Blues boss Gary O’Neil says there are no problems with where keeper Kjell Scherpen is as he settles into a new team and the Premier League following his move from Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise this summer.

The Dutchman, who cost an initial £8.5 million fee, was criticised for his role in Liverpool’s two goals in last week’s 2-0 home defeat to the Reds.

Quizzed on the 26-year-old’s start to his Town career in which he has conceded eight goals in three games, O’Neil said: “I think he had basically no part to play in the 5-2 at Old Trafford. In the Liverpool one, there are, of course, parts to the goal that not only Kjell but other people need to do better with.

“And the save he makes from [Dominik] Szoboszlai is a top, top save, a world class save. There are not many goalkeepers getting down to that with the speed that Szoboszlai hits the ball at.

“Kjell has our backing and he’s a good goalkeeper. He is obviously adapting to a new style, a new back four, a new league, so there are no problems with where Kjell is at.

“We are helping him and working with him and he has my full belief that he will help us tomorrow as Crystal Palace cross the ball a lot.

“Some of the work goalkeepers do can go unnoticed because the focus is on those moments when you do or don’t save your team. He has done an awful lot of good stuff.

“We have a very good goalkeeping group here – Walts [Christian Walton], Palms [Alex Palmer], Kjell, even Butts [David Button], who trains unbelievably well. We are really pleased with where they are at and obviously big backing for Kjell and the work he is doing.“

O’Neil says heads haven’t dropped despite the defeats to Manchester United and Liverpool, which followed the 2-1 opening-day win at home to Sunderland.

“No, we have won one game and we have lost against two of the top three or four in the league,” he said. “The order in which the results come are irrelevant.

“If we had gone draw, draw, draw, everyone would be going ’you are still unbeaten’, but we’s still only be on three points.

“So the fact we beat Sunderland and then lost against Manchester United and Liverpool, the order of them is irrelevant to me. It’s just the next challenge is Crystal Palace and we want three points.

“We thought we delivered a game plan and a level of commitment that would give us an opportunity against Manchester United and Liverpool. It did in large parts.

“It didn’t end up giving us any points, but it did give us a belief that we can compete. We have an understanding of what can go wrong and where we need to fix things.

“Crystal Palace will test us yet again as it is a tough place to go. Selhurst Park is a very small pitch with an intense atmosphere.

“So there will be moments in the game where we need to suffer and dig in. We need to find a way to come through those difficult spells slightly better than we have in the last two games.“

Reflecting further on the Liverpool performance, he added: “I thought it was a good effort. It was disappointing to concede two so early, which made it difficult. But the response to it being difficult was excellent.

“I think everyone watching, especially having lost to Manchester United five days before, and seeing it 2-0 after nine minutes, could have feared that Liverpool would go on to dominate that game and run away with it. And that wasn’t the case.

“It remained a competitive football match for the whole of the evening, which was positive. The amount of control and threat that we carried in it, I thought was positive.

“And there is some room for improvement, of course. We got punished for a couple of mistakes against top opposition, which we know can happen in the Premier League, so we have spoken about those spells in games a bit already.

“But it was a game we gave everything in. We just came up a little short. We get ready to do it again.“

Quizzed on the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents Panel backing the decision to allow Manchester United’s second goal during that match, albeit with one of the five panel members seeing the handball by Harry Maguire prior to Jacob Greaves’s own goal as deliberate, O’Neil says it’s now in the past.

“Someone told me about it – I haven’t paid much attention to it,”he continued. “I don’t know, I don’t think the goal should stand, we’ve had that conversation already on whether it is the rule’s fault.

“But it is two weeks ago and there is not much we can do about it. We’ve moved on from it. I expect the rules to change if they haven’t already around that incident.

“It being an own goal and that making a difference doesn’t feel like it should make a difference, and whether it is accidental or not is open to debate.

“But I am trying to go back two weeks to remember what we spoke about before. Let’s just go to Crystal Palace and try and get three points.“

Photo: Matchday Images