Despite the season having only just started, one Middlesbrough goalkeeper has received praise claiming he will be ‘huge’ for his club this season.
Liam Roberts, Boro’s keeper on loan at Barnsley, has made a substantial enough impression at Oakwell for head coach Neill Collins to say that the player will be of huge importance to the club in terms of their League One campaign.
The Yorkshire club have had a mixed bag of results at the start to this season, with a thumping 7-0 against Port Vale, followed up by a one-all draw against Bristol Rovers and a 3-1 defeat against Peterborough.
Roberts was actually at fault for one of the goals, where he got caught playing out from the back. Maybe the residual playing instructions from a time spent at Middlesbrough are proving difficult to shake. But his overall performance pleased the Barnsley boss.
Liam Roberts is going to be huge
In a post-match report in The Yorkshire Post, Collins said, “Liam has been excellent on and off the field. I thought one save was just phenomenal from the header.
“Both keepers made top saves, although I think Liam will be disappointed with the second goal as I thought it was a poor decision to play out (from the back).” added Collins.
On the subject of Roberts’ mistake and his importance moving forward, he said, “But that is part of it with these guys in terms of learning from it. He is going to be huge for us.”
It remains to be seen as to whether Liam Roberts will stay at Middlesbrough Football Club beyond this season. He only has one year left on his contract and with Boro signing three keepers-Seny Dieng, Tom Glover and Jamie Jones-permanently, it would appear that Roberts may well be allowed to leave for free next summer.
Unless of course Middlesbrough extend his current deal. Roberts made a positive start last season for Boro, but soon lost his place to the ball-playing Manchester City loanee Zak Steffen. He then found himself in a similar situation as the club once again showed their preference for a keeper who can play out in Seny Dieng.