It's a simple question: Boaz Myhill or Matt Duke?
It's Myhill every time for most. But now Duke has responded to his unexpected summons by essentially keeping an anaemic Hull City alive for far longer than they deserved at West Ham United in midweek. His excellent penalty save was the obvious show-stopper, but he made abundant further saves of quality which rescued a listless outfield from a severe and deserved beating.
But why was he picked? Myhill hasn't played poorly of late; he wasn't at fault in the defeat to Arsenal in the last Premier League game, and has generally performed extremely well this season. He and Duke have been working and training together for five years now, ever since Peter Taylor found Duke at Burton Albion and brought him in as Myhill's understudy for the League One season of 2004/5. In all that time, Myhill has been the undisputed number one; Duke the faithful, patient deputy, always ready to be called upon in the event of a Myhill injury, suspension or brainstorm, while also stepping in regularly for Cup games.
Phil Brown told the club's official website that he picked Duke because he was a good goalkeeper, and chose not to elaborate further. Quotations elsewhere in the media claimed that he wanted a clean sheet. Now, if that means Brown believes a clean sheet is more likely to come with Duke in goal than Myhill, does this not signify a clear shift in the pecking order? You can talk as much as you like about a goalkeeper's ability to organise, to kick, to punch, to reach crosses, to frighten attackers, to be courageous, but ultimately he is measured by how little or otherwise he lets the ball into his net.
Duke is regarded, universally I suspect, as the better keeper when it comes to taking crosses and dominating the box, but Myhill has more than an edge on his buddy when it comes to shot-stopping, surely the most important attribute a custodian can possess. Myhill has let a good few in lately - 15 goals in the five Premier League defeats prior to West Ham - but few, if any, laid bare culpability at his door. Even the goals conceded from crosses - a couple at Manchester City, the late own goal against Aston Villa, Marouane Fellaini's header at Everton, Emmanuel Adebayor's header for Arsenal - did not instantly demand Myhill to exercise aerial command of the situation. At worst, he probably could have done better with the corner which Adebayor headed in. That's it.
Duke is a good goalkeeper, of course, as his manager says, and we can believe Brown's explanation. He also could have made this alteration at any time of the season, using the same explanation, and we would have only batted our collective eyelids in the same way. However, the decision to select Duke after a sequence of five straight Premier League defeats - there have been three FA Cup clean sheets in that time too, but Myhill didn't appear in any of those - does raise questions about Myhill's status and future.
Nothing has come from the club, and indeed I'm not sure if anyone has been asked, but there have been strong rumours that Myhill - our most saleable asset after Michael Turner - will leave before February 2nd to reclaim some of the massive, unprecedented outlay in fees and wages to which the Tigers committed themselves in securing the signature of Jimmy Bullard. Newcastle United need a goalkeeper as Shay Given's protracted exit from St James' Park gets ever closer, and Myhill would, as an example, be ideal for them.
Up to a point, the key indication as to if Myhill is headed for new horizons will be the teamsheet which Brown fills in on Saturday for the visit of West Bromwich Albion, a game of considerable magnitude when the positions of each club are analysed. However, as Duke played a blinder at Upton Park, his selection again could merely be interpreted as an endorsement of his performance, shrouding any sub-plot about Myhill being on his last legs. If Myhill is picked, then it'll be because Brown still sees him as the number one and just wanted to keep him on his toes, something he did in the early stages of last season when Duke got a gloveful of games and played well. It would be harsh on Duke, a player whose ability to be patient has sometimes drawn criticism from supporters about a perceived absence of ambition, but unless he really is off elsewhere, Myhill has to play against West Brom.
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