.
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theobald1985 added 12:02 - Jan 25 agree with ntoms97 something is not right here. loach is as good if not better. gerkin is making mistakes costing us points and he has done that his whole career.loach was made a scapegoat for the whole teams early form so mick dropped him but if mick was being fair DG should be dropped now-but mick is not fair-he did a good job of keeping us up playing ugly football but why is he still here-the football is dire to watch youngsters are being loaned out so we can loan in old has beens is this really what we the fans want.im sure this will get the cringy in mick we trust mob going but seriously there is no future in playing this way,even if we went up like it it wont cut it in the premier league. we are defensive and play long ball game and its horrible-i would honestly rather be in league 1 and playing the right way than this nonsense.his treatment of loach tells you alot about the sort of bloke he is.need a young enthusiastic manager who wants to pass out from the back and attack teams-mick swapped JET for anderson for gods sake should tell u all u need to know

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StowTractorBoy added 12:18 - Jan 25 If you want a goalkeeper that just stays on his line and will never command his 6 yard box from crosses let alone the penalty area then Loach is your man. It is utter nonsense to suggest that Loach made one error and was dropped as he made many errors mainly because he just does not come for crosses. I do agree that in the long term Gerken may not be the answer but for the moment he should be number one.

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Jimmy86 added 12:56 - Jan 25 Problem is neither one of them are streets ahead of the other, there isn't much in it. Plus if loach stays routed to his line then you can also say gerken is suspect to "rush of blood" moments such as the wigan away game and blackburn at home, if you come you have to claim. They both good shot stoppers, loach is better at kicking, gerken is better at commanding his area. Different strengths, different weaknesses. They should be treated the same by mick though

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irishtim added 13:46 - Jan 25 @Guthrum. Good point. Common sense at last. Gerks the better keeper imo. Feel we will need a more solid no1 in the future.
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BlueSwede added 14:16 - Jan 25 Good point Guthrum. And I also think the ones who see the two goalkeepers in action in practice day in and day out have a pretty good idea as to who is the best choice between the posts. I trust them.
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